3. (popular).—The foaming head of a tankard of beer. In France, a glass
of beer without any head is termed un bock sans linge or sans faux-col.
1882. Daily Telegraph, Oct. 10, p. 5, col. 4. This gave the porter
a fine frothy or cauliflower head. [m.]
4. (military).—In plural.—The Forty-seventh Regiment of Foot, so called
from its white facings. It is also known as The Lancashire Lads from
its county title.
Caulk, subs. and verb (nautical).—1. Sleep; to sleep. In substantive
form it sometimes appears as caulking. To caulk formerly meant ‘to pick
out a soft plank,’ i.e., to lie down on deck; to sleep with one’s
clothes on. [Cf., Bundling.]
1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xix. But it’s no go with old
Smallsole, if I want a bit of caulk.
1851. Chambers’ Papers, No. 52, p. 30. Sleeping upon deck is
called, I know not why, calking.
2. Verb.—To cease; to shut up; i.e., to stop one’s talk or leave off
talking. [This usage is obviously derived from the legitimate meaning
of the word, to stop up crevices and seams.] For synonyms, see Stow it.
3. (common).—To copulate; to do the ‘act of kind.’ For synonyms, see
Ride.
Caulker, subs. (common).—1. A dram; a stiff glass of grog—generally
applied to a finishing bumper. When this happens to be sherry and
follows the drinking of red wines it is called a whitewash (q.v.).
[There are three suggested derivations: (1) that it is a punning
reference to caulking, that which serves to keep out the wet; (2)
because such a draught takes a deal of swallowing; and (3) that it is a
corruption of corker (q.v.), a regular stopper.] For synonyms, see Go.
1808. J. Mayne, Siller Gun, 89 (Jam.). The magistrates wi’ loyal
din, Tak off their cau’kers. [m.]
1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge, ch. vi. We ... finished off
with a caulker of good cognac.
1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. xxi. ‘Take a caulker? Summat
heavy, then?’
1871. A. Forbes, My Experiences of the War between France and
Germany, II., p. 201. The Mobile officer joins us heartily in a
caulker, and does not need to be pressed to take a little supper.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. viii. The caulker of rum
served out under the break of the poop by the light of a bull’s-eye
lamp.
2. (popular).—A lie; anything surprising or incredible. For synonyms,
see Whopper.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xxxi. I also took care
that she should never afterwards be able to charge me with having
told her a real caulker.
Caution, subs. (popular).—A colloquialism used both of men and things.
Anything out of the common, or that conveys a warning; something
wonderful or staggering; something to be avoided. Anything that causes
surprise, wonder, fear, or indeed any uncommon emotion, is a caution to
this, that, or the other. At Oxford in 1865 it was employed to
designate a ‘guy’ or ‘cure.’
1835. C. F. Hoffman, Winter in the West, p. 234. The way the icy
blast would come down the bleak shore was a caution.
1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, ch. ii. ‘The way he cleaned out a
southerner, a fine young Carolinian, who made a series of matches
with him, was, as the Squire himself would have said, a caution.’
1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. i. Such a clench of the
slender hand and stamp of the slender foot as constitute what our
American friends term a caution.
Cautionary, adj. (American).—Pertaining to that which is a caution
(q.v.).
1843–4. Haliburton, Sam Slick in England. Well, the way the cow cut
dirt was cautionary; she cleared stumps, ditches, windfalls, and
everything.
Cavaulting or Cavolting, verbal subs. (old).—Sexual intercourse. [From
the Lingua Franca cavolta, the equivalent of horsing or riding, both of
which are frequently used in the same sense. Italian cavaliero = a rake
or debauchee.] Cf., Cavort. For synonyms, see Greens.
Cavaulting School, subs. (old).—A house of ill-fame.—See Cavaulting,
and for synonyms, see Nanny-shop.
Cave or Cave in, verb (American).—To give way when opposition can no
longer be maintained; to break down; to ‘turn up.’ [Derived from the
practice of navvies in digging earthworks, when the lower part is
undermined until it can no longer sustain the overhanging mass. Murray
says all the earliest instances of cave in, in print, are from America,
and its literary use appears to have arisen there; but, as the word is
given as East Anglian by Forby [1830], and is widely used in Eng.
dialects, it is generally conjectured to have reached the U.S. from
East Anglia.] The French has barrer; the Spanish acomodarse; and the
Fourbesque battere.
