=chrysopoeia,= the making of gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).

Gk. χρυσοποιία.

=chrysosperm,= seed of gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Gk.

χρυσός, gold + σπέρμα, seed.

=chuck,= darling; a term of endearment. Hen. V, iii. 2. 20; Macbeth,

iii. 2. 45; ‘His _chuck_, that is, his wife’, Earle, Microcosmographie,

§ 68 (ed. Arber, p. 94). See EDD. (s.v. Chuck, sb.^{1} 4).

=chuff,= a rustic, a clown. Generally applied opprobriously to any

person disliked, esp. a rude coarse fellow. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 93; a

churlish miser, Nashe, P. Pennilesse (NED.); Massinger, Duke of Milan,

iii. 1 (Medina). In prov. use in the sense of surly, ill-tempered, see

EDD. (s.v. Chuff, adj.^{1} 1). ME. _choffe_ or _chuffe_, ‘rusticus’

(Prompt.).

=church-book,= (1) the Bible; (2) the parish register. Both senses are

quibbled upon; Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (1 Lawyer).

=ciarlitani;= see =chiarlatan.=

=cibation,= a process in alchemy; lit. ‘a feeding’. B. Jonson, Alchem.

i. 1 (Dol). From L. _cibus_, food.

=cinoper,= ‘cinnabar’. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). Cp. MHG.

_zinober_.

=cinque-pace,= a kind of lively dance. Much Ado, ii. 1. 77. F. _cinq

pas_, lit. five paces; Littré gives _cinq pas et trois visages_ (five

paces, three faces) as the name of an old French dance.

=cioppino,= a ‘chopine’. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Hedon). See

=choppine.=

=circling:= phr. _a circling boy_, i.e. a kind of _roarer_, one who

circumvented and cheated his dupes. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 2

(Edgworth). See Nares.

=circular,= going round-about, indirect. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii.

2 (Physician).

=circumstance,= detailed and circuitous narration; details, particulars;

‘Without circumstance’, i.e. without further details, Romeo, v. 3. 181;

ceremony, formality, ‘Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war’,

Othello, iii. 3. 355.

=citronise,= to bring to the colour of citron; a process in alchemy. B.

Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Subtle).

=cittern-headed,= ugly; because the head of the cittern (a kind of

guitar) was often grotesquely carved to resemble a human head. Ford,

Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone). The citterns were mostly found in

barbers’ shops.

†=city-wires= (?); ‘His cates . . . Be fit for ladies: some for lords,

knights, ’squires; Some for your waiting-wench, and city-wires’, B.

Jonson, Epicoene (Prologue).

=civil,= sober, grave, not gay; said of colour. Romeo, iii. 2. 10;

Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Maria); ‘civil-suited Morn’, Milton, Il

Pens., 122.

=clack-dish,= a wooden dish with a lid, carried and clacked by beggars

as an appeal for contributions. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 2

(Gerardine). See =clapdish.=

=clad,= to clothe. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 4; Peele, Poems, ed. Dyce p.

602.

=cladder,= a man of loose and vicious manners. (Cant.) ‘_Cladders_? Yes,

catholic lovers’, Mayne, City Match, ii. 3 (Bright and Aurelia).

=clair-voyant,= clear-sighted, having good insight. _Clara voyant_,

Buckingham, The Rehearsal, iii. 1 (end).

=clamper up,= to gather up together hastily. Ascham, Toxophilus, (ed.

Arber, 83). [Sir W. Scott uses the expression ‘to _clamper up_ a story’,

in a letter to Joanna Baillie (Feb. 10, 1822).]

=clap,= a sudden stroke of misfortune; a touch of disrepute. B. Jonson,

Alchem. iv. 4. 3; _to catch a clap_, to meet with a mischance, Heywood,

Wise Woman of Hogsdon, iii. 1 (Wise Woman).

=clapdish,= a wooden dish for alms with a cover that shut with a

clapping noise, used by lepers and other mendicants. Massinger, Parl. of

Love, ii. 2 (Leonora); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). See

=clack-dish.=

=clapper,= a rabbit-burrow. Tusser, Husbandry, § 36. 25; ‘As a cony

. . . in his _claper_’, Fabyan, Chron. pt. vii, an. 1294-5 (p. 395).

‘_Clapier_, a clapper of conies’, Cotgrave. A Dorset word for a

rabbit-hole (EDD.). O. Prov. _clapier_, ‘garenne privée’ (Levy).

=clapperclaw,= to beat, to maul. Merry Wives, ii. 3. 67; Tr. and Cr. v.

4. 1. In prov. use in various parts of England, and in Scotland (EDD.).

=clapperdudgeon,= a cant name for a beggar; a term of reproach. B.

Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. sen.); Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. i.

4; Greene, George-a-Greene (l. 909), ed. Dyce, p. 265, col. 1; Harman,

Caveat, p. 44. Cp. _clapper_, the lid of a beggar’s clap-dish; _dudgeon_

was the name of a kind of wood for making handles of knives, &c.

=clarissimo,= a grandee. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2. 6. A Span.

word, lit. most illustrious.

=clary, clare,= a pot-herb, the _Salvia Sclarea_, supposed to be good

for the eyes, and so by pop. etym. often spelt _Cleare-eie_,

_Clear-eye_; ‘Spirits of clare to bathe our temples in’, Davenant, The

Wits, v (Thwack); spelt _clary_, ‘Clary quasi Clear Eye’, W. Coles, Adam

in Eden, xxiii. 47. See NED. (s.v. Clary, sb.^{2}).

=clary,= a sweet liquor made of wine, clarified honey, and spices.

Congreve, Way of World, iv. 5 (Mirabell); Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iii.

1 (Lord Rake). ME. _clarree_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1471). OF. _claré_, that

which is cleared or clarified, see NED. (s.v. Clary, sb.^{1}).

=classhe.= See =closh.=

=claw,= to stroke; hence, to flatter. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 186; Marston,

Antonio, Pt. II, i. 1 (Piero); Much Ado, i. 3. 18. Phr. _claw me, I’ll

claw thee_, ‘We saye, clawe me, clawe thee’, Tyndal, Expos. John (ed.

1537, 72), see NED.; _to claw the back_, to flatter, Hall, Sat. i. prol.

11. ‘Claw’ means to flatter in Leic. and Warw., see EDD. (s.v. Claw, vb.

7).

=clawback,= one who strokes the back; a flatterer; ‘These flattering

clawbackes’, Latimer, 2 Sermon bef. King, p. 64; Mirror for Mag., Iago,

st. 6; ‘_Blandisseur_, a flattering sycophant or clawback’, Cotgrave. So

in north Yorks. and Leic., see EDD. (s.v. Claw, vb. 10 (b)).

=clear,= very drunk. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond

Senior).

=cleave the pin;= see =pin.=

=cleaze;= see =clee.=

=clee,= a claw; ‘_Pied d’un cancre_, the clee or claw of a crab’,

Cotgrave; ‘The clee of a bittor’, Turbervile, Falconrie, 349; _cleaze_

pl., Phaer, tr. Aeneid, viii. 209; Studley, Seneca’s Hercules, 206 b

(NED.). See EDD. (s.v. Clee). ME. _cle_, ‘ungula’ (Cath. Angl.). OE.

_clēa_. Cp. =cleye.=

=cleeves,= cliffs; ‘Dover’s neighbouring cleeves’, Drayton, Pol. xviii;

Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 62. ME. _clefe_ of an hyll, ‘declivum’

(Prompt.). Due to OE. _cleofu_, the plural form, or to _cleofe_, the

dat. of _clif_. ‘Cleeve’ is very common in place-names in the west of

England: Cleeve (Clyffe Pypard) in Wilts.; Church Cleves in Dorset; Old

Cleeve, Huish Cleeve, Bitter Cleeve in Somerset.

=clem,= to starve for want of food. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour,

iii. 1 (Shift); Poetaster, i. 1 (Tucca). To ‘clem’ (or to ‘clam’) is the

ordinary word for starving in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v.

Clam, vb.^{2} 1). The lit. meaning of _clam_ (_clem_) is ‘to pinch’,

still used in this sense in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Clam,

vb.^{1} 1. Cp. Dan. _klemme_, Sw. _klämma_, to pinch.

=clench, clinch,= a pun. Dryden, Mac Flecknoe, 83; Prologue to Tr. and

Cr. (1679), 27.

=clenchpoop,= a lout, a clown; a term of contempt. Warner, Albion’s

England; bk. vi, ch. xxxi, st. 22; _clinchpoop_, or _clenchpoop_, Three

Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 256.

=clepe,= to call. L. L. L. v. 1. 24; Hamlet, i. 4. 19. The pp. is spelt

_cleeped_ in Chapman, Gent. Usher, ii. 1 (Pogio); the usual form is the

archaic _y-clept_, spelt _y-clep’d_ in Milton, L’Allegro, 12. OE.

_clipian_, _cleopian_, to call; pp. _ge-cleopod_.

=clergion,= a young songster, _fig._ of birds. Surrey, Description

Restless State, 22; Poems, 72; in Tottel’s Misc. 231. ME. _clergeon_, a

chorister (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1693). F. _clergeon_.

=clergy,= clerkly skill, learning. Proverb, ‘An Ounce of Mother-Wit is

worth a Pound of Clergy (or Book-learning)’, see NED.; Middleton, Family

of Love, iii. 3 (Purge). The privilege of exemption from sentence which

might be pleaded by every one who could read; ‘Stand to your clergy,

uncle, save your life’, Munday, Death Huntington, i. 3, in Hazlitt’s

Dodsley, viii. 244. _Clergy of belly_, respite claimed by a pregnant

woman. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 884. ME. _clergy_: ‘Lewdnesse of

clergy, _illiteratura_’ (Prompt. EETS., 261).

=cleye,= a claw. Marlowe, tr. Lucan, bk. i, l. 36 from end; B. Jonson,

Underwoods, Eupheme, ix. 18; ‘The cleyes of a lobster’, Skinner (1671).

‘Cley’ is an E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Clee). ME. _cley_ of a

beast, ‘ungula’ (Prompt. EETS., 85, see note, no. 383). Cp. =clee.=

=clicket,= to be _maris appetens_, to copulate. Massinger, Picture, iii.

4 (Eubulus); Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, ii. 4 (Leontius);

Tusser, Husbandry, § 77. 9. As a hunting term, it had reference to the

fox and the wolf; see Turbervile, Hunting, c. 66, p. 186; c. 75, p. 205.

=cliffe,= a clef, key, in music. Tr. and Cr. v. 2. 11; Gascoigne, Steel

Glas, 1. 159. F. _clef_.

=clift,= a cliff. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 79; p. 90, col. 1; _clifte_,

Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 23. The E. Anglian form (EDD.).

=clighte;= see =clitch.=

=Clim of the Clough,= a proverbially famous archer. Clement of the Glen,

in the ballad of Adam Bell. Gascoigne, Flowers, ed. Hazlitt, i. 72; B.

Jonson, Alchemist, i (Face). _Clem a Clough_, Drayton, Pastorals, vi.

36.

=clinch;= see =clench.=

=cling,= to cause to shrink, shrivel; ‘Till famine cling thee’, Macbeth,

v. 5. 40. Cp. prov. use in Ireland and in the north of England, where

the word means to wither, contract, also, of cattle, to become thin from

want of proper food, see EDD. (s.v. Cling, vb.^{1} 4). ME. _clyngyn_, to

shrink, to shrivel (Prompt.). OE. _clingan_, ‘marcere’ (Ælfric).

=clip,= to embrace. Wint. Tale, v. 2. 59; Coriolanus, i. 6. 29; iv. 5.

115. Still in use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. _clippen_

(Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. lii. 1344). OE. _clyppan_.

=clip,= to go fast, to run swiftly. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 86. A Suffolk

use; see EDD. (s.v. Clip, vb.^{2} 11).

=clipped,= uttered aloud; ‘Thy clipped name’, Middleton, The Witch, ii.

2 (near the end). See =clepe.=

=clips, clyps,= ‘eclipse’. Berners, tr. of Froissart, ch. 130. Common in

the north (EDD.). ME. _Clypps_ of þe son or þe mone, ‘eclipsis’

(Prompt.).

=clitch,= to bend, clench (the fist). Hellowes, Guevara’s Fam. Ep. 145

(NED.); _clighte_, pp., Bossewell, Armorie, ii. 119^{b}. Cp. the west

country _clitch_, to grasp tightly (EDD.). OE. _clycchan_, pp.

_geclyht_.

=clogdogdo,= a term of contempt. B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iv. 1 (Otter).

A nonce-word.

=close fight,= a sea term; a kind of screen used in a naval engagement.

Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Antonio). See =fights.=

=closh, clash,= the name of an old game, played with a ball or bowl.

Spelt _claisshe_, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 27, § 8. See

Cowell’s Interpreter and Strutt’s Sports. _Closh_ was orig. the name of

the bowl. Du. _klos_, a wooden Boule (Hexham).

=closure,= bound, limit, circuit. Richard III, iii. 3. 11; an

entrenchment, fortress, Greene, Looking Glasse (ed. 1861, p. 123);

Surrey, tr. Aeneid, ii. 296. OF. _closure_, confine, limits (Dialoge

Greg., 74); Late L. _clausura_, a castle, fort (Justinian).

=clote,= the yellow water-lily; _Nuphar lutea_. Fletcher, Faithful

Shepherdess, ii. 2. 12. Still in use in the south-west of England, see

EDD. (s.v. Clote, (1)). OE. _clāte_, which was the name of various

plants resembling the burdock, see NED.

=clottered,= clotted. Mirror for Mag., Buckingham, st. 14; _‘Congrée_,

congealed, clottered’, Cotgrave. Du. _kloteren_, or _klonteren_, ‘to

curdle or growe thick as milke doth’ (Hexham). See =cluttered.=

=clout,= a piece of cloth or linen, a rag. Hamlet, ii. 2. 537; Richard

III, i. 3. 177; hence, _clouted_, patched, BIBLE, Joshua ix. 5. In prov.

use, esp. in the north, see EDD. (s.v. Clout, sb.^{1} 3).

=clout,= a square piece of canvas, which formed the mark to be aimed at,

at the archery butts, L. L. L. iv. 1. 138; 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 52.

=clout,= to cuff heavily, BIBLE, 2 Sam. xxii. 39; _clouted_, pp. hit,

Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, iii. 7. 1. In gen. vulgar use, see

EDD. (s.v. Clout, vb.^{2} 1).

=clouted;= of cream: clotted, by scalding milk. Spenser, Shep. Kal.,

Nov., 99; Borde, Dyetarie, 267. A Devon word (EDD.).

=clowre,= grassy surface, turf. In pl. _clowres_; Golding, Metam. iv.

301. (L. _cespite_); viii. 756 (L. _terram_). ME. _clowre_, grassy

ground (Lydgate).

=cloy,= to prick a horse with a nail in shoeing; ‘I cloye a horse, I

drive a nayle in to the quycke of his foote, _jencloue_’, Palsgrave; to

pierce as with a nail, to gore, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 48; to spike a

gun, Beaumont and Fl., The False One, v. 4 (Photinus). OF. _cloyer_ (F.

