Obs. Forms: 5 crees, 5–6 crest(e, cres, cress(e. In Crest-cloth: some kind of linen cloth.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 38. Take Rys … bray hem smal y-now; & þerow a crees bunte syfte hem.
1436. Pol. Poems (Rolls) (1859), II. 164. Creste clothe, and canvasse.
1488. Will of Elis Brown (Somerset Ho.). A pece of new creste clothe conteygnyng xxiij ellys.
1507. in Kerry, St. Lawrence, Reading (1883), 234. Paied for ij ells di. of crescloth for to make Eve a cote xd.
1611. in Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 92. In any kerchief, koyfe, crest cloth or shaddow.
b. A piece or fixed quantity of this cloth.
1459. Will of Lyghtfote (Somerset Ho.). Crestes panni linei vocat[i] crestcloth.
1488. Will of Jonys. j cresse de cressecloth.
[1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, IV. 555. In the earlier years the ‘crest’ appears to be a recognised quantity [of linen cloth].]
