Obs. exc. dial. [Derivation doubtful; by Ray app. identified with prec.] Smut, soot, dirt.
1657. H. Crowch, Welsh Trav., 496. Was all bedawb’d hurself with crock.
1674. Ray, S. & E. C. Words, 63. Crock, to black one with soot or black of a pot or kettle or chimney-stock, this black or soot is also substantively called Crock.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., vii. The boy grimed with crock and dirt.
1875. Sussex Gloss., Crock, a smut or smudge.
1883. Mrs. Phœbe Earle Gibbons, in Harper’s Mag., April, 665/1. New England expressions here are,… ‘you have a crock on your nose’ for a smut.
