[f. CARD sb.2]
† 1. intr. To play at cards; to play one’s cards. Also, to card it. To card a rest: to set up a REST (in Primero); fig. to stand to one’s point.
1548. Latimer, Serm. Ploughers (1868), 25. Thei hauke, thei hunt, thei card, thei dyce.
1613. Sherley, Trav. Persia, 136. You shall hazard to Card ill, that play to please one by displeasing another.
a. 1617. Bayne, On Eph. 1. (1658), 166. Many that live revelling, carding, dicing.
1637. Heywood, Royal King, II. ii. Wks. 1874, VI. 32. Will you card A rest for this!
1728. Fielding, Love in sev. Masks, Wks. 1775, I. 42. Lasses, that sleep all the morning, dress all the afternoon, and card it all night.
1766. Anstey, Bath Guide, xiv. 6. Brother Simkin’s grown a Rakehell, Cards and dances ev’ry Day.
† b. trans. To card away.
a. 1620. J. Dyke, Divers Sel. Serm. (1640), 169. It may bee they card and dice it [their trouble] away.
2. trans. (U.S.) To send a message by post-card to a person. Cf. WIRE v.
1875. in Newspaper, Fulcitus carded almost daily his friend Ruisseaux.
1880. (from a letter) Will you card to me here an answer to my friend the professor’s question?
3. To fix on a card. (Frequent colloq. in trades where pattern-cards are used: see CARD sb.2 9.)
1884. Harper’s Mag., Oct., 522/2. They are carded, and boxed in cotton wool.
