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Webster 1913 Edition

Noun.

[L.

cera

wax + E.

cloth

A cloth smeared with melted wax, or with some gummy or glutinous matter.

Linen, besmeared with gums, in manner of

cerecloth

Bacon.

Noun.

A cloth smeared with melted wax, or with some gummy or glutinous matter. [But the English word for a cloth used to cover wounds is sear-cloth.]

cerecloth ‎(plural cerecloths)

Cloth coated with wax used for covering the dead.
- 1594 — William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice ii 7
  'Twere damnation
  To think so base a thought; it were too gross
  To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.