_clouer_), to nail, deriv. of OF. _clo_ (F. _clou_), a nail.

=cloyer,= a pick-pocket’s accomplice. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl,

v. 1 (Moll). See Nares.

=cloyne,= a clown, rustic. Mirror for Mag., Rivers, st. 44. The word

_clown_ (_cloyne_) was a late introduction from some Low German source,

originally meaning ‘clod, lump’, see NED.

=cloyne, cloine,= to act deceitfully or fraudulently. Bale, Sel. Wks.

(ed. 1849, p. 170 (NED.)); to take furtively, to steal away, Phaer, tr.

Aeneid, vi. 524; vii. 364. Probably the same word as OF. _cluigner_,

_clugner_, _cluyner_ (F. _cligner_), to wink, often as the expression of

secret understanding, cunning, or hypocrisy. See NED.

=club,= a country fellow; ‘Homely and playn clubbes of the countrey’,

Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 14; ‘Hertfordshire clubs and clouted

shoon’, Ray, Eng. Proverbs, 310. Cp. ME. _clubbyd_, ‘rudis’ (Prompt.).

=clubfist,= a thick-fisted ruffian. Mirror for Magistrates, Sabrine, st.

10.

=clubs!= A popular cry to call out the London apprentices, who had clubs

for their weapons; also, a cry to call out citizens; as in Romeo, i. 1.

80. There are frequent allusions to this cry; ‘Cry _clubs_ for

prentices’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 2 (All).

=clunch,= a clodhopper; ‘_Casois_, a countrey clown, boore, clunch,

hinde’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Cumberland, Lancashire, and E. Yorks.

(EDD.). See NED.

=clunch,= to clench; ‘His fist is clunched’, Earle, Microcosmographie, §

20; ed. Arber, p. 41.

=clunged,= drawn together by the action of cold; ‘By the Northern winds

. . . clunged and congealed withall’, Holland, Pliny, i. 513; ‘The Earth

made clunged with the cold of winter’, B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb.

(NED.).

=cluttered,= clotted. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Alberto);

‘_Engrommelé_, clotted, cluttered, curded thick’, Cotgrave. In prov. use

in Cheshire and Shropshire (EDD.). See =clottered.=

=cly= (thieves’ cant), to seize, take; to steal (NED.). Phr. _to cly the

Jerk_, to be whipped, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman);

Harman, Caveat, p. 84. In Lower Rhenish dialect _klauen_ (_kläuen_,

_kleuen_) is used in the sense of ‘steal’. See NED.

=coals:= phr. _to carry coals_, to be very servile, to submit to

insults. Romeo, i. 1. 2. See =colcarrier.=

=coal-sleck,= coal-dust. Drayton, Pol. iii. 280. Cp. prov. E. _sleck_,

slack, small coal.

=coart,= to confine, restrain; ‘Streatly coarted’, Skelton, Why come ye

not, 438; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, i. 138. L. _co-arctare_, to compress,

from _arctus_, close.

=coast, cost=(=e,= the side. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 294; the border,

frontier of a country, BIBLE, Mark vii. 31; Judges i. 18; phr. _on even

coast_, on even terms, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 17. OF. _coste_ (F.

_côte_).

=coast,= to keep by the side of a person moving. Fletcher and Rowley,

Maid Mill, i. 1; to march on the flank of, Berners, Froissart, i. 40.

55; to move in a roundabout course, _fig._ Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 38; to

skirt, Milton, P. L. iv. 782; spelt _cost_, to approach, Spenser,

Daphnaida, st. 6; Venus and Adonis, 870.

=coat;= see =cote.=

=coat-card,= a playing card bearing a ‘coated’ figure (king, queen, or

knave). In regular use till the Revolution, 1688; afterwards perverted

into _Court-card_. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Madrigal). Also,

_coat_, Massinger, Old Law, iii. 1 (Cook); B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1.

=coath,= to faint, to swoon away. Skinner, 1671 (a Lincoln word); ‘To

coath (swoon away), _Animo linqui, deficere_’, Coles, 1679. ‘Coath’ is

still used in this sense in E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. _cothe_, or swownyng,

‘sincopa’ (Prompt.). OE. _coðu_, disease; cp. _coe_, a word for a

disease of sheep, cattle in W. Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Coe, sb.^{1} 1).

See =quoth.=

=cob,= the head of a red herring. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. (Wks.,

1873, ii. 147); ‘A herring cob, _la teste d’un harang sor_’, Sherwood.

=cob, cobbe,= a wealthy man; a miser; ‘Ryche cobbes’, Udall, tr. of

Apoph., Diogenes, § 149; Stubbes, Anat. Abuses, ii. 27 (NED.).

=cobbe,= a male swan; ‘The hee swanne is called the cobbe, and the

she-swanne the penne’, Best, Farm. Bks. (ed. 1856, p. 122). Hence

_cob-swan_, B. Jonson, Catiline, ii. 1 (Fulvia). ‘Cob’ is still in use

in Norfolk (EDD.).

=cockal=(=l,= a knucklebone of a sheep, with which boys played

‘knucklebones’. Herrick, The Temple, 59; the game played, Cotgrave (s.v.

_Tales_). See Nares.

=cockall,= a paragon, a pattern, of supreme excellence; ‘He was the very

cockall of a husband’, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2. 6.

=cockatrice,= a name for the basilisk, a serpent supposed to kill by its

mere glance, and to be hatched from a cock’s egg. BIBLE, Isaiah lix. 5;

Romeo, iii. 2. 47; applied to a woman of loose life, B. Jonson,

Cynthia’s Rev. iv. 1; Killigrew’s Pandora (Nares). Orig. a name for the

crocodile. OF. _caucatris_ (_cocatris_), crocodile; Med. L.

_caucatrices_, ‘crocodili’ (Ducange); cp. O. Prov. _calcatris_,

crocodile (Levy). See NED.

=cock-a-two,= cock of two, a cock that has conquered two, a conqueror of

two. Little French Lawyer, ii. 3 (La Writ). See Nares.

=cockers,= leggings, gaiters. Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of

Dowsabel, l. 59. In prov. use from the north country to the W. Midlands

and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. _cokeres_ (P. Plowman, C. Text, ix. 59).

Probably the same word as OE. _cocor_, a quiver.

=cocket,= a ship’s certificate that goods for export had paid duty.

Gascoigne, Steel Glas, ll. 258, 1058. Anglo-F. _cokette_, app. the seal

with which the certificate was assured (Rough List).

=cocket,= pert, saucy, stuck up. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, ii. 5 (song);

Coles Dict. 1677. In prov. use from north country to the W. Midlands,

meaning ‘pert, saucy’, also, ‘brisk, merry, lively’ (EDD.).

=cockledemois,= pl. (perhaps) a natural product of some kind

representing money. Chapman, Mask of the Middle Temple, § 2. (Not found

elsewhere, except as Cockledemoy, the name of a knave in Marston’s Dutch

Courtezan). Dr. H. Bradley suggests that this word may represent Port.

_coquílho de moeda_; _coquílho_, fruit of an Indian palm; _moeda_,

money.

=cockloche,= a term of reproach or contempt, a mean fellow, a silly

coxcomb. Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 2 (Clare); spelt _cocoloch_,

Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Triumph of Honour, sc. 1

(Nicodemus). F. _coqueluche_, a hood, also a person who is all the

vogue. See Dict. de l’Acad. (1762).

=Cock Lorel,= the name of the owner and captain of the boat containing

jovial reprobates of all trades in a sarcastic poem, Cocke Lorelles

Bote, printed _c._ 1515; used also allusively with the sense of ‘rogue’;

‘Here is fyrst, Cocke Lorell the Knyght’ (ed. 1843, p. 4); ‘Cock-Lorrell

would needs have the Devill his guest’, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam.

(Song). See =Lorel.=

=cockney,= (1) a cockered child, a child tenderly brought up, hence (2)

a squeamish, foppish, effeminate fellow. (1) Tusser, Husbandry, 183;

Baret, Alvearie, C. 729; (2) Twelfth Nt. iv. 1. 15; a squeamish woman,

King Lear, ii. 4. 123. ME. _cokenay_, an effeminate person (Chaucer, C.

T. A. 4208); _coknay_, ‘delicius’ (Prompt.).

=cockqueene;= the same as =cuckquean.=

=cockshut time,= twilight. Richard III, v. 3. 70. The twilight, or dim

light in which woodcocks could most easily be caught in _cockshuts_. A

_cockshut_, or _cockshoot_, was a broadway or glade in a wood, through

which woodcocks might dart or _shoot_, and in which they might be caught

with nets; see EDD. ‘A fine _cock-shoot_ evening’, Middleton, The Widow,

iii. 1. 6; cp. Arden of Feversham, iii. 2. 47.

=cocksure,= absolutely secure. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Court, 279;

Conflict of Conscience, iii. 3. 1 (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 67); with

absolute security, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 94.

=cocoloch;= see =cockloche.=

=cocted,= boiled. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 15. L. _coctus_, pp.

of _coquere_, to cook.

=cod,= a bag, Lyly, Mydas, iv. 2 (Corin); a civet-bag, musk-bag, B.

Jonson, Epigrams, xix; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Livia). OE.

_codd_, a bag.

=coddle,= to parboil, to stew; ‘To codle, _coctillo_’, Coles, Dict.

1679; ‘I’ll have you coddled’ (alluding to ‘Prince Pippin’), Beaumont

and Fl., Philaster, v. 4. 31. See Dict. In prov. use in various parts of

England, see EDD. (s.v. Coddle, vb.^{3} 1).

=codes!, coads-nigs!, cuds me!,= ejaculations of surprise, no doubt

orig. profane. _Codes! Codes!_, Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, i. 2

(Diagoras). _Coads-nigs!,_ Middleton, Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (Freedom);

_Cuds me_, ib. (Lucre).

=cod’s-head,= a stupid fellow, a blockhead. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II,

v. 2 (Cat. Bountinall). In prov. use in Derbysh. (EDD.).

=coffin,= pie-crust, raised crust of a pie. B. Jonson, Staple of News,

ii. 1 (Pennyboy sen.); Titus And. v. 2. 189. So in prov. use in

Lincolnsh. and Hertfordsh., see EDD. (s.v. Coffin, 5).

=coft=(=e,= _pp._ bought. Mirror for Magistrates, Clarence, st. 49;

Dalrymple, Leslie’s Hist. Scotland (NED.). M. Dutch _coft_(_e_, pret.,

and _gecoft_ (mod. _gecocht_), pp. of _copen_, to buy (Verdam); cp. G.

_kaufen_.

=cog,= to cheat, deceive, Much Ado, v. 1. 95; to employ feigned

flattery, to fawn. Merry Wives, iii. 3. 76; Richard III, i. 3. 48. Still

in use in Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Cog, vb.^{4} 2).

=cogge,= a kind of ship; chiefly, a ship for transport. Morte Arthur,

leaf 82, back, 30; bk. v, c. 3; _cogg_, a cock-boat, Fairfax, tr. of

Tasso, xiv. 58. OF. _cogue_ (Godefroy).

=coggle,= _to coggle in_, to flatter continually. Jacob and Esau, ii. 3

(Mido). See =cog.=

=cohobation,= a process in alchemy; a repeated distillation. B. Jonson,

Alchem. ii. 1 (Face). See NED.

=coil, coyle,= to beat, thrash; ‘I shall coil them’, Jacob and Esau, v.

4 (near the end); Roister Doister, iii. 3, l. 7 from end; ‘I coyle ones

kote, I beate hym, _je bastonne_,’ Palsgrave. Hence _coiling_, a

beating, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 15. ‘Coil’ has still this

meaning in Northumberland, see EDD. (s.v. Coil, vb.^{3}).

=Cointree,= Coventry. _Cointree blue_, Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. 4;

Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 63.

†=coistered;= ‘There were those at that time who, to try the strength of

a man’s back and his arm, would be coister’d’, Marston, Malcontent, v.

1. 10. Meaning unknown.

=coistril,= used as a term of contempt, a low varlet; spelt _coystrill_

Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 43; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2. 137

(Downright). Cp. _coistrel_, in use in the north country in the sense of

a raw, inexperienced lad (EDD.); ‘A coistrel, _adolescentulus_’, Coles

Dict. 1679.

=cokes,= a simpleton, dupe. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous);

Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Pug); spelt _cox_, Beaumont and Fl., Wit at sev.

Weapons, iii. 1 (Oldcraft).

=cokes,= to coax. Puttenham, E. Poesie, bk. i, c. 8; p. 36.

=colberteen,= a kind of open lace, like network. Congreve, Way of the

World, v. 1 (Lady Wishfort); Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa, 418. Named from

‘Colbert, Superintendent of the French King’s Manufactures’ (Fop’s Dict.

1690). See NED.

=colcarrier, colecarier,= a coal-carrier, a low dependant, cringing

sycophant; lit. one who will carry coals for another. Golding, tr. of

Ovid, The Epistle, p. 2, l. 86. See =coals.=

=Cold-harbour, Cole-arbour,= an old building in Dowgate Ward. Westward

Ho, iv. 2 (Justinians); B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, ii. 3 (Morose);

Middleton, A Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (Lucre). For an account of the great

house called Cold Harbrough, see Stow’s Survey, Dowgate Ward (ed. Thoms,

88. 89).

=cole, coal,= money. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1

(Shamwell). _To post the cole_, to pay the money. See NED. (s.v. Cole,

sb.^{3}).

=coleharth,= a coal-hearth, or place where a fire has been made; ‘An

Harte passeth by some _coleharthes_ . . . the hote sent of the fire

smoothreth the houndes’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 40; pp. 114-15.

=coleprophet;= see =col-prophet.=

=coles:= in phr. _precious coles_, a kind of minced oath. Gascoigne,

Steel Glas (ed. Arber, 80); Return from Parnassus (ed. Arber, 50). See

NED. (s.v. Precious).

=colestaff;= see =cowl-staff.=

=colice,= a strong broth, a ‘cullis’. Lyly, Campaspe, iii. 5 (Apelles).

F. ‘_coulis_, a cullis or broth of boyled meat strained’ (Cotgr.).

=coll,= to embrace. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate); Spenser, F. Q.

iii. 2. 34; an embrace, Middleton, The Witch, i. 2. Still in use in

Dorset and Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Coll, vb.^{1}). OF. _coler_ (La

Curne), deriv. of _col_ (F. _cou_), neck.

=colle-pixie,= a goblin, mischievous sprite. Udall, tr. of Apoph.,

Diogenes, § 99. For _colt-pixy_, a sprite in the form of a colt, which

neighs and misleads horses in bogs, a word known in Hants. and Dorset,

the Dorset form is _cole-pexy_, see EDD. (s.v. Colt-pixy).

=collet,= the part of a ring in which the stone is set. C. Tourneur,

Revengers’ Tragedy, i. 1 (Duchess); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 18. Cp. F.

_collet_, a collar (Cotgr.).

=collocavit,= used grotesquely to denote some kitchen utensil. Udall,

Roister Doister, iv. 7 (Merygreek). There seems to be an allusion to

=collock,= q.v.

=collock,= a large pail; ‘Collock, an old word for a Pail’, Phillips,

Coles, 1677. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. _colok_, ‘canterus’ (Voc.

