Obs. exc. Hist. Forms: 4–5 crakowe, 5 crawcow, 7–9 crac(k)owe, 8 crakow, crakoe. [f. Crakow, Krakau, or Cracovie, in Poland, whence they were introduced to England: see Zébot, Dějiny Kroje v Zemích Ceskych (History of Costume in Bohemia), Prague (1892), 333.] A boot or shoe with a very long pointed toe, worn at the end of the 14th century.
c. 1367. Eulogium Hist. (1863), III. v. clxxxvi. 231. Habent etiam sotulares rostratas in unius digiti longitudine quæ ‘crakowes’ vocantur; potius judicantur ungulæ … dæmonum quam ornamenta hominum.
c. 1380. Antecrist, in Todd, 3 Treat. Wyclif, 128. Wiþ tagged cloþes and crakowe pykis.
c. 14[?]. in Rel. Ant., I. 41. With her longe crakowis.
14[?]. trans. Higden (Rolls), VIII. App. 467. A man … was compellede to eite the crawcows and leder of his schoone.
1754. T. Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 47. A Stone-Coffin, wherein lay the Corpse of a Man … upon his Legs were a Pair of Boots picked like Crakows.
1860. Fairholt, Costume, 110. But one representation of crackowes thus fastened has been recorded, and in that instance they are secured to the girdle.
