Forms: 4–5 quir, quyrboilly, -boily, -boyly, -boile, -boyl(l)e, quereboly, qwyrbolle, coerbuille, -boyle, 6 Sc. cur-, corbulȝe. [F. lit. ‘boiled leather.’]
Leather boiled or soaked in hot water, and, when soft, molded or pressed into any required form; on becoming dry and hard it retains the form given to it, and offers considerable resistance to cuts, blows, etc.
The word was in common English use from 14th to 16th c., after which it is not found till modern times, when it appears as borrowed from modern French.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XII. 22. On his basnet hye he bar Ane hat off qwyrbolle.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 164. Hise Iambeux were of quyrboilly [v.r. quereboly].
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxvi. 123. Þai hafe platez made of coerbuille.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, IV. xxx. (1483), 80. A feyned hede formed of playstred clothe other of coerboyle.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. vii. 77. Thair harnes … thaim semyt for to be Of curbulȝe corvyne sevin gret oxin hydis.
1880. C. G. Leland, Minor Arts, i. 1. Solid or pressed work, known as cuir bouilli, in which leather of all kinds, after having been boiled and macerated, or rendered perfectly soft, is moulded, stamped, or otherwise worked into form.