771. 30).

=collogue,= to deal flatteringly with any one; ‘_Trainer sa parole_, to

collogue, to flatter, fawn on’, Cotgrave; to feign agreement, Marston

and Webster, Malcontent, v. 2; to have a private understanding with,

‘They collogued together’, Wood, Life (ed. 1772, p. 172). In prov. use

in many parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland in three senses: (1) to

talk confidentially, (2) to flatter, to wheedle, (3) to plot together

for mischief (EDD.). Cp. L. _colloq-_ in _colloquium_, with change to

_collogue_ under the influence of _dialogue_, _duologue_, &c.

=collow,= to make black or dirty with coal-dust or soot; Middleton,

Family of Love, iii. 3. 2; ‘_Poisler_, to collow, smut, begryme’,

Cotgrave; ‘I colowe, I make blake with a cole’, Palsgrave. A Cheshire

word, see EDD. (s.v. Colley, vb. 6). ME. _colwen_, cp. _colwyd_,

‘carbonatus’ (Prompt. EETS. 91). Cp. =colly.=

=colly,= to blacken. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 3; Mids. Night’s D. i. 1.

145; ‘to colly, _denigro_’, Coles, Dict. 1679. In prov. use in various

parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Colley, vb. 6). See =collow.=

=colon,= the largest human intestine. _To satisfy colon_, to satisfy

one’s hunger, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1 (Belgarde); _to pacify

colon_, id., Picture, ii. 1 (Hilario).

=colour,= a pretence, appearance of right. Two Gent. iv. 2. 3; Wint.

Tale, iv. 4. 566; _colours_, ensigns, standards, 1 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 31;

_to fear no colours_, to fear no flags, no enemy, Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 6.

=colour de roy,= bright tawny. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Balurdo).

F. ‘_couleur de roy_, was in old time, Purple; but now is the bright

Tawny, which we also tearm Colour de Roy’ (Cotgr.).

=colpheg,= to buffet or cuff, Edwards, Damon and Pithias, Anc. Eng.

Drama, i. 85, col. 1; in Dodsley (ed. 1780, i. 209). See NED. (s.v.

Colaphize).

=colprophet,= a sorcerer, fortune-teller. Mirror for Magistrates,

Glendour, st. 31 and st. 34; spelt _coleprophet_, J. Heywood, Prov. and

Epigr. (ed. 1867, p. 17).

=colstaff, colestaff;= see =cowl-staff.=

=colt,= to befool, to ‘take in’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 39; Beaumont and Fl.,

Wit without Money, iii. 2. From _colt_ (a young horse), used humorously

for a young or inexperienced person, one easily taken in. Cp. the prov.

use of ‘to colt’, meaning to make a newcomer pay his footing, see EDD.

(s.v. Colt, vb.^{1} 12).

=comand,= coming. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.). A northern form.

=come off,= to pay money, pay a debt. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (1

Court.); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (end); Merry Wives, iv. 3. 12.

=com’esta,= how is it? how goes it with you? Massinger, Virgin Martyr,

ii. 3 (Spungius). Span. _cómo está?_, how is it?

=commandador,= a lieutenant; compared to a common sergeant. B. Jonson,

Volpone, iv. 1 (Sir Pol.). Span. _comendador_, ‘a commander, lieutenant’

(Minsheu). The Span. vb. _comendar_ orig. meant ‘to commend’.

=commandments, ten,= ten fingers, or two fists; jocularly. 2 Hen. VI, i.

3. 145; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 63. [‘Be busy with the ten

commandments’, Longfellow, Span. Student, iii. 2 (Cruzado).] Cp. Span.

_los diez mandamiéntos_, the ten commandments; ironically, the ten

fingers (Stevens).

=commedle,= to commix, mingle. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed.

Dyce, p. 25.

=commence,= to take the full degree of Master or Doctor in any faculty

at a University; _to commence doctor_, to take a doctor’s degree,

Massinger, Emp. of the East, ii. 1 (Chrysapius); Duke of Milan, iv. 1

(Graccho).

=commencement,= the great public ceremony, esp. at Cambridge, when

degrees are conferred at the end of the academical year. Brewer, Lingua,

iv. 2 (Common Sense); ‘In Oxford this solemnitie is called an Act, but

in Cambridge they use the French word Commensement’, Harrison, Descr.

England, bk. ii, ch. 3 (ed. Furnivall, 75).

=commodity,= wares, merchandise; esp. a parcel of goods sold on credit

by a usurer to a needy person, who immediately raised some cash by

reselling them at a lower price, often to the usurer himself; ‘He’s in

for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger’, Measure for M. iv. 3. 5;

advantage, profit, ‘I will turn diseases to commodity’, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2

(end); Bacon, Essay 41, § 1.

=communicate,= to share in, partake of; ‘Thousands that communicate our

loss’, B. Jonson, Sejanus, iii. 1 (Tib.).

=communication,= conversation, talk. BIBLE, Luke xxiv. 17; Eph. iv. 29;

this rendering of the Gk. λόγος is due to Tyndal, ‘communicacion’;

‘(Cardinal Morton), gentill in communication’, More, Utopia (ed. Arber,

36).

=companiable,= sociable, companionable. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p.

217. ME. _companyable_, ‘socialis’ (Prompt.). A deriv. of OF. _compain_,

orig. nom. of _compagnon_; Anglo-F. _cumpainz_ (Ch. Rol. 285).

=companion,= used as term of contempt, a fellow. Com. of Errors, iv. 4.

64; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 102. Cp. the use of _kumpân_ (OF. _compain_) in

the MLG. poem Reinke de Vos, 1984 (ed. Bartsch, p. 293).

=compass,= to obtain, win (an object). Two Gent. ii. 4. 214; Pericles,

i. 2. 24; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 28.

=compass,= range, arc described by an arrow. Ford, Witch of Edmonton,

ii. 2 (Somerton); Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 145).

=complement,= that which goes to ‘complete’ the character of a gentleman

in regard to external appearance or demeanour. Hen. V, ii. 2. 134; B.

Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1 (Carlo).

=complimentary,= a master of defence, who published works upon the

compliments and ceremonies of duelling. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v.

2 (Crites).

=compromit,= to submit, esp. to submit to a compromise. Sir T. Elyot,

Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § 2. F. _compromettre_, to put unto compromise

(Cotgr.).

=compter,= a ‘counter’, for children to play with. Conflict of

Conscience, iv. 5 (Conscience); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 108.

=comptible,= liable to give an ‘account’ of, sensitive to. Twelfth Nt.

i. 5. 186.

=comrogue,= a fellow-rogue. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 1. 10; B. Jonson,

Masque of Augurs (Groom). A jocular word; for _comrade_. Also

_comrague_, Webster, Appius, iv. 2 (1 Soldier); Heywood and Brome,

Lancashire Witches, 1634 (sig. K., Dyce).

=con:= phr. _to con thanks_, to acknowledge thanks, to be grateful.

All’s Well, iv. 3. 174; Timon, iv. 3. 428. See NED. (s.v. Con, vb.^{1}

4).

=con.,= short for _contra_, against; ‘Now for the con’, Beaumont and

Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 2 (Lapet). Cp. the phrase _pro_ and _con_.

=concavite,= concave or hollow sphere of the sky; ‘Where is become that

azure _concavite_?’ (riming with _infinite_), Mirror for Mag., Robert of

Normandy, st. 113.

=conceit,= what is conceived in the mind, conception, idea. Othello,

iii. 3. 115; Merch. Venice, iii. 4. 2; faculty of conceiving, mental

capacity, As You Like It, v. 2. 60; imagination, fancy, 2 Hen. IV, ii.

4. 263; used of articles of fanciful design, Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 33.

=conceited,= full of imagination or fancy; ‘The conceited painter’,

Lucrece, 1371; disposed to playful fancy, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii.

3 (Ariosto); B. Jonson, Every Man in Humour, iii. 2. 29; curiously

designed, Chapman, Homer, Iliad ix, 85; _conceitedly_, ingeniously,

Middleton, Mayor of Queenboro’, iii. 3 (Vortigern).

=conceive,= to understand, to take the meaning of (a person); ‘Nay,

conceive me, conceive me, sweet Coz’, Merry Wives, i. 1. 250; Spenser,

State Ireland (Works, Globe ed. 666).

=concent,= harmony, concord. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 5; (_consent_),

Hen. V, i. 2. 181. L. _concentus_, a singing together.

=concinnitie,= harmony, congruity, propriety. Sir T. Elyot, Governour,

bk. i, c. 20, § last but one. L. _concinnitas_.

=conclusions, to try,= to try experiments, or an experiment. Hamlet,

iii. 4. 195; Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 1 (near end).

=concrew,= to grow together. Only in Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 40. Cp. F.

_concrû_, pp. of _concroítre_.

=cond,= taught. Only in Drayton, Pol. xii. 206. See NED. (s.v. Con,

vb.^{1} 5).

=condiscend,= for _condescent_, acquiescence, agreement, consent; lit.

condescension. Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 14. 17.

=condition,= provision, stipulation; = on condition that, Tr. and Cr. i.

2. 78; Massinger, Old Law, ii. 1 (Simonides); Shirley, Young Admiral,

iii. 2 (Fabio); mental disposition, temper, character, Merch. Ven. i. 2.

143; Hen. V, v. 1. 83.

=condog,= to concur, ‘_Concurre_? _condogge_?’, Lyly, Gallathea, i. 1

(Raffe); ‘To agree, _concurre_, _cohere_, _condog_’; Cockeram’s Dict.

(1642), second part. A whimsical alteration of _concur_, made by

substituting _dog_ for _cur_. The usual tale about this word is wholly

without foundation; see NED.

=conduct,= conductor. Richard II, iv. 157; Romeo, iii. 1. 129; v. 3.

116.

=conduction,= guidance, leadership. North, tr. of Plutarch, Coriolanus,

§ 21 (in Shak. Plut., p. 40, n. 7); Robinson, tr. of Utopia, bk. ii; ed.

Arber, p. 138. L. _conductio_; from _conducere_, to conduct.

=coney,= a rabbit. In compounds: _Cony-burrow_, a rabbit-warren, Dekker,

Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Orlando), spelt _coney borough_, B. Jonson,

Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Medlay); _coney-catch_, to cheat, dupe, Merry

Wives, i. 1. 128; Humour out of Breath, iv. 3 (Hortensio);

_conie-catcher_, a cheat, Sir Thos. More, i. 4. 205; _coney-garth_, a

rabbit-warren, Palsgrave; spelt _cony gat_, Peele, Works (ed. Dyce, p.

579); _conyger_, Horman, Vulgaria (NED.); _conygree_, Turbervile,

Venerie, 184. For etymology of these ‘coney’ words see NED.

=confine,= to send beyond the confines, to banish. Webster, Appius, v. 3

(Virginius). Dyce gives five more examples, all from Heywood. And see

Dyce’s Webster, p. 375.

=confins,= inhabitants of adjacent regions. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk.

i, c. 20, § 12. L. _confines_, pl., neighbours.

=confluent,= affluent, abounding in. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad ix,

157. In this sense found only here.

=congee,= a bow; orig. at taking one’s leave. Dryden, Prol. to The Loyal

Brother, 25; Marlowe, Edward II, v. 4; to take ceremonious leave, ‘I

have congied with the Duke’, All’s Well, iv. 3. 103. OF. _congie_, leave

of absence, dismission. See Dict.

=conglobate,= gathered as into a globe, compressed. Dryden, Death of

Lord Hastings, 35.

=congrue,= fitting, suitable; ‘Congrue Latine’, Latin that can be

parsed, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 15, § 1. F. _congru_

(Littré); L. _congruus_, agreeing, suitable.

=congrue,= to agree, accord. Hen. V, i. 2. 182 (Qu.); Hamlet, iv. 3. 66

(Qq.). L. _congruere_.

=conjure,= to call upon solemnly, to adjure. Two Gent. ii. 7. 2; Hamlet,

iv. 3. 67; to influence by incantation, or the adjuring of spirits,

Timon, i. 1. 7; to swear together, to conspire, Milton, P. L. ii. 693;

Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 26.

=consilliadory,= pl. councillors. City Nightcap, i. 1 (Abstemia); iii. 1

(Lorenzo). Ital. _consigliatori_, pl.; from _consiglio_, council.

=consort,= a ‘concert’ of musical instruments. Webster, Devil’s

Law-case, 1. 23 from the end; Northward Ho, ii. 1; Beaumont and Fl.,

King and No King, v. 2 (Lygones).

=conster,= to construe; a common spelling in old editions of

Shakespeare, &c.

=consumedly,= excessively; ‘I believe they talked of me; for they

laughed consumedly’, Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem, iii. 1 (Scrub);

consumedly in love’, id., iii. 2 (Scrub).

=conteck,= strife, discord. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 64; Shep. Kal., May,

163; Sept., 86. ME. _contek_, strife (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2003, B. 4122).

Anglo-F. _contec_, ‘débat, querelle’ (Moisy); contention (Gower, Mirour,

4647). See Dict. M. and S.

=continent,= one of the concentric ‘spheres’ in the Ptolemaic system of

astronomy; each hollow crystal sphere carried with it one of the seven

planets that revolved round the earth, each planet being attached to the

concave surface of its own sphere. ‘As true . . . as doth that orbed

continent [that spherical solar shell retain] the fire That severs day

from night’ [i.e. the sun], Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 278; ‘Nor doth the moon no

nourishment exhale From her moist continent to higher orbs’ (i.e. from

her own sphere to the spheres beyond), Milton, P. L. v. 422; ‘All

subject under Luna’s continent’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 2 (1148);

scene 9. 62 (W.); p. 167, col. 2 (D); ‘Luna, . . . trembling upon her

concave continent’, iv. 1 (1543); scene 11. 15 (W.); p. 172, col. 1

(D.). Cp. ‘Judging the concave circle of the sun To hold the rest in his

circumference’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1122); scene 9. 36 (W.); p.

167, col. 1 (D.).

=contrive,= to wear out, to spend; ‘Three ages, such as mortall men

contrive’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 48; Tam. Shrew, i. 2. L. _contrivi_,

pt. t. of _conterere_, to wear away; cp. ‘totum hunc contrivi diem’,

Terence, Hec. 5. 3. 17. Not the same word as mod. E. _contrive_. See

Nares.

=conundrum,= a whim, crotchet, conceit. B. Jonson, The Fox, v. 7

(Volpone).

=convent,= to convene, summon together, summon. Coriolanus, ii. 2. 59;

Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 17.

=convert,= to cause to return, to bring back; ‘Or if I stray he doth

convert, And bring my minde in frame’, Herbert, Temple, Ps. xxiii; to

turn aside from (intrans.), ‘When thou from youth convertest’, Sh. Sonn.

xi.

=convertite,= a professed convert to a religious faith, Marlowe, Jew of

Malta, i. 2 (Barabas); a person converted to a better course of action,

King John, v. 1. 19.

=convey,= a cant term for to steal. Merry Wives, i. 3. 52; Richard II,

v. 317. Hence _conveyance_, trickery, artifice, 3 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 160.

