[Note: Parts of this entry were previously at dew sore.]
dew crack n chiefly S Midl obs? Cf dew poison n, dew sore n
An open sore between the toes; the condition of having such sores.
1873 Clinton Weekly Reg. (IL) [30 May 5]/3, His mother has a great deal of trouble to get him to wash his cracked and scaley feet, and tie yarn strings in the dew-cracks in his toes before he goes to bed. 1881 Seymour Daily Lever (IN) [5 Apr 2]/2, We won’t accept any assurance that Spring is here until . . we can gaze on a barefooted boy with woolen yarn in the dew-cracks under his toes. 1904 Charlotte Med. Jrl. 25.386 cNC, Every single case [of hookworm] in the 118 cases, except one, gave a history of ground-itch, and this exception was one of my students from Iredell county, who said he didn’t know what ground-itch was. Admitted that he had suffered with dew-crack. 1953 Springfield Daily News (MO) 17 June 12/3, These I Shall Remember. . . Wrapping white yarn around our barefoot toes to heal bleeding dew cracks. 1958 KY Folkl. Rec. 4.101 csKY, My earliest memory of folk medicine begins with a wool string which was saturated with grease and tied around my toe for “dew crack.”