Obs. or dial. [f. CRATCH v.]
1. Some cutaneous disease attended with itching.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11823 (Cott.). Wit þe crache [Fairf. skratting] him tok þe scurf.
2. pl. A disease in the feet of horses; the SCRATCHES. Also a similar disease in sheep.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 112. Cratches is a soraunce that … appereth in the pasturnes, lyke as the skyn were cut ouerthwarte.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 320. Of the Cratches, or Rats’-tails … This is a kinde of long scabby rifts growing … on the hinder part, from the fewter-lock up to the curb. Ibid., 476. Of the warts and cratches of sheep.—This disease … doth annoy the sheep.
1877. in N. W. Linc. Gloss.
