crittern.

1815 D. Humphreys Yankey in Eng. 41 Cooking for the crew, and taking care of the dum critturs.

1827 A. Sherwood Gazetteer Georgia 139 Beast, or crittur, for horse.

1833 S. Smith Life & Writings Major Jack Downing xliii. 86 Bears and wolves and sich kind of critters.

1834 C. A. Davis Lett. J. Downing, Major vi. 19 There he [sc. Capt. Finny] was, sure enough: the crittur had just come out of his bush-pasture.

1834 C. A. Davis Lett. J. Downing, Major x. 34 There was that crittur, Mr. Van Buren.

1852 R. S. Surtees Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour iii. xiv. 73 One of your poor, pryin', inquisitive critturs, what's always fancyin' themselves cheated.

1852 R. S. Surtees Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour vi. xxvii. 166 I saw the critter's great pecker steadily down in his plate.

1852 Trans. Mich. Agric. Soc. 3 332 It is a hard matter to make the critters I speak of ever weigh 200 lbs.

1853 C. C. Felton Familiar Lett. (1865) xxvii. 249 The upper story..occupied by..the family, and the rooms below by the animals, or as a Yankee would call them, the critters.

1855 D. G. Rossetti Let. 11 May (1897) 126 That magnanimous crittur seems to have restored him his confidence.

1856 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 6 June (1954) II. 253 A charming little zoological curate here, who..is most good-natured in lending and giving apparatus and ‘critturs’ of all sorts.

1862 G. Du Maurier Let. Apr. (1951) 127 My talk is rather an institution among critters who are like to each other.

1886 Harper's Mag. Sept. 582/2 First they wrote home that it was beautiful—climate and critters and everything.

1923 ‘B. M. Bower’ Parowan Bonanza vi. 65 She..can sling a pack or rope a critter better than lots of men that draw wages for doing it.

1926 E. M. Roberts Time of Man (1963) 321 ‘You came a-horseback?’ Jasper said. He was moved almost beyond speech by this expression of loyalty. ‘A-horseback I reckon.’ ‘Yes, we rode our critters.’

1942 M. Campbell Cloud-walking 32 He dozed off till Sary's chickens crowed for morning... Then he stirred to light a fire in the cook room and go out to the lot to feed the critters about the place.

1956 ‘N. Shute’ Beyond Black Stump 143 I'd have said it wasn't possible. I mean, to tame a critter like that.