1) An implement used for ‘teasing’ or working wool into a sliver.
In this sense the word ‘card’ derives ultimately from the Latin word for thistle, and the cards used originally in the dressing proces were teasel heads set in a wooden frame. Later the hand-cards were used in pairs and were effectively wire brushes: they have been described as having sharpened and bent iron staples set in a piece of leather, mounted on a wooden back with a handle. The term is on record from the fourteenth century: 1382 cardes and kammes [combs], Yeadon
1410 De xijd de iij paribus del cardes, York
1454 a spynyngwhele, a peyre of cardes, Nottingham
1535 Item ij payer wollcardes xxd
Item a payer woll combes ijs, Stillingfleet
1579 a pair of wolle cardes, South Cave
1622 a paire of ould cardes, Cottingley. The change in the way that cards were made stimulated the wire-drawing industry: 1552 To John Danyell ... one stone of carde wyer, Garforth. In 1681, a Brighouse man was charged with buying foreign wire for making of wooll cards.
2) Evidently a fabric that was suitable for curtains or as a lining.
1392 j togam lineatam cum card’, York
1421 j lectus de viridi say cum iij cortyns de carde, York
1430 j gounam de viridi liniatam cum carde, York
1454 a hunge bed of blew card, Bossall.