[Perh. the same word as preceding; but evidence is wanting.]
1. A framework, varying in form according to its purpose (see quots.). (Cf. CRATCH, 4.)
1788. W. H. Marshall, Yorksh. (1796), II. 222. The feet of the sheep being bound, it is laid upon a bier—provincially, a ‘creel.’ Ibid., Gloss., Creel, a kind of bier, used for slaughtering and salving sheep upon.
1821. J. Hunter, MS. Gloss., in Addy, Sheffield Gloss., Creel, a light frame-work placed overhead in the kitchen or other room of an ordinary farmhouse, on which oatcakes are placed.
[So 1883. in Huddersf. Gloss.]
1869. Lonsdale Gloss., Creel … a barred stool on which sheep are salved and clipped, pigs are killed, etc.
1877. Holderness Gloss., Creel, a plate-rack … a food-rack for sheep; a butcher’s hand-barrow.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Creel, a wooden rack in which plates are put to dry. A frame in which glaziers carry glass.
2. Spinning. A frame for holding the paying-off bobbins in the process of converting the ‘sliver’ into ‘roving,’ or the latter into yarn. Hence also creel-frame.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 225. The roller-pair … receives the fine rovings from bobbins placed on skewers or upright pins in the creel behind.
1531. Art Jrnl. Catal. Gt. Exhib., p. vii**/1. The bobbins … are placed in a wooden frame called a ‘creel,’ so that they will revolve.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 209/1. The rove creels … stand about six or seven feet high.
b. (See quot.) north. dial.
1869. Lonsdale Gloss., Creel, a frame to wind yarn upon.
