Also 6 creaste, 7 creast. [Origin and early history unknown.
Goes with CREASE v.2; it does not appear whether the sb. or the vb. had priority. In the sb. the spelling creast(e appears in the 16th and 17th c., but perh. merely by confusion with crest, of which creast was a variant. The verb had from the beginning very frequently the form cress, which is the current form both of vb. and sb. in Sc. The spelling ea suggests French origin, as in cease, grease, lease, peace, please, etc. But no cognate Fr. word has been found. The suggestions of connection with Breton krīz, crease, wrinkle, or Ger. kraus, MHG. krûs, must on obvious phonetic grounds be discarded.]
1. The line or mark produced on the surface of anything by folding; a furrow in a surface, such as is caused by folding; a fold, wrinkle, ridge.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. xl. 709. [Peach] a fleshy pulpe … in the middest whereof is a rough harde stone full of creastes and gutters.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 83. In the little furrows or creases of my skin.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 84. Having … a hollow Crease cut into it round about.
1696. J. F., Merchant’s Ware-ho., 20. Wove so extream thick, that it frets in the creasts under Men or Womens cloaths.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4144/4. A … Saddle Nag … with … a Crease on his near Shoulder.
1706. Swift, Th. Various Subj., Wks. 1841, II. 307/2 (J.). A … ivory knife with a blunt edge … which … cut it even…: whereas … a sharp pen-knife … would … go often out of the crease and disfigure the paper.
1865. Miss Braddon, Sir Jasper, III. i. 3. Never mind the creases in that blue frock of yours.
2. Cricket. The name of certain lines scratched or marked on the ground to define the positions of the bowler and batsman.
These are the bowling-crease, drawn in the line of each wicket, from behind which the bowler delivers the ball; the return-crease, a short line at each end of the bowling crease, and at right angles to it, beyond which the bowler must not go; and the popping-crease, a line in front of each wicket parallel to the bowling-crease, behind which the batsman stands to defend his wicket.
1755. Game at Cricket, 6. The Bowling-Creases must be cut in a direct line from each Stump. Ibid., 7. The Bowler must deliver the Ball, with one foot behind the Crease.
1849. Laws of Cricket, in Crick. Man. (1850), 53. The Popping-Crease must be four feet from the wicket and parallel to it, unlimited in length, but not shorter than the bowling-crease.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, III. I. i. § 3. 667. If the striker at his wicket go outside the popping crease … the bowler may put him out.
1880. Boy’s Own Bk., 105. Within the return-crease … and behind the bowling-crease, the bowler must stand when he delivers the ball.
¶ In the following, app. error for CREST.
3. Arch. A curved or ridge tile; = CREST 6.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 270. Crease…. These are such Tiles as are us’d to cover the Ridge of a House; they being made Circular breadthwise, like a half Cylinder.
1847–78. Halliwell, Crease, a curved tile. West.
1880. W. Cornwall Gloss., Crease, a ridge tile.
4. dial. ‘The top of a horse’s neck’ (Halliw.); = CREST 8.
Crease sb.3, Malay dagger: see CREESE.
