I will construe to thee
All the charactery of my sad brows.
Shak.
Cha*rade" (?), n. [F. charade, cf. Pr. charrada long chat, It ciarlare to chat, whence E. charlatan.] A verbal or acted enigma based upon a word which has two or more significant syllables or parts, each of which, as well as the word itself, is to be guessed from the descriptions or representations.
Char"bo*cle (?), n. Carbuncle. [Written also Charboncle.] [Obs.] Chaucer.
Char"bon (?), n. [F., coal, charbon.] 1. (Far.) A small black spot or mark remaining in the cavity of the corner tooth of a horse after the large spot or mark has become obliterated.
2. A very contagious and fatal disease of sheep, horses, and cattle. See Maligmant pustule.
Char"coal` (?), n. [See Char, v. t., to burn or to reduce to coal, and Coal.] 1. Impure carbon prepared from vegetable or animal substances; esp., coal made by charring wood in a kiln, retort, etc., from which air is excluded. It is used for fuel and in various mechanical, artistic, and chemical processes.
2. (Fine Arts) Finely prepared charcoal in small sticks, used as a drawing implement.
Animal charcoal, a fine charcoal prepared by calcining bones in a closed vessel; -- used as a filtering agent in sugar refining, and as an absorbent and disinfectant. -- Charcoal blacks, the black pigment, consisting of burnt ivory, bone, cock, peach stones, and other substances. -- Charcoal drawing (Fine Arts), a drawing made with charcoal. See Charcoal, 2. Until within a few years this material has been used almost exclusively for preliminary outline, etc., but at present many finished drawings are made with it. -- Charcoal point, a carbon pencil prepared for use in an electric light apparatus. -- Mineral charcoal, a term applied to silky fibrous layers of charcoal, interlaminated in beds of ordinary bituminous coal; -- known to miners as mother of coal.
Chard (chńrd), n. [Cf. F. carde esculent thistle.] 1. The tender leaves or leafstalks of the artichoke, white beet, etc., blanched for table use.
2. A variety of the white beet, which produces large, succulent leaves and leafstalks.