Also 6–8 sear(e-, 7 cear(e-. [App. originally cered cloth: see CERED.] Cloth smeared or impregnated with wax or some glutinous matter.
1. used for wrapping a dead body in; a waxed winding-sheet or a winding-sheet in general.
[1475–1608. see CERED.]
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 27. Inuoluinge with cere clothe & pouderinge with spyces the body.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. vii. 51. It were too grose To rib her searecloath in the obscure graue.
1678. Wycherley, Pl.-Dealer, II. i. 29. Thou Bag of Mummy, that wou’dst fall asunder, if ’twere not for thy Cere-cloaths.
1868. Stanley, Westm. Abb., iii. 142. The wax of the king’s cerecloth renewed.
fig. 1866. Motley, Dutch Rep., Introd. xiv. 46. The monastic … spirit which now kept … all learning … wrapped in the ancient cerecloths.
† 2. used as a plaster in surgery; a CERATE.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, xlvii. 22 b. For aches and peyne in the armes use seare clothes.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., X. (1623), Z iij. A Cere-cloth to refresh the wearied Sinewes and tired Muscles.
1625. Donne, Serm., 663. A Scar-Cloth that Souples all bruises.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 14 July. I … did sprain my right foot … To bed, & there had a cerecloth laid to my foot.
1755. Smollett, Quix. (1803), I. 121. I am at present more fit for a searcloth than such conversation.
1818. Art Preserv. Feet, 148. Fix the cere-cloth close to the surrounding skin.
3. for various other uses, esp. as a waterproof or protective material.
1540. Wyatt, Lett., Wks. (1816), 371. Out of his bosom he took a bag of a cerecloth with writings therein.
1658. Evelyn, Fr. Gard. (1675), 106. Cerecloth to cover the clefts of your trees.
1764. Harmer, Observ., V. v. 213. A thing like an horse litter … covered all over with sear-cloth.
1844. Pugin, Gloss. Eccl. Ornament, 53. Cerecloath, a waxed cloth fixed over a consecrated altar-stone to protect it from desecration.
