Now only Hist. or dial. Forms: α. 4 crouþe, 4–5 crouth(e, 7–9 crowth; β. 4–6 croude, 4–7 crowde, (5 kroude, 6 croudde), 6–8 croud, 6–9 crowd. [a. Welsh crwth m. violin, fiddle; also, a swelling or bulging body, a paunch, a kind of round bulging box, akin to croth fem. swelling, protuberance, belly, womb. These words correspond as the masc. and fem. of adj.: cf. crwm, crom crooked, etc. The fem. form alone is found in the other Celtic langs., but in both senses: cf. Gaelic cruit fem. harp, violin, croit fem. hump, hunch, Ir. cruit fem. violin, and hump, hunch; OIr. crot (genit. croite, cruite, dat. acc. croit) harp, cithara, in late L. crotta a British musical instrument mentioned by Venantius Fortunatus c. 600.]
prop. An ancient Celtic musical instrument of the viol class, now obsolete, having in early times three strings, but in its later form six, four of which were played with a bow and two by twitching with the fingers; an early form of the fiddle.
a. 1310. Lyric P., xvi. 53. Ther nis fiele ne crouth that such murthes maketh.
c. 1330. King of Tars (MS. A.), 503. No minstral wiþ harp no crouþe.
1382. Wyclif, Luke xv. 25. Whanne he … neiȝede to the hous, he herde a symphonye and a crowde.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 355. And Wales vsethe trumpettes, an harpe, and a crowde.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XVI. xi. Harpes, lutes, and crouddes ryght delycyous.
1571. Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1633), 98. All the instrumentall musicke upon the Harpe and Crowth.
1820. Scott, Ivanhoe, xli. Saxon minstrels, and Welsh bards … extracting mistuned dirges from their harps, crowds, and rotes.
1879. P. David in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 422. Crwth (i.e. Crooth) or Crowd, as far as we know the oldest stringed instrument played with the bow…. Bingley also heard it played at Carnarvon as late as 1801; but it is now entirely out of use.
b. Hence, a fiddle. Still dial.
1622. Middleton, etc. Old Law, V. i. Enter Fiddlers and others. Evander. Stay the crowd awhile.
1664. Butler, Hudibras, II. II. 6. That kept their Consciences in Cases, As Fidlers do their Crowds and Bases.
c. 1680. Roxb. Ball., VII. 18. When a Fidler wants his Crowd.
1746. Exmoor Courtship, 84. Es coud a borst tha Croud in Shivers, and tha Crouder too.
1847. in Halliwell as northern.
1869. in Lonsdale Gloss.
1875. in Lancash. Gloss.
1880. in W. Cornwall Gl. and E. Cornwall Gl.
c. transf. Applied to the player.
1607. Heywood, Fayre Mayde, Wks. 1874, II. 21. Well, Crowde, what say you to Fiddle now?
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, II. 232. An old Crowd … stood twanging.
