Forms: 4– carte, 6 cart, (carete), Sc. cairt. [a. F. carte card:—L. carta, charta paper: adopted at two different times; first in ME. in branch I; secondly, after this had become obs. (exc. perhaps in Sc. cartes ‘playing-cards’), from mod.Fr. in branch II.]
I. † 1. ? A treatise, exposition of a science. (? spec. of astrology). Obs.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 130. As it is written in the carte, Complexion he [i.e., Canis Minor] taketh of Marte.
1560. ed. of Chaucer’s Astrol., 249/2. In any carts [ed. Skeat tretis] of the Astrolabie that I have yseene, there ben some conclusions, that [etc.].
† 2. A chart, map, plan, diagram. Also fig. Obs.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), Introd. 15. The Copye of a Carete cumpasyng the Circuet of the Worlde.
1558. Treas. Acc., in Lauder, Tractate (1864), Pref. 8. For paynting of the vii Planctis, of the kart, with the rest of the convoy xvi li.
1578. Invent. (1815), 237 (Jam.). Tua litle cairtis of the yle of Malt.
1669. Marvell, Wks., 1872–5, II. 273. A cart of the flats and sands that we meet with at Court.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, II. VII. 333. Very expert in the Geographical Cart.
1683. Weekly Mem. Ingen., 85. Having referred his Readers to the common Sea-carts … for the Scituation of the Island.
† 3. A charter; a legal ‘paper’ or document. Obs.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., 402. Cartis or chartouris conteyning the formes of ȝeuyng the seid greet endewing.
1640. Fuller, Joseph’s Coat, v. (1867), 155. Though these outlandish sins have of late been naturalized and made free denizens of England; yet our ancientest carte is for gluttony.
4. Sc. A playing-card; pl. the game of cards.
1497. Sc. Treas. Acc., in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, I. 117. Augt 7. Item, giffen to þe king to play at þe Cartis with þe Spanyartis, at Noreme, xx Vnicornis.
a. 1555. Lyndesay, Tragedy, 81. Playng at cartis, and Dyse.
1785. Burns, Epist. Davie, viii. Tent me, Davie, ace o’ hearts! (To say aught less wad wrang the cartes).
1816. Scott, Antiq., xv. ‘Take a hand at the cartes till the gudeman comes hame.’
ǁ II. 5. A bill of fare.
1818. Moore, Fudge Fam. Paris, iii. 6. The Carte at old Véry’s.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xlvi. The carte was examined on the wall, and Fanny was asked to choose her favourite dish.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxix. 387. Our carte is comprised in three lines—bread, beef, pork.
6. Short for CARTE-DE-VISITE.
1861. Dickens, Lett. (ed. 2), II. 148. I think the ‘cartes’ are all liked.
1867. E. Yates, Black Sheep, III. 254 (Hoppe). Mr. Felton had some letters yesterday—letters as come from America—and there were a carte of his son in ’em.