=convince,= to overcome, overpower; ‘I will with wine and wassal so

convince’, Macbeth, i. 7. 64; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 21; to prove a

person to be guilty, ‘Which of you convinceth mee of sinne?’ BIBLE, John

viii. 46; Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 129; Webster, Appius and Virg. v. 3; Mirror

for Mag., Glocester. st. 43; to refute in argument, ‘It sufficeth to

convince atheism, but not to inform religion’, Bacon, Adv. Learning, ii.

681.

=convive,= one who feasts with others, a table-companion. Beaumont,

Psyche, x. 211; to feast together, Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 272. F. _convive_,

a guest; L. _conviva_, one who lives or feasts with others.

=cony;= see =coney.=

=cooling card,= a winning card in a card-game, that dashes the hopes of

the adversary. 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 84; Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends,

ii. 2 (Flavia).

=copartiment,= a compartment, panel. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2

(last line). Ital. _compartimento_, a partition.

=copatain hat,= a high-crowned hat (?). Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 69; ‘A

copetain hatte made on a Flemmishe blocke’, Gascoigne, Works, i. 375.

Prob. the same as _copintank_, _copentank_, a high-crowned hat in the

form of a sugar-loaf; ‘A high cop-tank hat,’ North, tr. of Plutarch, M.

Antonius, § 30. See NED. (s.v. Copintank).

=cope,= a purchase, bargain. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 3 (351); scene 3. 5

(W.); p. 157, col. 1 (D.). Cp. ‘cope’, a prov. word meaning to exchange,

barter, heard in the north country and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Cope,

vb.^{2} 1). Dutch _koop_, a sale, a buying. See Dict. (s.v. Cope, 3).

=copel,= a small pot made of bone-ash, used for melting gold or silver.

Sir T. Browne, Urn-burial, ch. iii, § 18. Spelt _coppell_, Bacon, Sylva,

§ 799. F. _coupelle_, ‘a Coppell, the little Ashen pot or vessel wherein

Goldsmiths melt or fine their Metals’ (Cotgr.); see Estienne,

Précellence, 142 (Lexique-Index, 400). _Coupelle_ is a deriv. of

_coupe_, a cup. Med. L. _cuppa_ (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. Cupel).

=copeman,= a chapman. B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 5 (Vol.). See =cope.=

=copemate, copesmate,= a person with whom one ‘copes’ or contends, an

adversary. Golding, Metam. xii (ed. 1593, 279); Chapman, All Fools, ii

(Valerio); a companion, comrade, Greene, Upstart Courtier (ed. 1871, 4),

used _fig._ Lucrece, 925; _female copesmate_, mistress, paramour, B.

Jonson, Every Man, iv. 10 (Knowell).

=coppe,= the top, summit. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 202. 18; lf. 232,

back, 26. Hence _copped_, peaked, Pericles, i. 1. 101; ‘High-copt hats’,

Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1163. ME. cop: ‘the cop of the hill’ (Wyclif,

Luke iv. 29). OE _copp_.

=copy,= abundance, copiousness. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 1

Carlo); Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Placentia). L. _copia_.

=copy,= copyhold, tenure of land ‘by copy’, i.e. according to the ‘copy’

of the manorial court-roll, used _fig._ Macbeth, iii. 2. 38.

=coracine,= a kind of fish like a perch, found in the Nile. Middleton,

Game at Chess, v. 3. 10. L. _coracinus_, Gk. κορακῖνος, from κόραξ, a

raven, from its black colour.

=corant;= see =courant.=

=coranto,= a quick dance. Hen. V, iii. 5. 33; Shirley, Lady of Pleasure,

iii. 2 (Kickshaw). Ital. _coranto_, ‘a kinde of French dance’ (Florio);

cp. F. _courante_, ‘a curranto’ (Cotgr.). See =courant.=

=corasive,= a sharp remedy, severe reproach. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber,

p. 154). See =corsive.=

=corbe,= short for =corbel.= Only in Spenser, F. Q. iv. 10. 6.

=corbe, courbe,= bent, crooked. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 56. ME.

_courbe_ (Gower, C. A. i. 1687). F. _courbe_, L. _curvus_.

=corbed up,= (prob.) controlled, as by a curb, curbed. Marston, Antonio,

Pt. II, ii. 1 (Pandulfo).

=cordwain,= Spanish leather, orig. made at Cordova. Spenser, F. Q. vi.

2. 6; Drayton, Eclogues, iv. 177. Spelt _cordevan_, Fletcher, Faith.

Shepherdess, i. 1. 21. Span. _cordován_, Spanish leather (Stevens).

=coresie,= vexation, a corroding, gnawing annoyance. Tusser, Husbandry,

§ 19. 24. In prov. use in Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Corrosy). F.

_corrosif_ (Cotgr.); for the change of suffix, cp. _hasty_, the E.

representative of F. _hastif_. See =corsive.=

=corned,= horned, peaked, pointed; said of shoes. Skelton, Maner of the

World, 26; Greene, Description of Chaucer, 13; ed. Dyce, p. 320. Cp. F.

_corné_, horned (Cotgr.).

=cornel,= a little grain, granule; ‘Bread is of many _cornels_

compounded’, Conflict of Conscience, iv. 1 (Philologus); in Hazlitt’s

Dodsley, vi. 83.

=cornel,= a javelin made of cornel-wood. Used to translate L. _cornus_,

Dryden, tr. Aeneid, xii. 406.

=cornelian,= the fruit of the cornel-tree. Bacon, Essay 46, § 1.

=cornes,= pl. kinds of corn; corn. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 8, back, 4;

lf. 88. 14.

=cornet,= a troop of horse; so called from its standard, which was a

long horn-shapen pennon. 1 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 25; Kyd, Span. Tragedy, i. 2.

41. F. _cornette_, ‘a Cornet of Horse; the Ensign of a horse-company’

(Cotgr.).

=cornet,= a head-dress formerly worn by ladies; ‘Her cornet blacke’,

Surrey, Complaint that his Ladie kept her face hidden, 2; in Tottel’s

Misc., p. 12. F. _cornette_, a horned head-dress; dim. of _corne_, a

horn.

=cornet,= some kind of ornament (?); ‘With cornets at their footmen’s

breeches’, Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 872.

=cornuto,= a cuckold. Merry Wives, iii. 5. 71. Ital. _cornuto_, a

cuckold; lit. ‘furnished with horns’ (Florio).

=coronal,= a wreath of flowers, a garland. Fletcher, Faith. Shepherdess,

i. 1. 11; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 53.

=coronel,= a ‘colonel’. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 656, l.

9; _lieutenant-coronel_, B. Jonson, Every Man, iii. 5 (Knowell). Span.

_coronel_, Ital. _colonello_, ‘a Colonel of a Regiment’ (Florio); a

deriv. of _colonna_, cp. F. _colonne_ de troupes, a column, a formation

of troops narrow laterally and deep from front to rear; see Hatzfeld.

=correption,= reproof, rebuke. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 30:

Augustus, § 12. L. _correptio_; deriv. of _corripere_, to reprove.

=corrigidor, corregidor,= a Spanish magistrate. Machin, Dumb Knight, v.

1 (Cyprus); Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 13. 58. See Stanford.

=corrol,= to crimson, to make like ‘coral’; ‘The . . . sunne _corrols_

his cheeke’, Herrick, A Nuptial Verse to Mistress E. Lee, 4.

=corser,= a dealer, esp. a horse-dealer. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 119.

15; spelt _courser_, Beaumont and Fl., The Captain, v. 1 (Father). ME.

_corser_, Wyclif, Works (ed. 1880, p. 172); _corsowre of horse_, ‘mange’

(Prompt. 94), Anglo-F. _cossour_, A.D. 1310, see Riley’s Memorials of

London, Pref., p. xxii, Med. L. _cociatorem_, a broker, factor, dealer,

cp. _cocio_ (Ducange). The Ital. _cozzone_, a horse-courser (Florio), is

from _coctionem_, a later form of _cocionem_, see Diez, 112.

=corsive,= for _corrosive_; anything that corrodes, grief, distress. B.

Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1. 7; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 14;

Drayton, Barons’ Wars, iv. 14. See =coresie.=

=cortine,= a curtain (military term); a plain wall in a fortification;

the wall between two bastions, &c. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P.

Can.). F. _courtine_ (_cortine_), a curtain; and (in fortification) the

plainness of the wall between bulwark and bulwark (Cotgr.); in the same

sense Ital. _cortina_ (Florio).

=coscinomancy,= divination by means of a sieve. From Gk. κόσκινον, a

sieve; and suffix _-mancy_, as in _necro-mancy_, &c. Hence the compound

_necro-puro-geo-hydro-cheiro-coscino-mancy_. Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 3

(Alb.), where _puro-_ should be _pyro-_. Sometimes the sieve was

suspended by a thread; otherwise, it was used in conjunction with a pair

of shears, as described in Brand, Popular Antiq. iii. 351; cp. Butler,

Hudibras, ii, 3. 569.

=coshering,= the right claimed by Irish chiefs of quartering themselves

upon their dependants. Davies, Why Ireland (ed. 1747, 169); feasting,

Shirley, St. Patrick, v. 1 (2 Soldier); also, _coshery_, feasting,

Stanyhurst tr. Virgil, Aeneid i, 707. Spenser in his State of Ireland

mentions _cosshirh_ as one of the customary services claimed by the

Irish Lord (ed. Morris. 623). Ir. _cóisir_, feasting, entertainment

(Dinneen). ‘In modern times coshering means simply a friendly visit to a

neighbour’s house to have a quiet talk’, Joyce, English as we speak it

in Ireland, 240.

=cosier;= see =cozier.=

=cosset,= a pet lamb. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 42; also _fig._ B.

Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Mrs. Litt.). In prov. use in Glouc., E.

Anglia, and Kent, meaning a lamb or colt brought up by hand, also, an

indulged child, a pet animal (EDD.).

=cost,= the rib of a ship. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Cymbal).

L. _costa_ (navium) (Pliny).

=cost;= see =coast.=

=costard,= the head. Applied jocularly to the head, as being like a very

large apple. ME. _costard_, an apple; lit. a ‘ribbed’ apple; from OF.

_coste_, L. _costa_, a rib. Hence _costard-monger_ or _coster-monger_,

orig. a seller of apples. See EDD.

=coste,= to move beside; to keep up with a hunted animal. Morte Arthur,

leaf 382, back, 19; bk. xviii, c. 19. See =coast.=

=cot, cott,= a little boat. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 9. Many places in

Ireland derive their names from this ‘cot’; see Joyce. Irish Names of

Places, i. 226. Still in use in the north of Ireland, see EDD. (s.v.

Cot, sb.^{4}). Irish _coit_, _coite_, a small boat, a skiff (Dinneen),

Gael. _coit_, a kind of canoe used on rivers (Macleod).

=cote, coat= (in coursing), of one of two dogs running together: to pass

by its fellow so as to give the hare a turn (NED.); _fig._ to pass by,

to outstrip. Hamlet, ii. 2. 330; L. L. L. iv. 3. 87; Chapman, Iliad,

xxiii. 324; _coat_, the action of coting, Drayton, Pol. xxiii (ed. 1748,

p. 356).

=cote,= to quote. Udall, Paraph. N.T., Pref. (NED.); Middleton, A Mad

World, i.2 (Cour.).

=cothurnal,= tragic; ‘Cothurnal buskins’, B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1

(Tucca). L. _cothurnus_; Gk. κόθορνος, a high boot. The _cothurnus_ was

worn by actors of tragedy.

=cot-quean,= the housewife of a labourer’s hut. Nashe, Almond for

Parrat, 5; a coarse, vulgar, scolding woman, B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 3

(Jupiter addressing Juno); used contemptuously of a man who acts the

housewife, and busies himself unduly in household matters, Romeo, iv. 4.

9; Addison, Spect. (1712) No. 482; spelt _quot-quean_, Beaumont and Fl.,

Love’s Cure, ii. 2. 6; _to play the cotqueane_, Heywood, Gunaik. iv. 180

(NED.). Cp. use of _cot_ and _molly-cot_ in Cheshire and Yorkshire, see

EDD. (s.v. Cot, sb.^{1} 1).

=Cotswold,= pronounced _Cotsal_ in Shaks., Fol. 1, Merry Wives, i. 1.

93; _a Cotsal man_, an athletic man, such as lived in the Cotswold

Hills, a district famous for athletic sports, 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 23; _a

Cotsold lion_, a humorous expression for a sheep of that country, Udall,

Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 70), iv. 6 (Merygreek). ‘As fierce as a lion

of Cotswold, i.e. a sheep’, Fuller’s Worthies (Bohn’s Proverbs, 204).

=cotton:= in phr. _this geer_ (or _gear_) _will cotton_, this stuff will

come to a good nap, this thing will succeed. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv.

8 (Thomas); Middleton, Inner Temple Masque (Second Antimasque).

=couch,= to place, arrange, order. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c.

7, § 6; to cause to cower, Lucrece, 507; to place a lance in rest, 1

Hen. VI, iii. 2. 134.

=couch:= in phr. _to couch a hogshead_, to lie down and sleep. (Cant.)

Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Harman, Caveat, p. 84.

=couchee,= an evening court-reception. Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 516;

‘The King’s Couchée’, Etherege, Man of Mode, iv. 1; the equivalent of

_Le Coucher du Roi_, or simply _Le Coucher_, the reception which

preceded the king’s going to bed. Cp. Dict. Acad. Fr. 1786 (s.v.

Coucher, s.m.), ‘Il se trouve au lever et au coucher du Roi.’ For the E.

form of the word compare our _levee_ for F. _lever_, ‘réception dans la

chambre d’un roi au moment où il se lève’ (Hatzfeld).

=couch-quail, to play.= The same as _to couch as a quail_; to cower,

crouch down; see Thersytes, 20; Skelton, Speke Parrot, 420. Cp.

Chaucer’s ‘Thou shalt make him couche as dooth a quaille’ (C. T. E.

1206).

=coul,= to trim the feather of an arrow along the top. Ascham,

Toxophilus, pp. 128, 129, 131, 133. Cp. _cowl_, to gather, collect,

scrape together, a north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Cowl, vb.^{2} 1).

=could, coud, couth,= _pt. t._, knew, knew how to. Spenser, F. Q. v. 7.

5; Shep. Kal., Jan., 10. (Common). See =can.=

=couleuvre,= a snake. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 92. 21; spelt

_couleure_, id., lf. 91, back, 19. F. _couleuvre_.

=countant,= accountant; liable to be called upon to give account.

Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, i. 1 (Tarquin).

=countenance,= bearing, demeanour, behaviour; authority, favour, credit;

show of politeness. As You Like It, i. 1. 19; Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 234; 1

Hen. IV, i. 2. 33; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3 (end). The senses are

variable and elusive.

=counter,= an encounter. Spenser, Tears of the Muses, 207.

=counter,= a counter-tenor voice. Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (3 Clown).

See the context.

