Also 5–7 crabbe; 6– SCRAB. [Of uncertain origin, appearing first in 15th c.
A Sc. form scrab, scrabbe, is evidenced from beg. of 16th c., and may easily be much older. This is app. from Norse, as Rietz has Sw. dial. skrabba fruit of the wild apple-tree, and may be the original form. In that case crabbe, crab, would be a southern perversion, assimilated to CRAB sb.1 But, on the other hand, this may be only a transferred use of that word: cf. the history and development of CRABBED, and the application of crab in various languages to a person. A fruit externally promising, but so crabbed and ill-conditioned in quality, might very naturally be so called; yet actual evidence of the connection is wanting. (A Sw. krabbāple, which has been cited, is merely the horticultural name of the American Crab-apple, Pyrus Coronaria, introduced with the shrub from the United States.)]
1. The common name of the wild apple, especially connoting its sour, harsh, tart, astringent quality; applied also to cultivated varieties having similar qualities, grown for preserving, making verjuice, etc.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 44. Rolle hit on balles … In gretnes of crabbes.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 594/26. Malum macianum, a Crabbe. Ibid., 715. Hoc arbitum, a crabe.
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., v. in Ashm. (1652), 74. As by Faces of People ye maie Deeme, When thei tast Crabs while thei be greene.
[1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. iii. 18. With wilde scrabbis and vthir frutis large.]
a. 1536. Tindale, Wks., 10 (R.). As a man would wryng veriuce out of crabbes.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. v. 15. She’s as like this, as a Crabbe’s like an Apple.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, VI. 2526. They must have veriuice that will squeese such crabbes.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 48/1. The Crab is a small round Apple, growing on Trees in Hedges by the way sides.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 121. I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws Or blushing crabs.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. i. 18. Crabs were collected in order to manufacture verjuice.
fig. 1615. J. Hall, Lett., in Burnet, Life W. Bedell, 300. What a sorry crabb [i.e., letter] hath Mr. Waddesworth at last sent us from Sevil?
1878. Browning, Poets Croisic, 109. Weak fruit of idle hours, these crabs of mine I dare lay at thy feet, O Muse divine!
2. The wild apple tree of northern Europe, the original of the common apple (Pyrus Malus).
1425. [see CRAB-TREE.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 99. Crabbe tre, acerbus, macianus, arbutus.]
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 507. Blossoms of Trees … those of Apples, Crabs, Almonds, and Peaches, are Blushy and smell sweet.
a. 1679. W. Gurnall, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. ci. 6. You would get the best fruit trees, and not cumber your ground with crabs.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 55. The wild Crab is the only Apple indigenous to this country.
1849. Thoreau, Week Concord Riv., Friday, 358. Like the crabs which grow in hedges, they furnish the stocks of sweet … fruits.
fig. 1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1846), 350. The fellow proves to be a crab of my own planting in the days of … unrestrained libertinism.
3. With qualification applied to some cultivated varieties of the apple (tree and fruit), as Minshull Crab; and to other species of the genus, as Cherry Crab (Pyrus baccata), Chinese Crab (P. spectabilis), Siberian Crab (P. prunifolia), Garland Crab, or American Crab-apple (Pyrus coronaria), and several other North American species.
1657. Beale, in Phil. Trans., XLIII. 517. The croft Crab and white or red Horse-pear do excel them, and all others.
1858. R. Hogg, Veg. Kingd., 308. The small Cherry Apple or Scarlet Siberian Crab … used for making quasar punch.
1881. Miss Braddon, Asphodel, vi. 71. The snowy clusters of the American crab … and seringa, lilac, laburnum, guelder rose.
1882. Garden, 28 Oct., 381/2. The Chinese Crab … [is] a tree unsurpassed in beauty by any of the class.
4. A stick or cudgel made of the wood of the crab-tree; a crab-stick.
1740. Garrick, Lying Valet, I. ii. Out bolts her husband with a fine taper crab in his hand.
5. transf. The potato-apple. dial.
1794. J. Holt, Agric. Surv. Lanc., 30. Crabs, or oukles, which grow upon the stems [of potatoes].
1869. Lonsdale Gloss., Crab, a potato-apple.
6. Applied to persons: a. as fig. of 1: A sour person. b. In later use, often a back-formation from CRABBED: a crabbed, cross-grained, ill-tempered person. [This might come directly from CRAB sb.1; in Ger. and E.Fris. krabbe crab (the animal) is applied to a cross-grained, fractious person: see CRABBED.]
a. 1580. Baret, Alv., A rude pesant, and crabbe of the countrie.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. i. 230. It is my fashion when I see a Crab.
1605. Tryall Chev., II. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., III. 289. And that sowre crab do but leere at thee I shall squeeze him to vargis.
b. 1825. C. M. Westmacott, Engl. Spy, I. 179. What coming crabb over us, old fellow? Very well, I shall bolt and try Randall, and that’s all about it.
1829. Lytton, Devereux, I. iii. I love you better than … that crab of a priest.
1877. Holderness Gloss., Crab, a peevish, ill-tempered person.
1881. Mrs. Lynn Linton, My Love! I. xiii. 229. But there was not a coward nor a ‘crab,’ as they called the cross-grained when speaking among themselves.
¶ Crabs in Hazard: see CRAB sb.1 9.
7. attrib. and Comb. a. Of or pertaining to the crab-apple or crab-tree, as crab blossom, kernel, verjuice, vinegar, etc.; b. resembling the crab-apple in its sour, harsh taste, or inferiority as fruit, as crab lemon, orange, vintage, wine, etc.; † crab-bat, a crab-tree club or cudgel; † crab-knob attrib., rough and rugged like a crab-tree; † crab-staff = CRAB-STICK; in quot. fig. Also CRAB-APPLE, -STICK, -STOCK, -TREE, etc.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 15. I am a *Crabbat against Arbitrary Government.
1888. Daily News, 22 May, 2/2. The glorious profusion of the *crab-blossoms and the furze.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 219. *Crab Kernels for Stocks.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 22. An Island Theare seat, with *crabknob skrude stoans hath framed an hauen.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1698), I. x. 296. The Lime is a sort of bastard or *Crab-limon … The Fruit is like a Lemon but smaller.
1606. Marston, Parasitaster, III. She … lookes as sowerly, as if she had beene new squeased out of a *crab orenge.
a. 1603. Q. Eliz., in Shaks. C. Praise, 400. Persius, a *Crab-staff, Bawdy Martiall, Ovid a fine Wag.
1747. Wesley, Prim. Physick (1762), 100. Bathe it in good *Crab verjuice.
1884. Farm & Home, 25 Oct., 278/3. The old English verjuice, called in the west of England *‘crab vinegar.’
a. 1700. Dryden, To Granville, 37 (J.).
| And better Gleanings their worn Soil can boast, |
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempl. N. T., II. v. His liberality hated to provide *crab wine for his guests.
