[f. CREEL sb.1]
1. Sc. To put into a creel; also fig.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IV. Prol. 32. Men sayis thow bridillit Aristotle as ane hors, And crelit wp the flour of poetry.
1808–79. Jamieson, Creil, to put into a basket … ‘He’s no gude to creel eggs wi’,’ i.e. not easy, or safe, to deal with.
2. Angling. To get (a fish) into the basket; to succeed in catching. Cf. ‘to bag game.’
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., v. I creeled him, and tried again.
1892. Field, 18 June, 922/3. My friend … creeled nearly twice as many trout.
3. Sc. In certain marriage customs: To make (a newly married man) go through some ceremony with a creel; esp. to make him carry a creel filled with stones, till his wife releases him. Cf. Brand, Pop. Antiq. (1870), II. 55.
1792. Statist. Acc. Scot., II. 8. The second day after the Marriage a Creeling, as it is called, takes place.
1845. New Statist. Acc. Scot., Berwicksh., 59. All the men who have been married within the last 12 months are creeled. Ibid., 263. An ancient … local usage called creeling is still kept up here.
1890. Glasgow Times, 3 Nov., 3/4. A miner … having got married … his fellow-colliers … went through the process of creeling him.
