Forms: α. 4–5 crodde, (5 crod(e), 4–6 crudd(e, (5 cruyde, 5–6 crude), 5– north. dial. crud; β. 5–6 curde, curdd(e, 6 courd, 5– curd. [ME. crud (also crod) is found first in 14th c.; the form curd is known from 15th c. The metathesis ru = ur implies that the word is older, and may possibly go back to OE.; but its earlier history and derivation are unknown.
No similar word is known in Teutonic or Romanic; hence the source has been sought in Celtic: Irish has cruth, gruth, groth, Gaelic gruth curds, but it is not certain what relation (if any) the Celtic words hold to the English.]
1. The coagulated substance formed from milk by the action of acids, either naturally as when milk is left to itself, or artificially by the addition of rennet, etc.; made into cheese or eaten as food. (Often in pl.)
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 269. Twey grene cheeses, and a fewe cruddes and crayme.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum, 13. Styr hit wele … Tyl hit be gedered on crud harde.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 590/45. Juncata … Juncade, sive a crudde ymade yn ryshes. Ibid., 661/14. Hoc coagulum, crodde.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 42. Thai maid grit cheir of … curdis and quhaye.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. xlvi. 719. It melteth the clustered crudde, or milke that is come to a crudde.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 161. Good sooth she is The Queene of Curds and Creame.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 385. Milk … is … a Compound Body of Cream, Cruds, and Whey.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 197. This acid … transforms the milk into a curd.
1856. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 294. Betty, who will have curds and cream waiting for me.
fig. 1735. Pope, Prol. Sat., 306. Sporus, that mere white curd of Ass’s milk?
1883. Harriet Prescott Spofford, in Harper’s Mag., March, 574/1. That caused Mrs. Claxton’s cloudy suspicion of her husband’s injustice to settle into an absolute curd of sourness.
† b. ? The curdled milk in the stomach of a young sucking animal, or the gastric juice of the same, used for rennet. Obs.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., VI. 141. The mylk is crodded now to chese With crudde of kidde, or lambe, other of call.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. (1568), B ij a. The cruddes found in a kyddes maw, or an hyndecalfes maw.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 331. The cruds or rennet of an horse fole maw, called by some Hippace.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 24. The curd [of the calf] hath the same vertue as that of a Hare, Kid, or Lamb.
2. transf. Any substance of similar consistency or appearance.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 605. Sulphuric ether and compound spirit of ether precipitate a thick, white, tenacious curd.
b. The fatty substance found between the flakes of flesh in boiled salmon, cf. CURDY 3.
1828. Sir H. Davy, Salmonia, 98. To find a reason for the effect of crimping and cold in preserving the curd of fish.
1863. Wood, Illust. Nat. Hist., III. 327. If it [the salmon] be cooked within an hour or two after being taken from the water, a fatty substance, termed the ‘curd,’ is found between the flakes of flesh.
3. attrib. and Comb., as curd-cake, puff (confections made with curds); curd-like adj.; curd-breaker, -crusher, -cutter, -mill, apparatus for crushing or cutting up cheese-curd in order to facilitate the separation of the whey; curd soap, a white soap made with tallow and soda.
1706. Closet of Rarities (N.). To make *curd-cakes.—Take a pint of curds [etc.].
1805. Southey, Madoc in W., xiv. Cheese Of *curd-like whiteness.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 158. Cauliflowers … of a delicate white curd-like appearance.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 247/2. Break the curd into pieces … by means of a *curd-mill.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 261. To make *Curd Puffs.
1794. Hull Advertiser, 20 Sept., 4/1. Yellow Soap 60s. Ibid. *Curd 70s.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 850. The white … tallow soap of the London manufacturers, called curd soap.
