local. Also 4 kerr, 5 ker, 6–7 carre. [From ON. Cf. Da. kær, kjær pool, pond (e.g., gade-kær village pond), Sw. kærr fen, morass, marsh, moor, Norw. kjær, kjerr pool, marsh, wet copse, Icel. kjarr copse-wood, brushwood, kjarrmýrr marsh grown with brushwood.]
1. A pond or pool; a bog or fen; now, usually, wet boggy ground; a meadow recovered by draining from the bog.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 14574. Sire Thadok, þe erchebischop of ȝork, He liuede in kerres, as doþ þe stork.
1538. Leland, Itin., V. 53. This Fenne … hath many Carres of Waters in it. Ibid., V. 122. There is a praty Car or Pole in Bishops Dale.
1556. Scotter Crt. Roll, in E. Peacock, N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), s.v., Euery inhabytant of Scotter shall put ther geyse in the carre.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb. (1616), 47. Which pastures may either be high woods, commons, carrs, or such like spacious peeces of ground.
1691. Ray, N. C. Wds., 13. A Carre; a hollow place where Water stands.
1843. Jrnl. Roy. Agric. Soc., IV. II. 293. These redeemed meadows, or carrs [Lincolnshire] … consist of an unctuous peat.
1880. Times, 17 Sept., 8/5. In the carrs and marishes both corn and turnips are under water.
1881. Archæol., XLVI. 378. There are lands called cars in most of the neighbouring parishes.
1887. York Herald, 16 April, 2/1. Agistments in Everingham Carr. Horses and Cattle may be Pastured on the above Carr from 10th May to Old Michaelmas Day, 1887.
2. A fen or bog grown up with low bushes, willows, alders, etc.; a boggy or fenny copse.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 272. Ker, where treys growyn be a watur or a fenn, cardetum; ker for aldyr, alnetum.
1681. Worlidge, Dict. Rust. et Urb., Carre, woody moist boggy ground.
1691. Ray, S. & E. C. Wds., 92 A Carre; a wood of Alder or other Trees in a moist boggy place.
1865. W. White, East. Eng., II. 98. The larger islets are known as ‘carrs,’ and ‘alder carrs’ to denote those on which the waterside tree grows thickly.
1874. N. & Q., Ser. V. I. 132. In Norfolk … osier or alder carrs. One is called the bird-carr from the fact of the black-headed gull breeding there.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xv. (1884), 111. In the upper marshes, low copses, locally called ‘carrs,’ are numerous.
3. attrib. and Comb., as carr fir, oak, wood, timber and trees dug up in carrs; † carr-grave, † -graver, an officer appointed to attend to the carrs; † carr-sick (see quot.): carr swallow, a local name of the Black Tern (Sterna nigra). Also CARGOOSE.
1691. Ray, N. C. Wds., 13. The Carr-sick, the Kennel; a Word used in Sheffield, Yorkshire.
1802. Montague, Ornith. Dict., II. It is found in the fenny parts of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, and is called at this last place Car-Swallow.
