Also caraff, -affe. [a. F. carafe = It. caraffa (Neapol. carrafa a measure of liquids), Sp. and Pg. garrafa, Sicil. carrabba. According to Littré identified by Mohl with Pers. qarābah ‘a large flagon’ (see CARBOY); but Dozy refers it to Arabic gharafa to draw or lift water: cf. the derivatives ghuruf little cup, ghirāf a great and full measure of dry things; gharrāf having much water, ghirāfah a draught, etc., no one of which however exactly answers to the Romanic forms.]
A glass water-bottle for the table, bedroom, etc.
The word has long been in common use in Scotl.; in England it is of later appearance, and often treated as still French. Also vulgarly corrupted to craft, croft.
1786. Lounger (1787), II. 178. Called for a … caraff of water.
1845. Thackeray, in Fraser’s Mag., Nov., 588/1. Caraffes, with the tumblers belonging to and placed over them, are laid at proper intervals.
1851. Art Jrnl. Catal. Exhib., 91. A Water-caraft and Tumbler.
1860. E. B. Ramsay, Remin., Ser. I. (ed. 7), 260. [With old-fashioned Scotch people] the crystal jug or decanter in which water is placed upon the table was a caraff (Fr. carafe).
1861. Trafford (Mrs. Riddell), City & Suburb, I. 28. On the table stood a croft of water, surmounted by a tumbler.
1868. Miss Braddon, Run to Earth, I. xi. 277. A claret jug, a large carafe of water, and an empty glass.
