Also 4 karde, 5 cardyn. [f. CARD sb.1, or, perhaps rather a. F. carder; in our quots. the vb. appears earlier than the sb.]
1. trans. To prepare wool, tow, etc., for spinning, by combing out impurities and parting and straightening the fibers with a card. Also with out, and absol. Also, † To dress cloth with teasels on cards (obs.); see CARD sb.1 2. † To remove (impurities) from flax, etc., with cards (obs.).
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. X. 80. Boþe to karde and to kembe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 6. Cardyn wolle, carpo.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (1857), 294. To spynnyn and cardyn she hadde no shame.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 21. The men spinne and carde and make clothe.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 39. Some use agayne to carde of the knoppes [of flax] with an iron Combe.
1661. Hickeringill, Jamaica, 31. The Natives, card out this Rind into a kind of course Tow.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith. (1690), 19. Cloth must be cheaper made, when one Cards, another Spins, another Weaves, [etc.].
1757. Dyer, Fleece, III. (R.). These card the short, those comb the longer flake.
1804. Earl Lauderd., Publ. Wealth (1819), App. 409. Machines which at once clean, card, and reduce the cotton into a state adapted for spinning.
fig. 1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 18. Wisdome and witte now is nouȝt worth a carse, But if it be carded with coueytise as clotheres kemben here wolle.
1786. Burns, Wks., II. 45. I inclose you two poems I have carded and spun since I past Glenbuck.
b. transf. Said of bees and spiders. Also, To card up (dial.): see quot.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 786. As for separating, dividing, picking, carding, or suting their stuffe, they [a kind of spiders] are very bunglers to the first mentioned.
1829. Family Libr., I. 70. The bees … carded it with their feet into a felted mass.
1876. Mid. Yorksh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), s.v., To ‘card up’ a hearthstone is … merely to separate and remove the ashes and cinders. To ‘card up’ a room means, to put it generally to rights.
† 2. To stir and mix with cards (see quot. 1607); to stir together, to mix. Obs.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw. (1857), 92. They drinke milke or warme blood, and for the most part carde them both together.
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 241. You Tom Tapster,… carde your beere … halfe smal & halfe strong.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 277. As for his diet, let it be warm mashes, sodden wheat and hay, thoroughly carded with a pair of Wool-cards.
1635. Pagitt, Christianogr., I. iii. (1636), 133. Wine, carded together with a little warme water.
fig. 1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 62. The skipping King … carded his State, Mingled his Royaltie with Carping Fooles.
1627. Feltham, Resolves, II. xliii. Calm discussions do card affections into one another.
† 3. To comb or cleanse (of impurities). Obs.
1612. Shelton, Quix., I. vi. I. 42. ’Tis necessary that this Book be carded and purged of certain base things.
4. To scratch or tear the flesh with a wool-card or similar instrument, as a method of torture.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 74. For cardynge of hare mayde wyth a payer of carddes soche as doth carde wolle with-alle.
1603. Florio, Montaigne (1634), 393. With Cardes and Teazels … he made him to be carded … untill he died of it.
1827. Q. Rev., XXXV. 87. On the overthrow of his party he was taken prisoner, and carded to death.
1881. W. E. Forster, in Standard, 25 Jan., 2/4. ‘Card’ him—that is to say, an iron comb used for agricultural purposes is applied to the man’s naked body.
5. Sc. ‘To scold sharply’ (Jamieson). [cf. Sp. cardar ‘to reprimand severely,’ carda ‘a severe reprimand.’]
