crewel

English

Alternative forms

• cruel

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹuː.əl/, /ˈkɹuːl/
• Rhymes: -uːəl, -uːl
• Homophone: cruel

Noun

crewel (countable and uncountable, plural crewels)

1. Worsted yarn, slackly twisted, used for embroidery.
   • 1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969, →ISBN:

     First for a May-fly: you may make his body with greenish colored crewel or willowish color

Derived terms

• crewelwork

Translations

worsted yarn, slackly twisted, used for embroidery

• Hungarian: hímzőfonal (hu)

Verb

crewel (third-person singular simple present crewels, present participle crewelling or (US) creweling, simple past and past participle crewelled or (US) creweled)

1. (transitive) To make (embroidery) using the crewel method.

Middle English

Adjective

crewel

1. Alternative form of cruel