Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Craw, n.¹ Also: crau. [Northern and early ME. crawe (midl. and southern crowe), OE. cráwe.]

1. A crow. c1450-2 Howlat 191.
Cryand crawis and cais … war pure freris forthward a1500 Seven S. 2677.
The craw that savit the birdis lyf Sall iois the bird c1500 Fyve Bestes 141.
To kepe … his faderis cornis Fra cokis, crawis. and vther foulis wyld c1500-c1512 Dunb. Flyt. 219.
Than fleis thow, lyk ane howlat chest with crawis Ib. xxxiii. 89.
Thik was the clud of kayis and crawis 1513 Doug. ix. Prol. 78.
The blak craw thinkis hyr awin byrdis quhite 1533 Boece iii. xxi. 123 b.
Ane barne … was borne with ane crawis hede 1542 Reg. Cupar A. II. 208.
Thai … sall nocht lat ane craw big within the said bundis 1570 Sat. P. xv. 54.
Ȝe gleds and howlets, rauins and rukes, Ȝe crawis and corbeis blak 1581 Hamilton Cath. Tr. 80.
As the crau thinkis hir auin bird quhytest, albeit it be neuer so blak a1598 Fergusson Prov. (1641) 17.
Quhen the craw flees, her tail follows 1622 Crim. Trials III. 608.
[The witch says] I sall goe intill a craw 1652 Lamont Diary 48.
The dowes … fled away from the dowcats, the crawes from the triesfig. a1598 Fergusson Prov. (1641) 20 b.
We have a craw to pluck 1641 Baillie I. 308.
When Episcopacie is made a poor plucked craw

2. Pluk at the craw, the name of a game. 1562-3 Winȝet II. 81/25.
Thai … imagin thame to rug of his clathis, as thai war playng with him pluk at the craw 1570 Sat. P. xxii. 59.
I traist in God that anis sall cum the day, Pluk at the craw quhen barnis sall with this bird