crab-stockn.
1. A young crab-tree or wild apple-tree used as a stock to graft upon; figurative a person or thing of wild or unreclaimed nature.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular fruit-tree or -plant > [noun] > apple tree > wild or crab-apple
crab-treec1425
crab1626
crab-stock1640
crab-apple1771
1640 J. Fletcher & J. Shirley Night-walker i. sig. B3 Graffe me a daintie medler on his crabstocke.
1672 A. Marvell Rehearsal Transpros'd i. 47 There may be such a Crab-stock as cannot by all ingrafting be corrected.
1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 18 The Crabstock's close-wrought grain.
1807 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life II. xx. 275 You know me well enough by this time, young Crab-stock, to make a pretty good guess.
2. Pottery. Used attributively to denote parts of eighteenth-century English stoneware. Also absol.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > clay compositions > baked clay > pottery or ceramics > [adjective] > made of stoneware > parts of
crab-stock1909
1909 A. Hayden Eng. Earthenware vi. 212 A teapot enamelled in colours having what is known as a ‘crabstock’ handle, spout, and lid.
1924 B. Rackham & H. Read Eng. Pottery vi. 93 The handle and the spout were moulded in the form of a short length of woody stem—the so-called ‘crabstock’.
1956 G. Taylor Silver vii. 157 A tea pot of 1748..its crab-stock spout and handles.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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