Forms: 4 crouste, 5 croste, 5–6 cruste, 4– crust. [In some senses ad. L. crusta, in others immed. a. OF. crouste (mod. croûte), Pr. and It. crosta:—L. crusta hard surface, rind, shell, incrustation. In F. the earliest recorded popular sense is the crust of bread, but medical writers used it in sense 3 after L. at an early date.]
1. The outer part of bread rendered hard and dry in baking. Opposed to crumb.
a. 1330. Otuel, 954. Anawe of Nubie he smot, That neuere eft crouste he ne bot.
1398. [see CRUSTING vbl. sb. 1].
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 53. Saue þe sydys and al þe cruste hole with-owte.
1583. Hollyband, Campo di Fior, 191. Make cleane his bread,… If there be either ashes, or coles in the cruste.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, i. 22. The like may be said of the crust of bread.
1825. Scott, 2 Jan., in Lockhart. When we do get bread to eat, we complain that the crust is hard.
1871. When I was a little Girl (ed. 2), 25. You know there can’t be crust without crumb, and there can’t be crumb either without crust.
b. (with a and pl.) The hard outer part of a loaf or roll of bread; a portion of this external part such as belongs to a single slice of bread.
c. 1325. in Pol. Songs (Camden), 204. A rowȝ bare trenchur, other a crust: The begger that the crust ssal hab.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 16. A crust of bread thou bray withalle.
c. 1450. Two Cookery-bks., 113. Nym crostes of whyt bred.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., II. iv. 28. My Vnkle grew so fast, That he could gnaw a crust at two houres old.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, 263 (J.). Men will do Tricks like Dogs, for Crusts.
1871. When I was a little Girl (ed. 2), 24. I had a piece of bread and butter for my luncheon every morning, and the crust of it was often a serious incumbrance to me…. Bread crusts are not nice things.
c. By extension: A scrap of bread that is mainly crust or is hard and dry: often applied slightingly to what is much more than crust.
1561. T. Norton, trans. Calvin’s Inst., Pref. Some … doe plenteously glut themselves, and other some live with gnawing of poore crusts.
1592. Warner, Alb. Eng., VII. xxxvii. (1612), 182. My hap was harder than to owne in that distresse a Crust.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1698), I. xi. 313. Sauce … which makes it eat very savory: much better than a crust of Bread alone.
1827. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 66. Parents … Who in distress broke their last crust in twain … that I might be fed.
1837. Lytton, E. Maltravers, I. i. Bring me a cup of beer, and crust of bread.
1886. H. F. Lester, Under two Fig Trees, 42. To have a ‘crust’ as she calls it, or in reality a good deal of cheese and bread and beer.
d. fig.
1593. Tell-Troth’s N. Y. Gift (1876), 12. Such crustes of small comfort.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XI. i. heading, A Crust for the Critics.
2. The paste forming the covering of a pie.
1598. Epulario, B iv b. Make a crust of thicke past like a Pie crust.
1712. Addison, Spec., No. 482, ¶ 4. Learning how to season it [a buck], or put it in crust.
1771. Goldsm., Haunch of Venison, 54. A pasty; it shall, and it must, And my wife, little Kitty, is famous for crust.
3. A hard dry formation on the surface of the body, caused by a burn, an ulcer, or disease of the skin; a scab or eschar.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. xvii. (1495), 235. A crouste of blood.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 70. We moten brenne þe heed of þe veyne … wiþ hoot iren & þilke hoot iren myȝte make an hard cruste.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., 275 b. Eschara is the herdnes, or cruste yt remayneth after the burnynge of a wounde, or ulcer.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 72. A most instant Tetter barked … with vile and loathsome crust All my smooth Body.
1876. Duhring, Dis. Skin, 47. Crusts are effete masses of dried materials composed of the products of disease of the skin.
4. † a. The upper or surface layer of the ground. Obs., having passed into b. Geol. The outer portion of the earth; that part of the body of the earth accessible to investigation.
Used first in accordance with the notion that the interior of the earth was an ‘abyss’ of waters, subsequently in reference to the theory of an interior in a state of fusion.
1555. Eden, Decades, 234. An other kynde of Rubies … found in the mountaynes in the vpper crust or floure of the earth.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., xxxiv. (1614), 67/1. In the very crust of the ground, without any deepe digging.
1666. Boyle, in Phil. Trans., 2 April, 185. The elevation of steams from the Crust or Superficial parts of the Earth.
1747. Gentl. Mag., XVII. 433. The whole earth, in the opinion of some philosophers, is but a kind of bridge, or crust to the great body of waters included in it.
