What does cratch mean?
A cratch is a rack or frame used to hold hay or other fodder for feeding livestock, typically found in stables, cowsheds, or byres. The word belongs to the rural vocabulary of Britain, where it has been in use since the Middle Ages, though it survives today mainly as a dialectal term in northern England rather than in general speech. In some regions it overlaps with the sense of a manger — a trough from which animals eat directly. The word shares a lineage with the French crèche, which likewise originally meant a manger before evolving to mean a nativity scene and later a child-care center. Because it is so rarely encountered outside agricultural or historical writing, cratch can lend an authentic rustic flavor to prose set on a farm or in an earlier era, but writers addressing a general audience should expect many readers to be unfamiliar with it.
nounA rack or trough for holding hay or other fodder for livestock, especially one placed in a stable or cowshed; in some dialect use, a manger.
- A rack or open framework for holding hay or straw for feeding livestock.
- In some British dialects, a manger or feeding trough in a stable or byre.
"The farmer forked fresh hay into the cratch before the cattle came in from the field."
"He filled the cratch with fresh hay so the sheep could feed through the night."
"The old byre still had its wooden cratches along the wall, built for cattle that were long gone."
When referring to several such racks, as along the walls of a byre, the plural 'cratches' is used.
"The old barn had cratches built along both sides for the winter feeding of the herd."
The word behind the French 'crèche' and the English 'cratch' began life as the same humble object — a manger — long before one became a day-care center and the other a hay rack.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cratch
Cratch derives from the Old French creche, meaning a manger or crib, which was borrowed into Middle English. It is thus related to the modern French word crèche, which retains the original manger sense in nativity contexts and later came to denote a day nursery. The word has been part of English agricultural vocabulary since medieval times, persisting into modern dialect use especially in northern England.
How cratch is actually used
Cratch is now largely dialectal and rare in standard modern English, surviving chiefly in rural northern England and in historical or agricultural writing. It carries a rustic, old-fashioned connotation and appears mostly in regional literature and farming contexts.
Easily confused with cratch
A crutch is a support used to aid walking after injury, whereas a cratch is a farm implement — a rack or trough for animal feed.
Creche refers to a nursery for young children (or a nativity scene), while cratch is an agricultural term for a livestock feeding rack.