=counter, compter,= a prison, chiefly for debtors, attached to a city

court; ‘One o’ your city pounds, the counters’, B. Jonson, Every Man,

ii. 1 (Downright). The sheriffs of London had each his compter; one was

in the Poultry, the other in Wood Street, Cheapside. There were three

degrees of rooms for the prisoners: those on the Master’s side (the

best), the Twopenny Ward, and the Hole (for the poorest), Middleton,

Roaring Girl, iii. 3 (Sir Alexander). Those in the Hole were fed from

‘the basket’; see =basket.= Note that, according to Gascoigne, there

were _three_ Counters, the third being in Bread Street. ‘In Woodstreat,

Bredstreat, and in Pultery’, Steel Glas, 791. In Stow’s Survey of London

‘the Compter in the Poultrie’ is mentioned (ed. Thoms, p. 99), and ‘the

Compter in Bread Street’ (ib., p. 131).

=counterfeit,= a likeness, portrait, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 115; Timon, v.

1. 83. Phr. _a pair of counterfeits_, used in the sense of vamps, or

fore-parts of the upper leather of a shoe, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday,

iv. 2 (Firk).

=counterfesaunce,= counterfeiting, dissimulation. Spencer, F. Q. i. 8.

49; iv. 4. 27. OF. _contrefaisance_, counterfeiting (Godefroy).

=countermure,= to wall round, to fence in. Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 7.

16. F. _contremurer_, Ital. ‘_contramurare_, to countermure’ (Florio).

=counterpoint,= a counterpane for a bed. Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 353. F.

‘_contrepoinct_, a quilt, counterpoint’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v.

Counterpane).

=counterscarf,= a ‘counterscarp’, or outer wall or slope of the ditch,

which supports the covered way of a fort. Heywood, Four Prentises

(Godfrey); vol. ii, p. 242; id. London’s Mirror, fourth Show. F.

_contrescarpe_ (Rabelais), Ital. _contrascarpa_; see Estienne, Préc.

351; _scarpa_, slope of a wall.

=county,= a count, as a title, Romeo, i. 3. 105; Merch. Venice, i. 2.

48. (Frequent.)

=couped,= cut, cut clean off, with a smooth edge (in heraldry). Butler,

Hudibras, iii. 3. 214. F. _couper_, to cut.

=coupee,= a dance step; the dancer rests on one foot, and passes the

other forward or backward, with a sort of salutation. Wycherley, Gent.

Dancing-master, iii. 1; Steele, Tender Husband, iii. 1 (Mrs. Clerimont).

F. _coupé_, ‘mouvement par lequel on coupe un espace; (Danse) Pas

composé d’un plié avec changement de pied suivi d’un glissé’ (Hatzfeld).

=cour,= to cover; _Pt. t._, _courd_; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 9. See NED.

(s.v. Cover).

=courant,= a dance with a running or gliding step; a coranto. Etherege,

Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Steele, Tender Husband, i. 2 (Tipkin).

See =coranto.=

=courant, corant,= an express message; a newspaper. B. Jonson, Magn.

Lady, i. 1 (Sir Moth); Underwoods, lxi. 81. F. _courant_, running, a

runner; from _courir_, to run.

=coursing,= succession in due ‘course’. Only in the following passage:

‘My Ladye Mary and my Ladye Elizabeth . . . by succession and course are

inheritours to the crowne. Who yf they shulde mary with straungers, what

should ensue God knoweth. But God graunt they never come vnto _coursyng_

nor succedynge.’ Latimer, 1 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, p. 30).

=courteau;= see =curtal.=

=court holy-water,= a proverbial phrase for flattery, and fine words

without deeds; ‘Court holy-water in a dry house is better than this

rainwater out o’ door’, King Lear, iii. 2. 10; ‘Her unperformed promise

was the first court holy-water which she sprinkled amongst the people’,

Fuller, Ch. Hist. viii. 1. 6; ‘Court-holy-water, _Promissa rei expertia,

fumus aulicus_’, Coles, 1699; ‘_Eau beniste de cour_, court holy-water,

fair words, flattering speeches’, Cotgrave. See Nares.

Also, =court holy bread;= ‘He feeds thee with nothing but court

holy bread, good words’, Dekker and Webster, Westward Ho, ii. 3

(M. Honeysuckle).

=courtnoll, courtnold,= a contemptuous term for a courtier. Peele, Sir

Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 516; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 51 From

_court_, and _noll_, the head, hence, a person (_nowl_ in Shakespeare).

=court-passage,= a game at dice. Middleton, Women beware, ii. 2

(Guardiano). See =passage.=

=coustreling,= a lad, knave, groom. Only in Udall, Roister Doister, i. 4

(Merygreek). See =coistril.=

=covenable,= fit, suitable, becoming, of becoming appearance; ‘A sonne

called Philip, a right covenable and gracious man’, Berners, Froissart,

ccclxxix. 635; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 11, § 6. OF. and

Prov. _convenable_ (_cov-_). ME. _covenable_, fit, proper, suitable,

agreeable (Chaucer).

=covent,= a ‘convent’. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 849; Meas. for M. iv. 3.

133. ME. _covent_ (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1827). The old form remains in

‘Covent Garden’. Anglo-F. _cuvent_ (Rough List).

=cover:= phr. _be covered_, put on your hat. As You Like It, v. 1. 18;

Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Sir O. Twi.). (There are endless

compliments about wearing a hat in old plays.)

=covert:= phr. _under covert-baron_, in the condition of a woman who is

protected by her husband. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 2 (Miss N.);

_under covert-barn_, under protection, Phoenix, iii. 1 (Falso). Anglo-F.

_feme couverte baroun_, for _couverte de baroun_, a woman protected by

her husband (Rough List). See Cowell, Interp. (s.v. Coverture).

=covetise,= covetousness. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle); Kyd,

Cornelia, i. l. 26. ME. _covetyse_, ‘avaricia’ (Prompt.), Anglo-F.

_coveitise_, cp. Ital. _cupidigia_ (Dante).

=cowardry,= cowardice. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 511; _cowardree_,

Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 986.

=cowith,= the commonest form of Welsh bardic verse, Drayton, Pol. iv.

183 (notes 59 and 67). Wel. _cywydd_.

=cowl-staff, coul-staff, cole-staff,= a stout pole orig. used for

carrying a ‘cowl’ or tub, esp. a water-tub; ‘Cudgels, colestaves’,

Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 1 (Tranio); Merry Wives, iii. 3. 156; Select

Records Oxford, 92. _Cowl_, for a large tub or barrel, is in prov. use

in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Cowl, sb.^{2} 1 and 2). ME.

_cowle_ (Prompt., in Harl. MS.).

=cowshard,= a piece of cowdung. Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 19; ‘_Bouse

de vache_, the dung of a cow, a cow-shard’, Cotgrave. In use in Yorks.,

Lanc., Derby., and Wilts. (EDD.).

=coxcomb,= a fool’s cap; lit. _cock’s comb_. King Lear, i. 4. 105; also

jocularly, the head, ib. ii. 4. 125.

=coy,= to render quiet, appease. Palsgrave; to stroke soothingly, to

caress, Mids. Night’s D. iv. 1. 2; _to coy it_, to behave coyly, to

affect shyness, Massinger, New Way, iii. 2. OF. _coi_, still, quiet, O.

Prov. _quet_, ‘coi, tranquille’ (Levy), Romanic type _quetu-_, L.

_quiētum_. See =quoying.=

=coystrel.= In Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1119, a corrupt form of

‘kestrel’ (a base kind of hawk).

=coystril;= see =coistril.=

=cozier, cosier,= a cobbler. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 97; ‘A cosier or cobler,

_remendón_’, Minsheu, Span. Dict. 1599. OF. _cousere_, a seamster, one

who sews (Godefroy), _couseör_, acc., O. Prov. _cozedor_, ‘couturier’

(Levy); deriv. from _cosere_, to sew, Romanic type representing L.

_consuere_, to sew together; see Hatzfeld.

=craboun,= corrupt form of ‘carbine’. ‘Discharge thy craboun’, Return

from Parnassus, iv. 2 (Ingenioso).

=craccus,= a kind of tobacco. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1

(Trimtram); Beaumont and Fl., Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Livia); where ed.

1625 has _cracus_ (mod. ed. _crocus_). NED. suggests that the word means

tobacco of Caraccas, in Venezuela.

=crack,= a pert, forward boy. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, Induct. (3

Child); Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1 (Usher). Hence _your crackship_,

address to a page, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Hippolito).

_Crack-halter_, playfully ‘a rogue’, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 30;

Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 4 (Song). Also _crack-hempe_, Tam. Shrew, v.

1. 46; and _crack-rope_, ‘_Baboin_, a crack-rope, wag-halter, unhappie

rogue, retchlesse villaine’, Cotgrave; Edwards, Damon and Pithias, in

Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 88 (Hazlitt, iv. 68).

=crack,= to talk big, boast, brag. L. L. L. iv. 3. 268; spelt _crake_,

Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 50; Sir Thos. More, i. 2. 29. Hence _cracker_,

boaster, King John, ii. 1. 147. The vb. _crack_ in this sense is in

prov. use in Scotland and in England in the north country, Midlands, and

E. Anglia. ME. _crakyn_, to boast; ‘_crakere_, bost-maker’ (Prompt.

EETS. 393).

=crack,= to damage, impair. Phr. _cracked within the ring_, said of a

coin cracked at the rim; but constantly used with reference to impaired

virginity. Hamlet, ii. 2. 448; Beaumont and Fl., Captain, ii. 1

(Jacomo). The _ring_ was the inmost circle around the inscription; a

piece cracked _within_ that ring could be legally refused, and was no

longer current.

=crackmans,= a hedge. (Cant.) ‘At the crackmans’, beside the hedge, B.

Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman). See NED.

=crag,= the neck. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 82, Sept., 45. A

north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Crag, sb.^{3}).

=craggue,= a lean, scraggy person. Only in Udall, tr. of Apoph.,

Diogenes, § 150.

=crake;= see =crack.=

=crambe,= cabbage, in literary use only _fig._, and gen. in reference to

the L. phrase _crambe repetita_, cabbage served up again, applied by

Juvenal (Sat. vii. 154) to any tedious repetition. ‘Our Prayers . . .

the same Crambe of words’, Milton, Animadv. ii.; Sir T. Browne, Rel.

Medici, last §. Gk. κράμβη, a kind of cabbage.

=crambe, crambo,= a game in which one player gives a word or a line of a

poem to which each of the others has to find a rime; if any one repeated

a previous suggestion he had to pay a forfeit; ‘Crambe, another of the

Divells games’, B. Jonson, Devill an Ass, v. 5; ‘Playing at Crambo in

the waggon’, Pepys, Diary (May 20, 1660).

†=cramocke,= a crooked stick. Mirror for Mag., Madan, st. 6. Corrupt

form of =cammock.=

=cramp-ring,= a ring supposed to be a remedy against cramp, falling

sickness, and the like; esp. one of those which the Kings of England

used to hallow on Good Friday for this purpose. Boorde, Introd. (ed.

Furnivall, p. 121); Berners, Letter in Brand Pop. Antiq. (ed. 1813, l.

129); Middleton, Roaring Girl, iv. 2 (Mis. O.); Cartwright, The

Ordinary, iii. 1 (Moth).

=cramp-stone,= the stone in a ‘cramp-ring’. Massinger, The Picture, v.

1.

=cranewes,= pl., embrasures between battlements; crannies, apertures.

‘Cranewes of the walls of the city’; North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Brutus,

§ 23 (in Shak. Plut., p. 131); id., M. Antonius, § 42 (in Shak. Plut.,

p. 222). OF. _creneaux_, pl. of _crenel_, a battlement, an embrasure,

see Estienne, Préc. 358.

=Cranion,= a proper name given to a fly, the charioteer of Queen Mab;

‘Fly Cranion, her charioteer, Upon her coach-box getting’, Drayton,

Nymphidia, st. 17. _Sir Cranion-legs_, thin legs, like a fly or spider;

B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous).

=crank,= lively, brisk, merry; also as _adv._; ‘_Joyeux_, as crank as a

cock-sparrow’, Cotgrave; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 46; Middleton,

Trick to Catch the Old One, i. 3 (end); Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several

Weapons, iii. 1 (Gregory); Sea-Voyage, iv. 3. 2. _Crank_ is used in this

sense in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Crank, adj.^{2}).

_Crankly_, briskly, Peele, Tale of Troy (ed. Dyce, p. 552).

=crank,= a beggar who shams illness. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 4.

See Harman, Caveat, p. 51. Du. _krank_, ill, sick.

=crank,= to run in a winding course, to twist and turn about. Venus and

Ad. 682; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 98; a winding path, Coriolanus, i. 1. 143;

_cranks_, pl. bends, turnings, Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2. 28; Spenser, F.

Q. vii. 7. 52.

=crankle,= to twist and turn about. Drayton, Pol. vii. 198; xii. 572;

‘_Serpenter_, to wriggle, wagle, crankle’, Cotgrave. A Leicestersh.

word, see EDD. (s.v. Crankling).

†=crapish= (meaning unknown); ‘Scandalous and crapish’, Otway, Soldier’s

Fortune, i. 1 (3 W.). Only in this place.

=crash,= a merry bout, a revel. Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 2. 5. See

EDD. (s.v. Crash, sb.^{1} 4).

=cratch,= a crib, manger; ‘The Coffin of our Christmas Pies in shape

long is in imitation of the Cratch’, Selden, Table-talk (ed. Arber, 33);

‘Cratche for hors or oxen, _creche_’, Palsgrave; ‘_Presepio_, a cratch,

a rack, a manger, a crib or a critch’, Florio. In prov. use in various

parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Cratch sb.^{1} 1 and 2). ME. _cracche_

(_cratche_), so Wyclif, Is. i. 3, and Luke ii. 7. OF. _creche_, O. Prov.

_crepia_, _crepcha_ (Levy).

=cratch,= to scratch; ‘I cratche with my nayles’, Palsgrave. ME.

_cracche_, to scratch (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2834.).

=craze,= to break, crack, burst. Richard III, iv. 4. 17; ‘Craze bars’,

Heywood, The Fair Maid, iii. 4 (Bess); ‘God will craze their chariot

wheels’, Milton, P. L. xii. 210. Still in use in the west country in the

sense of to ‘crack’, said of glass, china, or church bells (EDD.).

=creak;= see =cry creak.=

=creancer, creauncer,= one to whom is entrusted the charge of another; a

guardian; a tutor. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 129, l. 102; id. Garl. of

Laurell, 1226. Deriv. of OF. _creance_, belief, trust, Med. L.

_credentia_, ‘fides data’ (Ducange).

=creeking;= see =kreking.=

=creeple,= a cripple. BIBLE, Acts xiv. 8 (1611). ME. _crepel_, _crepul_

(Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. 1458). OE. _crēopel_, a cripple (B. T., Suppl.

s.v. _crypel_).

=creme,= chrism, the sacred oil used for anointing kings at coronation;

‘A kynge enoynted with creme’, Morte Arthur, leaf 202. 36; bk. ix, c.

39. ME. _creme_, chrism, OF. _creme_, _cresme_ (mod. _chrême_). L.

_chrisma_, Gk. χρῖσμα, anointing oil.

=cres’,= a crest. Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 351.

A peculiar form, to rime with _grease_. See Dict. (s.v. Crease).

=crescive,= growing. Hen. V, i. 1. 66.

=crevis,= a crayfish. Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv.

