Forms: 4–7 crase, 5– crayse, 6–7 craise, 6– craze. [A fuller form acrase, ACRAZE, is known in 16th c.; if this existed earlier, the probability would be that crase was aphetic for acrase, and this a. OF. acraser, var. of écraser. The latter is supposed to be of Norse origin: cf. Sw. krasa to crackle, slå i kras to dash in pieces. If not aphetic for acrase, the Eng. crase may be immediately from the Scandinavian word.]
† 1. trans. To break by concussion or violent pressure; to break in pieces or asunder; to shatter.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 324. With glas Were all the windowes well yglased … and nat an hole ycrased.
c. 1450. Merlin, 325. Ther was many a grete spere crased.
1631. Heywood, Maid of West, III. Wks. 1874, II. 299. Thou canst not craze their barres.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 210. God … will … craze thir Chariot wheels.
† b. To break the surface of, batter with blows, bruise, crush, damage. Obs.
c. 1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, III. xxiv. His basenet was bowed and ycrased.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. ccxliv. 286. Kyng Phylyp broused or crased ye castellys of Gentelyne & Garney.
1562. Winȝet, Cert. Tractates, i. (1888), I. 3. Ane schip … quhilk … is euyl crasit on the schaldis.
1575. Laneham, Lett. (1871), 22. Sore wounded, craised, and bruseed, so as he dyeth of it.
1618. Latham, 2nd Bk. Falconry (1633), 139. If the feathers haue beene much bruised or crased.
1726. Wodrow Corr. (1843), III. 260. Many of them [papers] are imperfect and sadly crazed.
† c. intr. To be broken, crushed, shattered or bruised; to break, crack, suffer damage. Obs.
c. 1430. Syr Gener., 5785. The sheldes crased thoo somdele.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 1209. Her pitcher should not crase.
1582. T. Watson, Centurie of Loue, xxiv. (Arb.), 60. Thou glasse … I maruel howe her beames … Do never cause thy brittle sides to craze.
1731. Wodrow Corr. (1843), III. 491. I would have caused bind it, but he persuades me it would craze in the sea carriage.
1854. F. Tennyson, in Fraser’s Mag., L. 645. The wild waters crazing on the rocks.
2. Mining. (trans.) To crush (tin ore) in a mill. (See CRAZE-MILL, CRAZING vbl. sb. 3.)
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 185. Their devices of breaking, stamping, drying, crasing,… and fining the mettall.
3. trans. To break (a thing) so that the parts still remain contiguous; to crack. Obs. exc. dial.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 381. What quod my lord þer is no more to doone … I am right siker þat þe pot was crased.
1541. Act 33 Hen. VII., c. 35. The reparacion … of any the pypes of leade hereafter to be crased or broken.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 43. As soon as these parts are crazed by hard rubbing, and thereby their tenacity spoiled, the springiness … makes a divulsion.
1880. W. Cornwall Gloss., Craze, to crack. ‘I’ve crazed the jug.’
b. spec. To produce minute cracks on the surface of (pottery). (Cf. CRACKLE sb. 3.)
1874–80. [see CRAZED 2].
1888. E. S. Morse, in Harper’s Mag., Sept., 525/2. What must he think of the Japanese potter who deliberately opens his oven while still hot, and permits a cold blast of air to enter, for the express purpose of ‘crazing’ his productions?
c. intr. To become minutely cracked: said of the glaze on the surface of pottery.
1832. [see CRAZING vbl. sb.].
1883. Binns, Guide Worc. Porcelain Wks., 26. The glaze … will not craze or crackle on the surface.
1888. E. S. Morse, in Harper’s Mag., Sept., 525/2. To secure a paste and glaze whose coefficients of expansion were the same;… a condition of things in which the glaze should not ‘craze.’
4. fig. To destroy the soundness of, impair, ruin; to ruin financially, render bankrupt. (Usually in pass.) Obs. or arch.
1561. Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 168 b. Revelyng his truth to the world now crased and waxen old.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 119. Thinkyng thereby to craze the force of veritie.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 29 b. Creditor … crazd, and deade and buried in debt.
1641. Heywood, Reader here, etc. French and Spanish wines … in their worth deboyst and craisd.
5. To impair or break down in health; to render infirm. Usually in pa. pple.: Broken down in health, decrepit, infirm. Crazed in his wind (of a horse): = BROKEN-WINDED, Obs. or arch.
1476. Sir J. Paston, in Paston Lett., No. 775, III. 161. I ame somewhatt crased, what with the see and what wythe thys dyet heer.
a. 1555. Ridley, Wks., 366. Mr. Latimer was crazed, but I hear now, thanks be to God, that he amendeth again.
1568. T. Howell, Arb. Amitie (1879), 46. If fierce disease shall crase thy corps.
1637. Heywood, Dial., ii. 123. Craz’d or in health.
1671. Milton, Samson, 570. Till length of years And sedentary numbness craze my limbs.
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1937/4. A Brown Bay Mare … a little crazed in her wind.
1786. Burns, Twa Dogs, 193. They’ve nae sair wark to craze their banes.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 49. Job-like … crazed with blains.
† b. intr. To become infirm or diseased. rare.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., iii. (1669), 9/2. Thy body is not so firm, but thou findest this humour over-abound, and that part craze faster than another.
6. To impair in intellect; to render insane, drive mad, distract. Usually in pa. pple.: Insane, mad, deranged, CRAZY. (Now the ordinary sense.)
c. 1496–7. Paston Lett., No. 940, III. 391. Your broder … ys so troubelid with sekenes and crasid in his mynde, that I may not kepe hym aboute me.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 175. The greefe hath craz’d my wits.
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2030/4. Aged about 52 years … something Crazed in his Wits.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Err., 394. Inscriptions … Such as … Craze antiquarian brains with endless doubt.
1824. Medwin, Convers. Byron (1832), II. 17. The upbraidings of her own conscience, and the loss of her child, crazed the old lady’s mind.
1873. Dixon, Two Queens, IV. XX. iii. 73. The outbreak which was soon to craze the world with terror.
b. intr. To become crazy, go mad.
1818. Keats, Endym., IV. My tortured brain begins to craze.
1835. Browning, Paracelsus, I. 21. Asking a life to pass exploring thus, Till near I craze.
1861. J. Pycroft, Ways & Words, 365. Keeping the head from crazing, and the heart from breaking.
