Obs. Also 6 croset, -ette, 7 cruzet. [a. F. creuset (Paré 16th c.) crucible.] A crucible.
1558–80. Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secr., I. VI. 115 b. Poure the Siluer out of the croset. Ibid. (ed. 1), 118. Set it in the fire in a Goldsmithes croset.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xiii. 247. They cary the bars of silver vnto the Assay maister,… he cuttes a small peece of every one,… and puttes them into a cruset.
1611. Cotgr., Creuset, a crucible, cruzet, or cruet: a little earthen pot, wherein Goldsmithes melt their siluer.
1755. Johnson, Cruset, a goldsmith’s melting pot. Philips. [See also CRUSIE.]
[The ulterior etymology is complicated and uncertain; cf. CRUSELL, and see Hatzfeld, Littré, Diez, Grimm s.v. Krausel, Doornkaat-Koolman s.v. Krusel. The OF. croisel, croiseul meant both night-lamp and crucible: cf. CRUSIE.]