118. ‘Crevisse’ is a north-country word (EDD.). OF. _crevice_,

_crevisse_, see Hatzfeld (s.v. Écrevisse).

=crib= (Cant); ‘To fill up the crib and to comfort the quarron’, Brome,

Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song). Meaning doubtful. Perhaps the same word as

_crib_, a manger; used _fig._ for the stomach as a place for provender.

=crimp,= an obsolete card-game. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Lady L.).

See NED.

=crinet,= a hair. Gascoigne, Works, i. 101. Dimin. of F. _crin_, hair;

L. _crinis_.

=cringle-crangle,= _adj._, winding, curled; ‘Cringle-crangle horns’

(i.e. bugles), Chapman, Gent. Usher, i. 1 (Vincentio).

=crippin,= part of a hood for ladies. Spelt _crepine_, _crespine_. Lyly,

Mydas, i. 2 (Licio). F. _crespine_, ‘the Crepine of a French hood’

(Cotgr.).

=crisled, crizzled,= roughened, shrivelled with cold. Ford, Sun’s

Darling, v. 1 (Winter). In Northampton, water that is slightly frozen is

‘just _crizzled_ over’, see EDD. (s.v. Crizzle).

=crispie,= rippled, rippling; ‘Thy crispie tides’, Kyd, Cornelia, iv. 2.

15.

=croach,= to grasp, seek after; ‘My life and th’ empire he did croach

and crasse’, Mirror for Mag., Geta, st. 10. Hence, _croacher_, a seeker

after. In compound _crowne-croachers_, Mirror for Mag., Rudacke, Lennoy,

st. 2. OF. _crocher_, to catch with a hook.

=croches,= the ‘buds’ or knobs at the top of a stag’s horn; ‘These

little buddes or broches which are about the toppe are called Croches’,

Turbervile, Hunting, 54; Stanyhurst, Aeneid i, 194.

=crocheteur,= a porter. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, iii. 2

(Longueville). F. _crocheteur_, ‘a porter or common burthen-bearer’;

_crochet_, ‘a hook; _le crochet d’un crocheteur_, the forke or crooked

staffe, used by a porter’ (Cotgr.).

=crock,= to put by in a crock or pot. Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 2. 2.

=crockling,= a croaking noise; used of the noise made by cranes. Phaer,

tr. of Aeneid, x. 265.

=crofte,= a crypt; ‘A crofte under the mynster’, Morte Arthur, leaf

258*, back, 18; bk. xvii, c. 18. Du. _krocht_, _krochte_. Med. L.

_crupta_ (Ducange), L. _crypta_; Gk. κρυπτή, a crypt, a place of hiding.

=croisado,= a crusade; ‘Your great croisado general’ (i.e. the general

of your great crusade), Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 1200.

=crome,= a long stick with a hook at the end of it; ‘Long cromes’,

Paston Letters, no. 77; vol. i, p. 106 (1872); Tusser, Husbandry, § 17.

19. In prov. use in E. Anglia (EDD.). Cp. Du. _kramme_, ‘a hooke, or a

grapple’ (Hexham).

=crone,= an old ewe. Tusser, Husbandry, § 12, st. 4; Gascoigne, Fruites

of Warre, st. 63. An E. Anglian and Essex word, see EDD. (s.v. Crone,

sb.^{1} 1).

=cronet,= a coronet. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 48, l. 51.

Also, a part of the armour of a horse; Shirley, Triumph of Peace (Works,

ed. Dyce, vi. 261).

=croshabell,= a courtesan. Peele, Works, ed. Dyce, p. 616, last line;

and in a title, p. 615, col. 1. A Kentish word (EDD.).

=croslet, crosslet,= a crucible. Lyly, Gallathea, ii. 3; B. Jonson,

Alchem., i. 1 (Face). ME. _croslet_ (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1147). Dimin. of

OF. _crosel_, O. Prov. _cruzol_, crucible (Levy).

=cross,= a piece of money; many coins had a cross on one side. As You

Like It, ii. 4. 12; 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 257.

=cross and pile,= the obverse and reverse side of a coin, head and (or)

tail; hence, sometimes, a coin, money; ‘He had neither cross nor pile’,

Sidney, Disc. Govt. (ed. 1704, p. 362); head or tail, i.e. ‘tossing up’,

to decide anything doubtful; Wycherley, Love in a Wood, iii. 2 (Ranger);

Return from Parnassus, ii. 1. 768; A Cure for a Cuckold, iv. 8 (Clare).

Anglo-F. ‘jewer (jouer) _a cros a Pil_,’ A.D. 1327, see NED. ‘Les pièces

de monnaie portaient une croix sur leur face, d’où l’expression: n’avoir

_ni croix ni pile_’ (to have neither cross nor pile), see Jannet,

Glossaire, Rabelais (s.v. Croix).

=cross-bite,= to bite in return, to cheat. Marston, What you Will, iii.

2. 279; iii. 3. 129. Hence, _cross-biter_, a swindler, Middleton, Your

Five Gallants, ii. 3 (Goldstone).

=cross-lay,= a cheating wager. Middleton, The Black Book, ed. Dyce, v.

542.

=cross-point,= a particular step in dancing. Marston, Insatiate

Countess, i. 1 (Rogers); Greene, King James IV, iv. 3 (Slipper, l.

1638).

=cross-row,= the alphabet; ‘And from the Crosse-row pluckes the letter

G’, Richard III, i. 1. 55. Short for _Christ-cross-row_, so called from

the figure of the cross (✠) formerly prefixed to it. Still in use in

Essex, acc. to EDD. (s.v. Cross, II. (45)). See =Christ-cross.=

=cross-tree,= the gallows; ‘A cross-tree that never grows’ [because made

of dead wood], Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone); the cross, Herrick,

Noble Numbers, His Anthem to Christ, l. 14.

=crotch,= the fork of the human body, where the legs join the trunk.

Greene, Verses against the Gentlewomen of Sicilia, l. 12; ed. Dyce, p.

316. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Crotch, sb.^{1}). OF. (Picard)

_croche_, ‘entaillure’ (La Curne).

=croteys,= the dung of hares and rabbits; ‘Of Hares and Coneys, they are

called _Croteys_’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37, p. 97. F. _crottes_, ‘the

dung, excrements or ordure of Sheep, Conies, Hares, etc.’ (Cotgr.).

=crouse, crowse,= brisk, lively, merry, Drayton, Eclogue vii, 73; Brome,

Jovial Crew, i. 1 (1 Beggar). In common prov. use in Scotland and in the

north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Crouse, adj.^{1} 4).

=crow,= the well-known bird. In alchemy, at a certain stage of the work,

there would sometimes be an appearance like a crow; it was considered a

very favourable sign; see B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).

=crowchmas,= the day of the Invention of the Holy Cross, May 3. Tusser,

§ 50. 36; _Crowchemesse Day_; Paston Letters, no. 472, end (ii. 132,

1872). ‘At Crowchmesse, _a la saincte Croyx_’, Palsgrave. ME. _cruche_,

the cross of Christ; ‘Crepe to cruche on lange fridai’, Trin. Coll. Hem.

95 (NED.); ‘And meny crouche on hus cloke’, P. Plowman, C. viii. 167;

_cruche_, id., B. v. 529; _cros_, id., A. vi. 13. We may perhaps compare

OF. _croche_, the Picard form of OF. _croce_, a crosier; Ch. Rol. 1670;

Med. L. _crocia_, _crochia_, ‘baculus pastoralis’ (Ducange).

=crown of the sun,= a French gold coin. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1

(Mont.); ‘_Escu sol_, a crown of the sun; the best kind of crown that is

now made’, Cotgrave.

=crowner,= a coroner. Hamlet, v. 1. 4. In gen. prov. use (EDD.).

=crow-trodden,= abused, humiliated. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the

Country, iv. 4 (Rutilio). See NED. (s.v. Crow-tread).

=cruddes,= curds; ‘A messe of cruddes’, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 18;

‘Cruddes, _coagulum_’, Levins, Manip.; Baret, Alvearie. In prov. use in

Scotland, Ireland, and in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v.

Crud). _Crud_ is related to _crowd_, to press close, see EDD. (s.v.

Crowd, vb.^{1} 3).

=crudded,= reduced to a curd-like mass, Heywood, Silver Age

(Cerberus). ME. _cruddyd_, ‘coagulatus’ (Prompt.).

=cruddle, crudle,= to curdle; ‘Cruddled me like cheese’, BIBLE, Job x.

10 (1611); Beaumont and Fl., The False One, iii. 2. 2; King and No King,

i. 1; Marston, Antonia, Pt. I, i. 1 (Antonio). In prov. use in Scotland,

Ireland, and in various parts of England (EDD.).

=crumenall;= ‘The fat oxe that wont ligge in the stall, Is now fast

stalled in her (=their) crumenall’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 119.

Apparently in sense ‘purse’ or ‘pouch’ (NED.).

=crusoile,= a crucible. Marston, Insatiate Countess, i. 1 (Rogers). OF.

_croisuel_. See Hatzfeld (s.v. Creuset).

=cruzado, crusado,= the name of a Portuguese gold coin, of variable

value. Othello, iii. 4. 26; White Devil (Vittoria), ed. Dyce, p. 23. So

called from the cross on one side of it.

=cry:= phr. _a cry of hounds_, a pack of hounds. Webster, Devil’s

Law-case, ii. 1 (Sanitonella). Hence _cry_, a pack (of hounds), Mids.

Night’s D. iv. 1. 128; _cry of curs_, pack of curs, Cor. iii. 3. 120.

_Without all cry_, beyond all description, Chapman, Blind Beggar, p. 4.

=cry creak,= to confess oneself beaten or in error; to give up the

contest, to give in. Thersites, 100 (ed. Pollard, Misc. Plays); Tusser,

Husbandry, § 47. 2; T. Watson, Centuries of Love, i (ed. Arber, 37);

Damon and Pithias, Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 88; ‘_Palinodiam canere_, to

turne taile, to cry creake’, Withal, Dict. (ed. 1634).

=cucking-stool,= an engine for the punishment of scolds, by ducking them

in the water. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Quarlous); Butler,

Hudibras, ii. 2. 740. See Cowell, Interpreter, 1637; Brand, Pop. Antiq.

(ed. 1877, p. 641).

=cuckquean,= a female cuckold. Golding, tr. of Ovid, Met. vi. 606 (Latin

text); ed. 1603. Spelt _cockqueene_; Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i,

ch. 4, st. 1.

=cuck-stool,= an old punishment for scolds; the offender was fastened in

a kind of chair, and exposed to be jeered at, or was ducked in water.

Also called a =cucking-stool,= q.v. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1

(Petronius), Middleton, Fam. of Love, v. 1 (Glister).

=cucurbite,= a kind of retort used in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1

(Face). Shaped like a gourd, L. _cucurbita_.

=cudden,= a born fool, dolt. Dryden, Cymon, 179; Sir Martin Mar-all, v.

3. Wycherley, Gentl. Dancing-master, iv. 1.

=cue,= a small portion. ‘A cue of bread and a cue of beer’, Middleton,

The Black Book (near the end). ‘_Cue_, halfe a farthing, so called

because they set down in the Battling or Butterie Books the letter _q_

for half a farthing,’ Minsheu; ‘Not worthe a cue’, Skelton,

Magnyfycence, 36; ‘Worth ii. kues,’ id., Why Come ye Nat to Courte, 232.

_Q._ for L. _quadrans_, the smallest coin. See =cee.=

=cuerpo, in,= in hose and doublet, without a cloak; stripped of the

upper garment so as to display the body. Ben Jonson, New Inn, ii. 2

(Tipto); Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1. 26. Span. _en cuerpo_,

having nothing on but the shirt; _cuerpo_, body. See Stanford.

=cullisen, cullison,= ignorant pronunciations of cognisance. B. Jonson.

Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1 (Sogliardo); a badge, id., Case is altered,

iv. 4 (Onion). See NED. (s.v. Cullisance).

=cully,= a dupe, a simpleton. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 2. 781; Otway,

Cheats of Scapin, i. 1 (Scapin). [To make a fool of, to take in, Pope,

Wife of Bath, 161.]

=culm,= summit; ‘On giddy top and culm’, Misfortunes of Arthur, in

Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 313. G. _kulm_, a mountain-top; L. _culmen_.

=culme,= soot, smut. Golding, Metam. ii. 232; fol. 18, bk. (1603); as

adj. sooty, black, id. vii. 529; fol. 86, bk. The same word as _coom_,

coal-dust, soot, dirt,’ in prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and various

parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Coom, sb.^{1} 1). ME. _culme_

(_colme_), ‘fuligo’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 477).

=culver-down,= dove’s down. Machin, Dumb Knight, iii. 1 (Epire). OE.

_culfre_, a dove.

=curats,= a piece of armour for the body, a cuirass; ‘He casts away his

curats and his shield’, Harington, Orl. Fur.; spelt _curets_, Chapman,

Iliad iii, 343. Treated as pl., with a sing. _curat_, Spenser, F. Q. v.

8. 34. Cp. Ital. _corazza_, a cuirass (Florio). See Dict.

=curber,= a thief who hooks things through a window; an angler.

Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). From _curb_, a cant word for a

hook, see NED.

=curiosity,= nicety, fastidiousness, excessive, scrupulousness.

Massinger, City Madam, i. 1 (Tradewell); ‘Concerning the enterring of

her . . . I pray you let the same be performed without all curiositie

and superstition’, Holland’s Plutarch, Morals, 533 (Bible Word-Book).

=curiousness,= punctilious scrupulousness. Massinger, Parl. of Love, i.

4 (Chamont); Unnat. Combat, iii. 4 (Beauf. Junior).

=curry,= a ‘quarry’, i.e. slaughtered game. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xvi.

145, 693. OF. _cuiree_, intestines of a slain animal; the part given to

the hounds, so called because wrapped in the skin (_cuir_); O. Prov.

_corada_, ‘entrailles’ (Levy). See NED. (s.v. Quarry, sb.^{1}).

=curry-favell,= one who solicits favour by flattery. Puttenham, _Eng.

Poesie_, iii. 24 (ed. Arber, 299); ‘Curryfavell, a flatterer, _estrille

faveau_’, Palsgrave; altered to _curry-favour_, ‘A number of prodigal

currie favours’, Holinshed, Chron. ii. 144 (NED.); _Curriedow_, a

curry-favour or flatterer, Phillips. In earlier English ‘Favel’ occurs

as the proper name of a fallow-coloured horse. The fallow horse was

proverbial as the type of hypocrisy and duplicity, with reference to the

‘equus pallidus’ of Apoc. vi. 8, which was explained as representing the

hypocrites who gain a reputation for sanctity by the ascetic pallor of

their faces (see Rom. Rose, 7391-8). With the phrase ‘to curry favel’

cp. OF. _estriller_, _torcher Fauvel_, adopted in German: _den fahlen

Hengst streichen_. See NED. (s.v. Favel) for origin, and see =Favell.=

=cursen,= Christian; ‘As I am a cursen man’, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, iv. 6

(Carter); ‘By my Cursen soule’, Brome, Sparagus Gard. iii. 7; ‘We be

Cursenfolke’, id. iv. 5; _cursen name_, Christian name, Mrs. Behn,

Feign’d Curtizan, i. 2; to christen, baptize; _cursen’d_, pp.

christened, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 3 (Nan). For the

pronunciation, see EDD. (s.v. Christen).

