kissing-crust

English

Etymology

kissing +‎ crust

Noun

kissing-crust

1. The portion of the upper crust of a loaf which has touched another loaf in baking.
   • 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:

     how he would recommend this slice of white bread, or that piece of kissing crust, to a tender juvenile, advising them all to have a care of cracking their teeth

   • 1840, William Howitt, The Rural Life of England:

     he cuts a massy fragment from the rich curly kissing-crust, that hangs like a fretted cornice from the upper half of the loaf […]

References

“kissingcrust”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.