arch. Forms: see LEECH sb.1 [OE. lǽcecræft, f. lǽce LEECH sb.1 + cræft CRAFT.] The art of healing; medical science, † medical attendance. † At leechcraft, under treatment. † Also concr. Remedy, medicine.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xvi. § 3. Swa mæʓ eac se dreamcræft dæt se mon bið dreamere, & se læcecræft þæt he bið læce.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 8. Læcecræftas & dolʓsealfa & drencas wiþ eallum wundum.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1869. Þurrh Crisstenndomess læchecrafft.
c. 1205. Lay., 7616. Ne þurh nenne læche-cræfte ne mihte he lif habben.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 370. God & his deciples speken of soule lechekreft.
c. 1315. Shoreham, 2. For siknesse lechecreft, And for the goute sealve Me makethe.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VII. 81. Til þat ich dispice Leche-craft of oure lorde and leyue on a wicche.
1471. J. Paston, in P. Lett., No. 670, III. 7. My horse that was at lechecraft at the Holt. Ibid. My leche crafte and fesyk, and rewardys to them that have kept me … hathe cost me sythe Estern Day more then vli.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxiii. 33. In leichecraft he was homecyd.
1577. Stanyhurst, Descr. Irel., in Holinshed (1807–8), VI. 68. Their common schooles of leachcraft and law.
1592. Davies, Immort. Soul, Introd. xxvi. (1714), 7. We Leech-craft learn, but others cure with it.
1626. Vicary’s Anat., 111. Letchcraft is in two manners, that is both Physicke and Chirurgerie.
1814. Scott, Chivalry (1874), 19. The quality of leech-craft … was essential to the character of an accomplished princess.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. v. Nature, to say nothing of Madge’s leechcraft ultimately triumphed.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 196. The black folk E’en saved my life from that ill stroke, By leech-craft.