=curst,= cross, ill-tempered. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 185; Beaumont and Fl.,

Philaster, ii. 3 (Arethusa). In prov. use in the north and in the W.

Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Curst, 2).

=curtal,= having a docked tail; ‘Curtal dog’, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 114;

said of a horse, All’s Well, ii. 3. 65. ‘Docke your horse tayle, and

make hym a courtault’, Palsgrave; in form _courteau_, a horse with a

docked tail, used as a term of derision, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v.

2 (Anaides). OF. _courtaut_, ‘écourté’ (Hatzfeld); _courtault_, ‘cheval

ou chien de courte taille. On appelait aussi _courtault_ le chien ou le

cheval qui avait la queue coupée’ (Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais).

=curtana,= the sword of mercy, a pointless sword, carried before our

kings at a coronation. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 419. See Ducange,

s.v. The name of the legendary sword of ‘Ogier le Danois’ was

_Courtain_.

=cushes,= ‘cuisses’, pieces, of armour protecting the thighs. 1 Hen. IV,

iv. 1. 105 (1596); Heywood, Iron Age, Part II, v. 1. 15.

=cushion:= phr. _to miss the cushion_, to make a mistake. Lit. to sit

down amiss. ‘Whan he weneth to syt, Yet may he mysse the quysshon’,

Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 998; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 24.

=cushion-cloth,= a cushion-case or cover. Middleton, Women beware Women,

iii. 1 (Bianca); _cusshencloth_, Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 475.

=custard-politic,= a large custard prepared for the Lord Mayor’s feast.

B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Lick.).

=customer,= a custom-house officer, ‘publicanus’. Udall, Erasmus’s

Paraph. on Mark, ii. 22; Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 1 (Erostrato). In use

in this sense in Scotland (EDD.).

=cut,= a lot; he who drew the shortest (or rarely, the longest) of some

pieces of stick or paper drew the lot. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels,

Induction (2 Child, and 3 Child). ME. _cut_, lot (Chaucer, C. T. A.

845). Probably unconnected with the vb. ‘to cut’, see NED.

=cut,= a dog or horse with a cut or docked tail; hence, a term of abuse

applied to a man. ‘Call me cut’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 203 (cp. ‘call me

horse’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 215); London Prodigal, ii. 4. 41. _Cut_, a

common horse, Merry Devil, i. 3. 141; Dauncaster _cuttys_, Doncaster

nags, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 296. See =cut and longtail.=

=cut:= phr. _to keep cut_, to be coy, to be on one’s best behaviour;

‘Phyllyp, kepe youre cut’, Skelton, P. Sparowe, 119; ‘To keep cut with

his mother’, i.e. to be coy like her, to follow her example, Middleton,

More Dissemblers, i. 4 (Dondolo). See NED. (s.v. Cut, sb.^{2} 34).

=cut and longtail,= dogs or horses (or men) of every kind; i.e. those

that are docked and those whose tails are allowed to grow. Merry Wives,

iii. 4. 44; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2. 68.

=cut bene whids,= to speak good words, speak fair. (Cant.) Fletcher,

Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). See Harman, Caveat, p. 84.

=cut over,= to pass straight across; ‘Caligula lying in Fraunce . . .

intended to cutte over, and invade Englande’, Gosson, School of Abuse,

p. 16.

=cutchy,= a ‘coach-y’; a driver of a coach; ‘Make thee [a] poor Cutchy’

(cp. _coach_ in the preceding line), Return from Parnassus, iii. 4

(Furor).

=cute,= a cur; ‘Some yelping Cute’, Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 340; explained

by ‘a cur’ in the margin. It is probably merely a variant of _cut_, a

short-tailed dog; see =cut and longtail.=

=cutted,= abrupt, snappish, sharp in reply. Middleton, Women beware,

iii. 1. 4. Used in this sense in Devon and Cornwall (EDD.).

=cutter,= a cut-throat, bully, bravo. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several

Weapons, iii. 1 (Gregory). Hence, title of the play by Cowley, The

Cutter of Coleman Street. With a quibble upon _cutting_, Middleton,

Mayor of Queenborough, ii. 3 (Simon).

=cutting,= swaggering. Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 2 (516); scene 5. 19

(W.); p. 159, col. 1 (D.).

=cutting,= cheating. Marston, Dutch Courtesan, ii. 3 (end).

=cutwork,= open work in linen, cut out by hand. Gascoigne, Steel Glas,

777 (ed. Arber, p. 71); Fletcher, Span. Curate, iii. 2 (Lopez).

=cymar,= a loose light garment for women. Dryden, Virgil, Aeneid iv,

196; Cymon, 100. See =symarr.=

=cynarctomachy,= a word invented by Butler (Hudibras, i. 1. 752) to

signify a battle between a bear and dogs. Gk. κύων, a dog, ἄρκτος, a

bear, μάχη, a fight.

=cypers grass,= the sweet cyperus or galingale. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey

iv. 802. GK. κύπειρον, a sweet-smelling marsh-plant (Od. iv. 603).

=cypress,= a textile fabric, esp. a light transparent material

resembling cobweb lawn or crape; when black much used for mourning.

Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 131; _cypress lawn_, Milton, Penseroso, 35. Probably

fr. OF. _Cipre_, the island of Cyprus.

D

=dabbing down,= hanging down like wet clothes, in a dabbled state.

Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vi. 359.

=dade,= to walk with tottering steps, to toddle, like an infant learning

to walk. Drayton, Pol. i. 295; xiv. 289. Still in use in Leicestersh.

and Warwicksh. (EDD.).

=dædale,= ingenious, skilful. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 2; also, variously

adorned (cp. daedala tellus, Lucret. i. 7), id., iv. 10. 45. L.

_daedalus_, Gk. δαίδαλος, skilful.

=daff,= to put off, put aside. A variant of _doff_, to do off, put off.

1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 96; and elsewhere in Shakespeare.

=daff,= a simpleton; a coward; ‘(The Bishop of Llandaff) answers, The

_daffe_ is here, but the _land_ is gone’, Harrison, Descr. England, bk.

ii, ch. ii (ed. Furnivall, 58). In prov. use in both senses in Yorks.

(EDD.). ME. _daf_: ‘I sal been halde a daf, a cokenay’ (Chaucer, C. T.

A. 4208).

=daffysh,= foolish. Morte Arthur, leaf 205. 10; bk. ix, c. 13. In prov.

use in Derbysh., Warwicksh., and W. Midlands in the sense of sheepish

(EDD.).

=dag,= a small pistol; ‘This gun? a dag?’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s

Cure, ii. 2 (Lucio); Arden of Fev. iii. 6. 9; ‘_Pistolet_, a pistolet, a

dag, or little pistol’, Cotgrave.

=Dagonet,= a foolish young knight. Davenant, The Wits, ii. 1 (Ginet).

Sir Dagonet was a foolish knight in the court of Arthur; see 2 Hen. IV,

iii. 2. 300: ‘Sir Dagonet in Arthur’s show’.

=dagswain, daggeswane,= a rough coverlet. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2195.

ME. _daggeswayn_, ‘lodex’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 528).

=dain,= disdain; hence, ignominy; ‘A deepe daine’, Lyly, Sappho, v. 1;

‘dennes of daine’, Mirror for Mag., Cordila, st. 31. Cp. F. _dain_,

dainty, fine, curious (Cotgr.). (The word in England seems to have

developed a subst. meaning of ‘squeamishness’, ‘stand-offishness’.)

=dain,= to disdain. Greene, Alphonsus, i. Prol. (Venus); iii. (Medea).

=dalliance,= hesitation, delay. 1 Hen. VI, v. 2. 5; Virgin-Martyr, iv. 1

(Sapritius). See Dict. (s.v. Dally).

=damassin,= damson. Bacon, Essay 46. F. _damaisine_, ‘a Damascene, or

damson plumb’ (Cotgr.).

=damnify,= to injure. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 52; ii. 6. 3. Common in this

sense in East Anglia and America (EDD.).

=damps,= dumps, fits of melancholy. Rowley, All’s Lost, iii. 1. 118.

=dandiprat,= a small coin worth 3 halfpence, first coined by Henry VII

(of unknown origin). Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Hippolito).

Also, a dwarf, page; applied to Cupid (!) in Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid,

i. p. 41 (ed. Arber); as also in Shirley, Arcadia, i. 3 (Dametas).

=danger:= phr. _to be in_ (or _within_) _one’s danger_, to be in one’s

debt, or under an obligation, or in one’s power, Massinger, Fatal Dowry,

i. 2 (Charalois); cp. Merch. Venice, iv. 1. 180; King John, iv. 8. 84.

In ME. _in daunger_, within a person’s jurisdiction, under his control,

at his disposal (Chaucer). OF. _dangier_, the absolute authority of a

feudal lord (Godefroy), Romanic type _domniarium_, deriv. of L.

_dominus_ (Hatzfeld). See Trench, Select Glossary.

=Dansk,= Danish. Webster, White Devil (Giovanni), ed. Dyce, p. 13. Also

used to mean Denmark, Drayton, Polyolb. bk. xi. Dan. _Dansk_, Danish.

=dant,= a worthless, talkative woman. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 515. Du.

_dante_, or _dantelorie_, ‘a base babling woman’; _danten_, ‘to bable’

(Hexham).

=dappard,= dapper. Triumphs of Love and Fortune, iv. 1 (Lentulo); in

Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 198.

=daps,= pl. habits, ways, peculiarities. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv.

447. See EDD. (s.v. Dap, sb. 11).

=darby,= money. (Cant.) ‘The ready, the darby’, Shadwell, Squire of

Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). Prob. with reference to _Darby_, a

money-lender; see below.

=Darby’s bands,= supposed to have orig. meant a very strict bond exacted

by some usurer of that name; see NED. (Later it meant fetters.) ‘If all

be too little, both goods and lands, I know not what will please you,

except Darby’s bands’, Marriage of Wit and Science (licensed in

1569-70), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 362; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 787 (ed.

1576).

=dare,= to terrify, paralyse with fear. Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s

Tragedy, iv. 1 (Evadne); _to dare larks_, to daze them in order to catch

them, Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 282; ‘Never hobby so dared a lark’, Burton,

Anat. Mel. (ed. 1896, iii. 390). In prov. use in various parts of

England, see EDD. (s.v. Dare, vb.^{2} 3).

=dare,= to injure, hurt. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xi. 406; Tusser, Husbandry,

8. In prov. use in the north of England and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v.

Dare, vb.^{3}). OE. _derian_, to hurt, deriv. of _daru_, hurt.

=darkling,= in the dark. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 86; King Lear, i. 4.

237.

=darkmans,= a cant term for night. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1

(Trapdoor); Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

=darnex carpet,= a Dornick carpet. Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, v. 1

(Jaques). ‘Dornick’ is the Flemish name of Tournay.

=darraigne battle,= to set the battle in array. Heywood, Sallust’s

Jugurtha, 20; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 40; 3 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 72; ‘To

darraine a triple warre’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 26. ME. _darreyne the

bataille_, to fight out the battle, to bring it to a decisive issue

(Chaucer, C. T. A. 1631). ‘Darraigne’ is really a law-term, Anglo-F.

_darreiner_, _dereiner_, to answer an accusation, to exculpate oneself

(Rough List); Med. L. _disrationare_ (Ducange).

=darreine,= brazen; ‘The Darreine Tower’, Heywood, Golden Age, A. iv

(Neptune); vol. iii, p. 55; (4 Beldam), p. 61; also called ‘the tower of

Darreine’ (4 lines higher). The reference is to the brazen tower in

which Danae was enclosed. F. _d’arain_, of brass (Cotgr.). (‘Darrain’

occurs nine times in Caxton, Hist. of Troye, with reference to the same

story; the phrase _tour of darrain_ is on leaf 62.)

=dart, Irish,= a dart frequently carried by an Irish running footman.

Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Chough).

=daunt,= to bring into subjection, subdue, tame; ‘It daunts whole

kingdoms and cities’, Burton, Anat. Mel. i. 2 (NED.); to daze, stupefy,

Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 18. In prov. use in the sense of ‘to tame’, also,

in E. Anglia, ‘to stun, knock down’ (EDD.). ME. _daunten_, to tame (P.

Plowman, B. xv. 393. Anglo-F. _daunter_ (Bozon). See Dict.

=daunted down,= beaten down, subdued. Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, Third

Song, st. 18.

=daw,= a (supposed) foolish bird; _fig._ a foolish person. 1 Hen. VI,

ii. 4. 18; Coriolanus, iv. 5. 48. So used in Lincoln, see EDD. (s.v.

Daw, sb.^{1} 2).

=daw,= to frighten, subdue. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Wit.). See

=adaw.=

=daw,= to arouse, awaken. Drayton, Pol. vi. 112. So used in the north

country, see EDD. (s.v. Daw, vb. 2); a trans. use of ME. _dawen_,

_dawyn_, ‘auroro’ (Prompt.), OE. _dagian_, to become day.

=daw up,= to cheer up, revive. Greene, James IV, v. 1 (Lady A.). See

above.

=day-bed,= a couch, sofa. Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 54; Fletcher, Rule a Wife,

i. 6 (Estifania); iii. 1 (Margarita).

=dayesman, daysman,= a judge, an umpire. BIBLE, Job ix. 33; Spenser, F.

Q. ii. 8. 28; ‘Daysman, _arbitre_’, Palsgrave; New Custom, i. 2, in

Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 14.

=dead pay,= pay continued to a dead soldier, taken by dishonest officers

for themselves. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Knavesby).

=deane,= ‘din’, noise. Golding, Metam. xii. 316 (L. _fremitu_); fol. 147

(1603). ‘Dean’ is an E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. _dene_, noise (P.

Plowman), a dialect form of _dyne_ (ib.), OE. _dyne_.

=deane,= a strong, offensive smell; ‘The breath of Lions hath a very

strong deane and stinking smell’, Holland, Pliny, bk. xi, ch. 53. In

prov. use in Wilts., see EDD. (s.v. Dain). OE. *_déan_, corresponding to

Icel. _daunn_, a smell, esp. a bad smell.

=deare,= harm; see =dere.=

=dearne, dearnful, dearnly;= see =dern, dernful, dernly.=

=debate,= to combat, fight. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 6; Lucrece, 1421. F.

_debatre_, ‘to debate, contend’, (Cotgr.).

=debel,= to conquer in war, defeat. Milton, P. R. iv. 605; Warner,

Albion’s England, bk. ii, ch. 8, st. 53. L. _delellare_ (Virgil).

=debenter,= a voucher given in the Exchequer certifying to the recipient

the sum due to him, a ‘debenture’. Edwards, Damon and Pithias, in

Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 77. See Dict.

=deboshed,= debased, corrupted, ‘debauched’. Temp. iii. 2. 29; King

Lear, i. 4. 263; vilified, All’s Well, v. 3. 208; deboshtly,

licentiously, Heywood, Dialogue 4 (Works, vi. 173); ‘_Desbaucher_, to

debosh’, Cotgrave. In use in Scotland (EDD.).

