cloth-yardn.
The yard by which cloth was measured: chiefly in cloth-yard shaft, applied in ballads to an arrow of the long bow. According to Act 3 & 4 Edward VI c. 2 §8 ‘cloth was to bee meten and measured by the yard, adding to every yard one inch of the rule’; subsequently the standard yard of 36 inches was adopted.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > measurement > measurement of length > [noun] > units of length or distance > yard > specific
tailor's yard1547
cloth-yardc1560
c1560 Hunting Cheviot in F. J. Child Eng. & Sc. Pop. Ballads (1889) III. vi. 309 An arow, that a cloth-yarde was lang to the harde stele halyde he.
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xx. 88 That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper, draw me a clothiers yard. View more context for this quotation]
1622 M. Drayton 2nd Pt. Poly-olbion xxvi. 122 They not an Arrow drew but was a cloth-yard long.
1805 W. Scott Lay of Last Minstrel iv. xii. 104 A cloth-yard shaft Whistled from startled Tinlinn's yew.
1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days i. i. 2 With the yew-bow and cloth-yard shaft at Cressy and Agincourt.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
<
n.c1560