English Synonyms. To knuckle under; knock under; give in; sing small;
turn it up; chuck it up; jack up; climb down (q.v.); throw up the
sponge; chuck it; go down; go out; cut it; cut the rope (pugilistic),
etc.
1837–40. Haliburton, Sam Slick, Hum. Nat., 55 (Bardett). He was a
plucky fellow, and warn’t a goin’ to cave in that way.
1862. Brown (‘Artemus Ward’), His Book. I kin cave in enny man’s
head that, etc.
1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home. In the
meantime the tropical sun was beating down and threatening to cave
the top of my head in.
1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. xxii. ‘The Russians will cave
when they find we are in earnest.’
Cave! intj. (Eton College).—‘Beware!’ A byword among boys out of bounds
when a master is in sight. [From the Latin. The modern, ‘beware of the
dog’ was rendered cave canem by the Romans.]
Caviare, subs. (literary).—The obnoxious matter ‘blacked out’ by the
Russian Press Censor. Every foreign periodical entering Russia is
examined for objectionable references or ‘irreligious’ matter, the
removal whereof is accomplished in two ways. If the articles or items
are bulky, they are torn or cut out bodily. If they are brief, they are
‘blacked out’ by means of a rectangular stamp about as wide as an
ordinary newspaper column, and ‘cross-hatched’ in such a way that, when
inked and dabbed upon the paper, it makes a close network of white
lines and black diamonds. The peculiar mottled or grained look of a
page thus treated has suggested the attributive caviare: a memory of
the look of the black salted caviare spread upon a slice of bread and
butter. A verb has been formed from the noun, and every Russian now
understands that ‘to caviare’ = to ‘black out.’ Of course as long as
the Russian Government permits the entry of letters without censorial
examination, any citizen of St. Petersburg or Moscow can write to
Berlin, Paris, or London, and ask to have cut out and forwarded in a
sealed envelope either a particular article that has been caviared, or
all articles relating to Russia that may appear in any specified
newspaper or magazine.
1890. St. James’s Gaz., 25 April, p. 7, col. 1. Every one of Mr.
Kennan’s articles in the Century has been caviared.
Cavort, verb (American).—To prance; to frisk; to run or ride in a
heedless or purposeless manner. [From the Lingua Franca cavolta =
prancing on horseback. Some, however, derive it from ‘curvetting’ =
capering for show; there are also, as possible sources, the Spanish
cavar, the pawing of a spirited horse; and the French courbetter.]—See
Cavaulting.
1848. Major Jones’s Courtship, 41 (Bartlett). A whole gang ... came
ridin’ up, and reinin’ in, and prancin’, and cavortin’.
1883. Bret Harte, In the Carquinez Woods, ch. i. ‘If we had’nt been
cavorting round this yer spot for the last half-hour I’d swear
there was a shanty not a hundred yards away,’ said the sheriff.
1889. Puck’s Library, April, p. 12. Being an educated man, I feel
ten thousand woes Cavorting for the populace In illustrated
clothes.
Cawbawn.—See Cobbon.
Caw Handed, or Caw Pawed.—Awkward; not dexterous, ready or
nimble.—Grose [1785].
Caxton, subs. (theatrical).—A wig. [A corruption of caxon, a kind of
wig.] In Grose’s time a caxon signified an old weather-beaten wig. Cf.,
Cauliflower.
Cayuse, subs. (American).—A nickname given by Mormon girls to young
‘Latter Day Saints’: the ‘Yahoos’ of the Gentiles. [The cayuse is
properly the common Indian pony. In explanation, it must be noted that
there exists among Americans a passionate love of horses. A near and
dear friend, an old companion, or men and women whose traits of
character command respect and homage, are familiarly ‘horses.’ A
distinguished Kentuckian carried away by enthusiasm for Miss Kemble’s
acting, started to his feet, and with tremendous energy roared out, ‘By
heaven she’s a “horse.”’] See Old Hog.