1851. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., III. IV. 294. The rocks and stones which compose the external crust of the globe.
5. A more or less hard coating, concretion or deposit on the surface of anything; an incrustation.
1540. Hyrde, trans. Vives’ Instr. Chr. Wom., I. ix. (R.). Except thou wilt neuer wash out the crust, but goe so with a crust of paynting to bedde.
1618. Bolton, Florus, III. iv. 176. While they ride upon the false crusts of yce breaking under.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr., II. 138. Precious Stones are covered over with a homely Crust.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 58 a. Lay … over all a Crust made of Sand, Mortar, and Ashes.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 146. It looked more like a saline crust.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, III. xxi. 179. The water … [was] covered with a thin crust of ice.
1869. Phillips, Vesuvius, iv. 121. The crust formed over the lava.
b. Crust of wine: see quot.
1863. T. G. Shaw, Wine, Vine, & Cellar, iv. 145. In every wine … a portion of the vegetable and other matters which constitute its ‘distinctiveness’ must inevitably be precipitated to the bottom of the vessel in which it is kept; this is called lees in the cask, and crust, or deposit, in bottle.
c. U.S. and Canada. The hardened surface of snow suitable for crust-hunting.
1860. [cf. CRUSTING vbl. sb. 2].
1876. Forest & Stream, VI. 18/1. We had waited for a ‘crust’ through days of rain, thaw, and fog.
1890. N. Hibbs, in Big Game N. Amer., 27. The Moose would come when the crust formed on the snow in the mountains.
6. The hard external covering of an animal or plant; a shell, test, husk, etc.; spec. the hard chitinous integument or ‘shell’ of Crustaceans.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 121. This Crust is spongie, hauing smal holes … that by these hollowe passages … the thinner part of the Chylus might pierce.
1653. Walton, Angler, 101. This Caterpiller gives over to eat, and … comes to be coverd over with a strange shell or crust.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), I. 322. There is a sort of leathery crust over the seed.
1834. Good, Study Med. (ed. 4), IV. 464. [The skin] was shed annually like the crust of a lobster.
7. fig. Something figured as an outer covering or shell difficult to penetrate, or merely superficial.
1651–3. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year (1678), 369. There is an universal crust of Hypocrisie that covers the face of the greatest part of mankind.
a. 1656. Vines, Lord’s Supp. (1677), 320. He may be overgrown with a crust, a coldness.
a. 1853. Robertson, Lect., i. (1858), 105. Break through the crust of his selfishness.
† 8. A plank cut from the outside of a tree-trunk.
1486. Nottingham Rec., III. 255. iij. crustes … to ley on þe same Brigge vnder þe gravell.
1563. Louth Churchw. Acc., III. 28 (in Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss.). For a crust of a plank to a brigge.
1569. Nottingham Rec., IV. 136. For a kruste and a planke.
9. Angling. The surface film of water. ? Obs.
1653. W. Lauson, Secr. Angling, in Arb., Garner, I. 194. If the wind be rough, and trouble the crust of the water. Ibid. This fly … moved in the crust of the water is deadly in an evening.
10. Leather Manuf. The state of sheep or goat skins when merely tanned and left rough preparatory to being dyed or colored.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2125/4. About 350 of the best Kids, some ready pared, and some in the Crust not staked.
1882. Worcester Exhib. Catal., iii. 50. Crust and coloured skivers.
11. The outer part or ‘wall’ of a horse’s hoof.
1847. Youatt, Horse, xviii. 372. The crust or wall, is that portion which is seen when the foot is placed on the ground.
† 12. fig. A crusty person. Obs.
1594. Merry Knack, in Hazl., Dodsley, VI. 539. What an old crust it is!… I think the villain hath a face hardened with steel.
a. 1640. Day, Peregr. Schol. (1881), 44. An old crust, with a back bent like a bowe with carieing tables.
13. Comb., as crust-hardened, -like adjs.; † crust-clung a. (see quot.); crust-lizard, book-name of Heloderma horridum; † crust-roll, a kind of thin crusted pancake.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 46. Cruste Rolle.—Take … Flowre of whete; nym Eyroun and breke þer-to … rolle it on a borde also þinne as parchement … frye hem, and serue forth.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. x. 24. Crust-clung and Soale-bound soyles.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 333/2. Crust Clung, or Soil Bound, is an hard sticking together of the Earth, that nothing will grow on it.
1884. Sat. Rev., 7 June, 741/1. Old crust-hardened politicians.
