[a. F. carde teasel-head, wool-card (15th c. in Littré); app. ad. Sp. or It. carda thistle, teasel, card, a deriv. fem. form from com. Romanic (It., Sp., Pg.,) cardo masc., thistle:—med.L. cardus:—L. carduus thistle. Adopted in WG. as *karda, OHG. charta (wk. fem.), MHG. charte, MLG. karde, MDu. caerde, Du. kaarde, Ger. karde (from LG.). In Eng., the related verb (CARD2) occurs in the 14th c.
The Romanic sense, ‘teasel,’ does not seem to occur in English, unless in the comb. card-gatherer = card-thistle-gatherer.]
1. † a. An implement for raising a nap on cloth, consisting of teasel-heads set in a frame (obs.). b. An iron instrument with teeth, or (later) a wire brush (see 2 a, b), used for the same purpose.
[1401. See 3. Some of the early quots. in 2 may belong here.]
1511–2. Act 3 Hen. VIII., vi. § 1. The Walker and Fuller … shall not rowe nor werke any Clothe or Webbe with any Cardes.
1550. Act 3–4 Edw. VI., ii. No Person shall … occupy any yron cards or pickards, in rowing of any set cloth.
1611. Cotgr., Applaneur de draps, the Cloathworker; who with his thistle cards doth smooth and stroake down clothes.
1819. Rees, Cycl., s.v. Cloth, The instruments used in this operation [dressing cloth] are the wire cards, and teazels.
2. a. An instrument with iron teeth, used in pairs to part, comb out, and set in order the fibers of wool, hemp, etc., one of the cards being held in the hand, and the other fastened to a ‘stock’ or support. b. In later use a sort of wire brush for the same purpose, consisting of a strip of leather, vulcanized rubber, or similar material, into which short steel wires are inserted. These strips are fixed on a flat surface or on the cylinder of a carding-machine, and the wool is passed between two sets of them working with each other.
1401. [see 3].
1418. Bury Wills (1850), 3. Assigno Sibill Chekyneye seruienti mee … j par de wollecombes, j. kembyngstok; j. rot j. par de cardes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 62. Carde, wommanys instrument, cardus.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., xii. § 2. No Merchant Stranger … shall bring into this Realm … Cards for Wooll.
1548. R. Crowley, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. i. 142. Honest matrons brought to the needy rock and cards.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 747. It is no Womans matter, at Cards and Tow.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb. (1623), 125. Take a Wool-Carde and … combe off all the scurfe and filth from the Swines backe.
1757. Dyer, Fleece, III. (R.). Behold the fleece beneath the spiky comb Drop its long locks, or from the mingling card, Spread in soft flakes.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., II. 58. With wiry teeth revolving cards release The tangled knots.
1851. Art Jrnl. Illust. Catal., p. iv**/1. From the lap machine, the cotton passes to the carding engines, or cards.
3. attrib. and Comb., as card-board, -room, -stock, -tack, -wire; also card-can, the receptacle into which the carded cotton or wool falls; card-cloth, the leather or indiarubber backing of a card; hence card-clothing; card-end, the soft mass or rope or fiber delivered by the carding machine; card-gatherer, a gatherer of carding-thistles or teasels; card-maker, one who makes cards for combing wool, etc.; card-tenter, one who attends to a carding-machine; card-thistle, the teasel.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. ix. 383. The third is a *Card Board or Leaf … as yet without Leather or Teeth.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 403. In manufacturing card-boards, card-tacks, and finishing the cards.
1887. Manch. Guard., 26 Feb., 12/3. Frame pulleys, *card cans.
1851. Art Jrnl. Illust. Catal., p. v**/1. To make *card-cloth, hides of leather are cut up into strips.
1864. R. A. Arnold, Cotton Famine, 29. The *‘card end’ … deposits itself in circular tin ‘pots.’
1725. Lond. Gaz., No. 6400/6. James Hand, late of Lyneham in the County of Wilts, *Cardgatherer.
1401. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 109. Carpenters ne sowters, *card-makers ne powchers.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., xii. § 1. Founders, Cardmakers, Hurers, Wyremongers.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., Induct. ii. 20. Christopher Slie … by byrth a Pedler, by education a Cardmaker.
1885. Manch. Exam., 24 July, 5/1. An appeal has been issued by the *cardroom hands to the trade unionists of the country.
1562. Richmond. Wills (1853), 156. *Cardstocks, iijs. Stockcards and hande cards, iijs.
1851. Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal., p. v**/1. The carding depends more on the quality of the cards than upon any … skill in the … *card-tenters.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IV. lx. 521. The *Cardthistel or Teasel is of two sortes, the tame and the wild.
1597. Act 39 Eliz., xiii. Their trade … of Card-making and drawing of *Cardwyer.
