Forms: 2–3 crecche, 4 creke, 4–5 cracche, crachche, 4–6 crache, cratche, 6 crach, cretche, (6–7 dial. critch), 6– cratch. [ME. crecche, a. OF. creche, cresche manger, crib = Pr. crepcha, crepia, It. greppia:—Rom. type *creppja, a. Ger. type *crippja (Goth. kribjo), whence OHG. chrippa, Ger. krippe = OE. cribb, CRIB. Thus cratch and crib are in origin identical.]
1. A rack or crib to hold fodder for horses and cattle in a stable or a cowshed; in early use sometimes, a manger. Obs. exc. dial.
a. 1300. Gloss. to Neckam, in Wright, Voc., I. 106. In stabulo sit presepe (gloss creeche [? crecche]).
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 3233. Queyntliche to his cracche was corue swiche a weie Þat men miȝt legge him [the horse] mete.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. i. 3. The oxe kneȝ his weldere, and the asse the cracche of his lord.
1580. Baret, Alv., C 1530. A Crach or cribbe, Præsepium.
1598. Florio, Presepio, a cratch, a rack, a manger, an oxe-stall in a stable, a crib, or a critch.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 91. Let his harnes be tied, and he close made fast to the cratch.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. iv. Beeves fatned at the cratch in Oxe stalls.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 324. Cratch, a Rack for Hay or Straw.
1691. Ray, South-country Wds., Cratch, or Critch, a rack.
b. spec. applied to the ‘manger’ at Bethlehem where the infant Jesus was laid. Obs. or arch.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 260. Heo leiden hine up on heih in one crecche, mid clutes biwrabbed.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 64. Ȝe sall fynd a chylde thar bounden In a creke, wit cloutes wounden.
1382. Wyclif, Luke ii. 7. Sche childide her firste born sone, and wlappide him in clothis, and puttide him in a cracche.
a. 1569. Kingesmyll, Man’s Est., x. (1580), 55. A stable was his beste house, and a cratche his cradle.
a. 1654. Selden, Table-t. (Arb.), 33. The Coffin of our Christmas Pies in shape long, is in imitation of the Cratch.
1656. Trapp, Comm. Matt. ii. 13. From his cratch to his cross, he suffered many a little death all his life long.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymns Evang., Poet. Wks. 1721, I. 48. When we saw him in a cratch, a weak, And sucking Babe.
1884. C. D. Warner, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 9/2. The ‘cratch,’ that is, the manger in which the infant Jesus was laid.
† c. Astron. The star-cluster known as Præsepe (the manger), in the constellation Cancer.
1647. Lilly, Chr. Astrol., clix. 667. The ascendant directed To the Cratch in the Crab.
2. A movable rack for feeding beasts out of doors.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 70. It is necessary to make standynge cratches to caste theyr fodder in.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 140. To feede them [sheep] at home in cratches.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 176/1. Cratch, or Racks, to give … Sheep … meat in, in the Winter-time.
1831. Howitt, Seasons, 304–5. The farmer has driven his flocks … into the farm-yard itself, where some honest Giles piles their cratches plentifully with fodder.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 208. It consists of a cratch in the centre for hay, and four mangers projecting from it for corn or roots; the whole roofed with boards, and mounted on four wheels.
1870. Auctioneer’s Catal., in Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., s.v., Cratches and mangers. Ibid. (1877), Two sheep-cratches.
† 3. transf. A small house, a cot; cf. CRIB. Obs.
c. 1325. Poem Times Edw. II., 75, in Pol. Songs (Camden), 327. He priketh out of toune … Into a straunge contré, and halt a wenche in cracche.
4. A wooden grating or hurdle; a sparred frame or rack, for various purposes. local.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Chron. iv. 23. Dwellynge in plauntyngis, and in cratchis [1388 heggis].
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., VII. ix. (1614), 696. In Bengo and Coanza they are forced to set vp … houses upon cratches. Ibid., IX. v. 844. Their Bouacan is a grediron of foure cratches.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III. iii. 51. Poore bridges, onely made of a few cratches, thrust in the ose, and three or four poles laid on them.
1804. Hull Advertiser, 3 March, 2/2. A large Bottle Cratch framed and tiled.
1863. Morton, Cycl. Agric., II. Gloss., Cratch (Rutl.), a sort of rack with two legs and two handles, used to kill sheep on.
1865. E. Meteyard, Life Wedgwood, I. 201. And hooked to the beams of the ceiling the great oak-made cratch for bacon.
1887. S. Chesh. Gloss. s.v., The cratch in a drainer is the frame which supports the curd, and allows the whey to ooze out. Cratches are likewise fastened round the sides of a cart (e.g. in harvest-time) to allow of a larger load being placed upon it.
5. Comb., as cratch-yard, a yard containing cratches or racks for fodder.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. x. 30. Cast into the Cratch-yard all Winter, and bestowed on the fallowes next September.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Cratch-yard.
