cruse

English

Alternative forms

• cruise
• cruze (rare)

Etymology

From Middle English crouse, from Old English crūse (“jar, cruse”), from Proto-West Germanic *krūsā, from Proto-Germanic *krūsǭ, *krūsaz (“jar, pot, collar, jug”). Cognate with German Krause (“pot with a lid”), Icelandic krús (“jar, jug”). Merged with Middle English croo (“pot, pitcher”), from Old English crōg (“crock, pitcher, vessel”). More at crock.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɹuːs/, /kɹuːz/

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• Rhymes: -uːs, -uːz

Noun

cruse (plural cruses)

1. (religion, heraldry or obsolete) A small jar used to hold liquid, such as oil or water.
   • c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665):

     With a thought I tooke for Maudline
     & a cruse of cockle pottage.
     with a thing thus tall, skie blesse you all:
     I befell into this dotage.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 21, in The History of Pendennis. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     He had dipped ungenerously into a generous mother’s purse; basely and recklessly spilt her little cruse.

2. (now uncommon) An oil lamp; a crusy.

Derived terms

• widow's cruse

Translations

Further reading

• “cruse”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Cures, Sucre, crues, cuers, cures, curse, ecrus, sucre

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *krūsā.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkruː.se/,

Noun

crūse f

1. earthen pot, jug, pitcher

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: cruse, crouse, croos
  • English: cruse, cruise, cruze