Sc. (and Irish). Also 7 crue. [a. Gael. cró sheepcot, wattled fold, hut, hovel, cottage, OIrish cró sty, pen, cote, hovel: cf. CREW2, also Icel. kró small pen, fold for lambs, which may be from Celtic, and is the source of the Shetland form.]
1. A hovel, hut or cabin.
1570. Tressoun of Dumbartane, in Satir. Poems Reform. (1890), 172. The Inglis men raid neir For all your craking, caigit within ane Cro [rhyme to].
1880. Antrim & Down Gloss., Croo, a poor, filthy cabin.
attrib. 17[?]. Jacobite Songs, ‘When the King comes.’ I may sit in my wee croo house.
2. A sty.
1825. in Jamieson.
1880. Antrim & Down Gloss., Pig-croo, a pig-sty.
3. A fold, a pen for sheep. Shetland.
1795. Sir J. Sinclair, View Agric. North C. Scotl., App. 29. The proprietors … gather their sheep in folds or what are termed here punds and crues.
1856. Eliza Edmondston, Sk. & Tales Shetland, xiv. 173. Driven to small ponds (or croos) for the purpose of being counted, marked [etc.].
1866. T. Edmondston, Shetland Gloss. (Philol. Soc.), Crû, a small enclosure.
