Cram- World English Historical Dictionary

Cram- World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1893, rev. 2025. Cram-

the vb. or sb. in combination.

1

  1.  [cf. CRAM v. 2, sb. 1.] cram-cake, † (a) ? fried cake, pancake; (b) = CRAM sb. 1 (dial.); † cram-maid, ? a woman who crams or fattens fowls, a poultry-woman; † cram-paste, ? = cram-cake.

2

1382.  Wyclif, Ex. xxix. 2. Therf cramcakes wett with oyle [1388 therf paast sodun in watir, bawmed, ether fried, with oile].

3

c. 1450.  Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.), 137. Placente sunt panes facti azima per quoddam artificium … angl. Cram-pastes.

4

1483.  Cath. Angl., 80/1. Cram kake, collirida, laganum.

5

1622.  Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons, p. xxxi. To the Cram maide. Ibid. (1634), xiii. 4. Woodden platters for the cramaid.

6

1888.  Sheffield Gloss., Addit., Cram cake, a cake made of oatmeal or other coarse meal for feeding fowls.

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  2.  [cf. CRAM v. 6, sb. 4.] cram-book, a book used for ‘cramming’ a subject; cram-boy (nonce-wd.), a boy who has been ‘crammed’ for an examination; cram-coach, a tutor who ‘crams’ pupils for an examination; cram-man (nonce-wd.), cf. cram-boy above; cram-paper, a paper of items to be ‘crammed’ for an examination. (All colloq.)

8

1858.  Sat. Rev., 14 Aug., 150. Cramming, crammers, and cram-books, are the … fruits of this examination system…. A cram-man is worthless enough…. But a cram-boy is simply made less healthy and more conceited.

9

1883.  E. R. Lankester, Advancemt. Science (1890), 116. The drudgery of … popular lecturing and cram-book writing.

10

1885.  M. Pattison, Mem., 292. The successful cram-coach.

11

1888.  Daily News, 29 June, 5/1. Partially to abolish the cram-creating system of payment by results.

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