a. [ad. L. crūd-us raw, undigested, unripe, rough, cruel.]
1. In the natural or raw state; ‘not changed by any process or preparation’ (J.); not manufactured, refined, tempered, etc.; of bricks, unbaked.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 219. In amalgamynge, and calcenynge Of quyksilver, y-clept mercury crude.
1555. Eden, Decades, 179. [Gold] is so muche the baser, fouler, and more crude.
1666. Boyle, Formes & Qual., 134. All these Vitriols, especially that of crude Lead.
1747. Wesley, Prim. Physick (1762), 108. Dissolve a Dram of crude Sal Ammoniac.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, II. 115. An ore called crude Antimony, which is a Sulphuret of antimony.
1862. Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., I. v. 92. Sometimes the crude and the burnt brick were used in alternate layers.
1883. Eng. Illustr. Mag., Nov., 89/1. Spelter in the crude form of calamine stone.
† 2. Of food: Raw, uncooked. Obs.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, ix. (1870), 250. Of eatynge of crude meate.
1586. Cogan, Haven Health, ccxiii. (1636), 225. He never eat any crude or raw thing, as fruits, herbs.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Tracts, i. Scripture Plants. Meal of crude and unparched corn.
1796. Hull Advertiser, 23 April, 1/4. The inside [of the potato] will be nearly in a crude state.
3. Of food in the stomach, secretions, ‘humours’: Not, or not fully, digested or ‘concocted.’
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, II. ix. Rape rootes … if they be not perfectly concoct in the stomake, they do make crude or raw iuice in the veynes.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. ix. 18. The Venter and the Reticulum … are ordained to hold the crude meat.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 635. Which induces a languid circulation, a crude indigested mass of humours.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys., 322. In the higher Plants, the ascending or crude sap is to be distinguished from the elaborated or descending sap.
† b. transf. Characterized by or affected with indigestion; lacking power to digest. Obs.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, II. i. To fortifie the most indigest and crude stomack.
1634. Milton, Comus, 476. A perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns. Ibid. (1671), P. R., IV. 328. Deep versed in books and shallow in himself, Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys, And trifles.
4. Of fruit: Unripe; sour or harsh to the taste.
1555. Eden, Decades, 263. Crude thynges are in shorte tyme made rype.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 3. I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude.
1737. West, Lett., in Gray’s Poems (1775), 20. Or, ere the grapes their purple hue betray, Tear the crude cluster from the mourning spray.
1853. C. Brontë, Lett., in Mrs. Gaskell, Life, xxvi. 418. As the … wasp attacks the sweetest and mellowest fruit, eschewing what is sour and crude.
5. Of a disease, morbid growth, etc.: In an early or undeveloped stage; not matured.
1651. R. Wittie, Primrose’s Pop. Errours, IV. 225. In diseases that are crude, and hard to bee concocted.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Crudity, That state of the disease, wherein the crude matter is changed, and rendered less peccant … is called digestion, concoction, or maturation.
1847. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 107. Tubercle having subsisted for a … time in the firm (or, as it is called, crude) state.
6. Of products of the mind: Not matured, not completely thought out or worked up; ill-digested.
1611. B. Jonson, Catiline, Ded. Against all noise of opinion; from whose crude and airy reports, I appeal to the … singular faculty of judgement in your lordship.
1646. Pagitt, Heresiogr. (ed. 3), 71. Being tyed to the ex tempore and crude Prayers of the Ministers.
1749. Berkeley, Lett., Wks. IV. 323. I have thrown together these few crude thoughts for you to ruminate upon.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. vii. The crude opinions of an unpractised man.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 654. Hasty and crude legislation on subjects so grave could not but produce new grievances.
7. Of literary or artistic work: Lacking finish, or maturity of treatment; rough, unpolished.
1763. Mallet, in Crit. Review (in Boswell, Johnson). The crude efforts of envy, petulance, and self conceit.
1786. Sir J. Reynolds, Disc., xiii. No Architect took greater care than he [Vanbrugh] that his work should not appear crude and hard.
1831. Lamb, Elia, Ellistoniana. In elegies, that shall silence this crude prose.
1875. Fortnum, Majolica, iii. 30. The design, crude and wanting in relief.
b. Of natural objects: Coarse, clumsy.
a. 1828. Campbell, Poems, Power of Russia, vi. But Russia’s limbs … Are crude, and too colossal to cohere.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., iii. (1856), 28. A school of fin-backed whales, great, crude, wallowing sea-hogs.
8. Of action or statement: Rough, rude, blunt, not qualified by amenity.
1650. Jer. Taylor, Serm., Return of Prayers, iii. John Huss … for the crude delivery of this truth was sentenced by the council of Constance.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, III. X. 510. Surpriz’d at so slight, and so crude an answer.
9. Of persons: Characterized by crudeness of thought, feeling, action or character.
1722–4. Swift, Maxims contr. Ireland. Errors committed by crude and short thinkers.
1837. Lytton, E. Maltrav., I. xvi. A crude or sarcastic unbeliever.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., IV. xxviii. A cruder lover would have lost the view of her pretty ways and attitudes.
b. Of manners or behavior: Unpolished, ‘rude.’
1876. T. Hardy, Hand of Ethelb., xiii. To correct a small sister of somewhat crude manners as regards filling the mouth.
10. Gram. Applied to a word in its uninflected state, or to that part which is independent of inflexion; esp. in crude form, the uninflected form or stem of a word.
1805. Colebrooke, Gram. Skr. Lang., I. 129. The root, or theme, denominated [chars.], dhātu, consists of the radical letters, disjoined from the affixes and augments. It may be called a crude verb.
1808. Sir C. Wilkins, Gram. Skr. Lang., 36.
1830. G. Long, Observ. Study Gr. & Lat. Lang., 37. Αιθο, λογο, must be considered as the roots, or rather the crude forms, both in the formation of the cases, and in that of the compounds.
1844. B. H. Kennedy, Lat. Gram. Curric., 129. Besides this root, common to all words of one kindred, every word has a Crude-form or Stem, which represents it independently of any relation to other words.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., ii. 41. The base or crude-form of an adjective as adverb.