=decard,= to ‘discard’, throw away a card, in a card-game; ‘Can you

decard?’, Machin, Dumb Knight, iv (Phylocles).

=decimo sexto,= a term applied to a small book, in which each leaf is

one-sixteenth of the whole sheet of paper; hence, _fig._, a diminutive

person or thing; ‘My dancing braggart in decimo sexto’, B. Jonson,

Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1. (Mercury); ‘One bound up in decimo sexto’,

Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Sylli). See Stanford.

=deck,= a pack of cards. 3 Hen. VI, v. i. 44; Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce,

p. 339); ‘Pride deales the Deck, whilst Chance doth choose the Card’,

Barnfield, Sheph. Content, viii (NED.). See Nares. In prov. use in

various parts of England, also in Ireland and America (EDD.).

=decline,= to turn aside, to swerve. BIBLE, Ps. cxix. 157; to turn a

person aside from, to divert, Beaumont and Fl., Valentinian, iii. 1;

Massinger, Maid of Honour, i. 1 (Roberto); to undervalue, disparage,

depreciate, Shirley, Cardinal, ii. 1 (Alphonso); id., Brothers, i. 1; to

subdue, ‘How to decline their wives and curb their manners’, Beaumont

and Fl., Rule a Wife, ii. 4 (Estifania).

=decrew,= to decrease. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 18. OF. _decreu_, F.

_décrû_, pp. of _decrestre_ (_décroître_), to decrease.

=decus,= a crown-piece. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond

Senior). A slang term; from the L. words _decus et tutamen_, engraved

upon the rim.

=deduce,= to deduct. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Sir Moth). L.

_deducere_, to lead away, withdraw.

=deduct,= to reduce. Massinger, Old Law, iii. 1 (Gnotho). See NED.

=deduction,= a leading forth of a colony. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, vi.

455; used as a synonym for ‘dismission’ (i.e. dismissal), id., xix. 423,

427. L. _deductio_, a leading forth of a colony, deriv. of _deducere_,

to lead forth, conduct a colony to a place.

=deduit,= diversion, enjoyment, pleasure. _Deduytes_, pleasures, Caxton,

Hist. Troye, leaf 27. 18. ME. _deduit_, pleasure (Chaucer, C. T. A.

2177), OF. _deduit_ (Bartsch), _deduyt_ (Rabelais), Med. L. _deductus_,

‘animi oblectatio’ (Ducange).

=defail,= to defeat, cause to fail. Machin, Dumb Knight, i (Epire); in

Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 128. Only found here in this sense.

=defalcate,= curtailed. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 10, § 1.

Med. L. _defalcare_, ‘deducere, subtrahere’ (Ducange).

=defalk,= to cut off, deduct; ‘I defalke, I demynysshe, I cutte awaye’,

Palsgrave. See above.

=defame,= dishonour. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 316); Fletcher,

Prophetess, i. 1 (Aurelia).

=defeature,= defeat, ruin. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 17; disfigurement, Com.

Errors, ii. 1. 98; ii. 5. 299.

=defend,= to forbid. Much Ado, ii. 1. 98; Marl., Massacre at Paris ii. 5

(Navarre); Milton, P. L. xi. 86; Spenser, F. Q. v. 8. 19. F. _défendre_,

to forbid.

=define,= to decide, settle. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 3.

=deform,= unsightly, ugly. Milton, P. L. ii. 706. Lat. _deformis_,

unsightly.

=defoul, defoil,= to dishonour. Morte Arthur, leaf 39. 1; bk. ii, c. 1;

lf. 71. 28; bk. iv, c. 18. F. _defouler_, to tread or trample on

(Cotgr.); associated in meaning with the E. adj. _foul_.

=defy,= to reject, disdain, despise. Merch. Ven. iii. 5. 75; Hamlet, v.

2. 230. OF. _desfier_, O. Prov. _desfiar_, _desfizar_ ‘désavouer,

répudier’ (Levy). Med. L. _diffidare_ (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. Defy,

vb.^{1} 5).

=de gambo,= a ‘viol-de-gambo’. Beaumont and Fl., The Chances, iv. 2

(Antonio). See =viol-de-gamboys.=

=degender,= to degenerate. Spenser, F. Q. v. 1. 2; Hymn of Heavenly

Love, 94.

=degree,= a step, stair; round of a ladder. Jul. Caesar, ii. 1. 26;

Massinger, Roman Actor, iii. 2. 21. F. _degré_, ‘a stair, step, greese’

(Cotgr.).

=dehort,= to dissuade. Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 106; Davenant, The

Wits, iv. 1 (Thwack). L. _dehortari_.

=delate,= to accuse. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 3 (Mosca). _Delated_, fully

or expressly stated (or conveyed), Hamlet, i. 2. 38. Med. L. _delatare_,

to indict, accuse (Ducange).

=delay,= to temper, assuage, quench. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 30; iii. 12.

42; Prothalamion, 3; to dilute, ‘She can drink a cup of wine not delayed

with water’, Davenport, City Nightcap, 1 (Dorothea); in Hazlitt’s

Dodsley, xiii. 114. OF. (Norm.) _desleier_, to unbind, soften by

steeping, Romanic type _disligare_, to unbend; see NED.

=delewine, deal-wine,= an unidentified wine; supposed to have been a

Rhenish wine. B. Jonson, Mercury Vindicated (Mercury’s second speech);

Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, v. 1; where Sir T. Bornwell says—‘Where

_deal_ and _backrag_ [Bacharach] and what _strange wine else_’, &c.

=delibate,= to taste, to taste a little of. Marmion, The Antiquary, iii.

1 (Duke). L. _delibare_, to taste slightly.

=delice,= delight, pleasure. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 28; iv. 10. 6. F.

_délices_, pl, L. _deliciae_, delights.

=delirement,= a crazy fancy, delusion. Heywood, Silver Age, A. ii

(Amphitrio); vol. iii, p. 107; id., Dialogue 4; vol. vi, p. 179. F.

_délirement_; L. _deliramentum_, madness.

=deliver,= active, nimble, agile. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 12,

§ last; ‘Delyver of ones Gunnes as they that prove mastryes, _souple_.

Delyver redy quicke to do anythyng, _agile_, _delivré_’, Palsgrave. ME.

_deliver_, quick, active (Chaucer, C. T. A. 84). OF. _delivre_,

_deslivre_, prompt, alert, O. Prov. _deliure_, ‘libre, délivré; alerte;

non chargé; en parlant d’une bête’; see Levy. Med. L. _deliberare_,

‘liberare, redimere’ (Ducange).

=dell,= a virgin, a wench. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1

(Prigg). See Harman, Caveat, p. 75.

=deluvye,= the deluge. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 273, back, 30. L.

_diluvium_, the deluge (Vulgate).

=demain,= demesne, domain. Dryden, On Mrs. A. Killigrew, 103;

_demeanes_, pl., Romeo, iii. 5. 182 (1592). ME. _demayn_, a possession

(Trevisa), see NED. (s.v. Demesne, 3); OF. _demeine_, Med. L.

‘_dominicum_ quod ad dominum spectat’ (Ducange). See =payne mayne.=

=demean=(=e,= behaviour, demeanour; ‘Another Damsell . . . modest of

demayne’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 40; treatment (of others), id. vi. 6.

18. See Dict. (s.v. Demean (1)).

=demeans,= means of subsistence. Massinger, Picture, i. 1. 22.

=demerit,= merit; in a good sense. Coriolanus, i. 1. 276; Othello, i. 2.

2; Shirley, Humorous Courtier, ii. 2 (Duchess).

=demi-culverin,= a kind of cannon, with a bore of about 4 inches. B.

Jonson, Every Man in Hum., iii. 1 (Bobadil).

=demi-footcloth,= a demi-housing, or short housing; see =footcloth.=

Webster, White Devil (Brachiano), ed. Dyce, p. 22.

=demiss,= humble, abject. Spenser, Hymn of Heavenly Love, 135. L.

_demissus_.

=democcuana,= not explained; perhaps, a kind of mixed drink; see

=stiponie.= Etherege, Love in a Tub, v. 4 (Sir Frederick).

=Demogorgon,= the name of one of the Spirits of the Abyss. Milton, P. L.

ii. 965; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 47; co-ruler with Beelzebub, in Marlowe

Faustus, iii. 18; the patron of alchemists, Howell, Instructions for

Forraine Travell (Arber’s ed., p. 81). Demogorgon is an important

character in Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. Late L. _Demogorgon_, (1) the

name of a terrible deity invoked in magic rites, (2) the primordial God

of ancient mythology. Probably a corruption of Gk. δημιουργός, the Maker

of the World, the Fabricator, in the Neo-Platonic philosophy opp. to

κτίστης, the Creator. By popular etymology this δημιουργός was

associated with the Greek words δαίμων, a demon, and Γοργώ, the Gorgon,

i.e. the Grim One (γοργός). See Stanford, and NED.

=dempt,= _pt. t._ ‘deemed’, adjudged. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 55; Shep.

Kal., Aug., 137.

=demulce,= to mollify. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § 1. L.

_demulcere_, to stroke down.

=denay,= to deny. Greene, Alphonsus, iii (Medea); ed. Dyce, 237; denial,

Twelfth Nt. ii. 4. 127. Norm. F. _deneier_, ‘refuser, rejeter’ (Moisy),

L. _denegare_.

=denier,= a French coin, the twelfth of a sou. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 91;

Richard III, i. 2. 252. OF. _denier_, L. _denarius_. The _denarius_ was

a Roman silver coin of the value of ten ‘asses’ (about eightpence of

modern English money). When our accounts were kept in Latin, the term

_denarius_ was used for our ‘penny’, and abbreviated _d._; hence the _d_

in our _£. s. d._

=depaint,= to depict. Sackville, Induction, st. 58; B. Googe, Popish

Kingdom, bk. i, fol. 10, l. 5. ME. _depeynten_ (NED.).

=depart,= to separate; formerly in the Marriage Service, but altered at

the Savoy Conference into ‘till death us do part’, Spenser, F. Q. ii.

10. 14. ME. _departe_, to separate (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1134).

=depart,= departure. Two Gent. v. 4. 96; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 20. F.

_départ_, departure.

=dependence,= a quarrel or affair of honour ‘depending’, or awaiting

settlement, according to the laws of the duello. B. Jonson, Devil an

Ass, iv. 1 (Fitz.); Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, v. 5 (Sanchio).

_Masters of Dependencies_, needy bravoes, who undertook to regulate

duels between the inexperienced, Massinger, Maid of Honour, i. 1

(Bertoldo); Fletcher, Elder Brother, v. 1.

=deprave,= erroneously used for _deprive_. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce,

pp. 499, 511; Burton, Anat. Mel. i. 2. See NED.

=deprehend,= to detect, perceive. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 10,

§ last but 4; Bacon, Sylva, § 98. L. _deprehendere_, to seize.

=Derby’s bands;= see =Darby’s bands.=

=dere,= to harm. Barclay, Mirror Good Manners (NED.); Palsgrave; spelt

_deare_, Phaer, tr. Aeneid, iii. 139; to annoy, trouble, grieve. Caxton,

Reynard (ed. Arber, 106); harm, hurt, Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 48. ME.

_deren_, to harm, injure (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 651); to grieve

(Cursor M. 7377); OE. _derian_, to injure, annoy (Sweet). See =dare.=

=dern,= dark, solitary, wild. Pericles, iii, Prol. 15; King Lear, iii.

7. 63; dark, dire; ‘Queene Elizabeth died, a dearne day to England’,

Leigh, Drumme Devot. 35 (NED.); ‘Dearne, _dirus_’, Levins, Manipulus. In

prov. use in the north country in the sense of dark, obscure, secret;

also, dreary, solitary, see EDD. (s.v. Dern, adj.^{1} 1 and 2). OE.

(Anglian) _derne_, (WS.) _dyrne_, _dierne_, secret, dark (BT. Suppl.

s.v. Dirne).

=dernful,= dreary, Spenser, Mourning Muse, 90.

=dernly, dearnly,= mournfully, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 85;

sternly, id., iii. 1. 14; iii. 12. 34.

=derrick,= a hangman; hanging; the gallows; ‘Derrick must be his host’,

Puritan Widow, iv. 1. 11; ‘Deric . . . is with us abusively used for a

Hangman because one of that name was not long since a famed executioner

at Tiburn’, Blount, Glossogr.; ‘I would there were a Derick to hang up

him’, Dekker, Seven Deadly Sins (ed. Arber, 17). Du. _Dierryk_,

_Diederik_, Theoderic.

=derring do,= daring action or feats, desperate courage; ‘A derring

doe’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 65, and Dec, 43; F. Q. ii. 4. 42. [In

imitation of Spenser, Sir. W. Scott has the phrase ‘a deed of

derring-do’ (Ivanhoe, ch. 29).] Hence, _derring-doer_, F. Q. iv. 2. 38.

Spenser’s ‘derring doe’ is due to a misunderstanding of a construction

in Chaucer’s Tr. and Cr. v. 837, where ‘in dorryng don’ means ‘in daring

to do’ (what belongeth to a Knight). See NED.

=descovenable,= unbefitting. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 15, back, 12.

Spelt _discouenable_, Game of the Chesse, bk. ii, c. 5 (p. 70 of Axon’s

reprint). OF. _descovenable_.

=descrive,= to describe. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25; vi. 12. 21. OF.

_descrivre_. L. _describere_.

=dese,= a ‘dais’, a raised table in a hall at which distinguished

persons sat at feasts; ‘The hye dese’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 175. ME.

_dese_ (Will. Palerne, 4564), _dees_ (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1360, 1658).

Norm. F. _deis_ (Moisy), Med. L. _discus_, a table (cp. G. _Tisch_).

=design,= to indicate, show. Richard II, i. 1. 203; Spenser, F. Q. v. 7.

8.

=despoiled,= partially stripped; as in playing at the palm-play. Surrey,

Prisoned in Windsor, 13; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 13.

=desroy,= to ‘disarray’, disorder. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 33. 26;

_desray_, id., lf. 188. 15.

=detort,= to twist aside, to wrest. Dryden, Pref. to Religio Laici, § 4.

L. _detort-us_, pp. of _de-torquere_, to twist aside.

=detract,= to draw apart, pull asunder. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p.

515; to hold back, keep oneself in the background, Greene, James IV, i.

1 (Ateukin).

=Deu guin!,= a Welsh exclamation; app. for _Duw gwyn!_, lit. ‘Blessed

God’. See =Du cat-a whee.= Beaumont and Fl., Mons. Thomas, iv. 2

(Launcelot).

=deuse a vyle,= the country. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1

(Song); ‘_dewse a vyle_, the countrey’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84. See

=Rom-vile.=

=devant,= front of the dress; ‘Perfume my devant’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s

Revels, v. 2 (Mercury). F. _devant_, before.

=dever,= to ‘endeavour’; ‘_I dever_, I applye my mynde to do a thing’,

Palsgrave.

=deviceful,= full of devices, ingenious, curious. Spenser, F. Q. v. 3.

3; Teares of the Muses, 385.

=devoir,= duty. Spelt _devoyre_; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 227;

_deuoyr_, endeavour; Greene, Alphonsus, Prol. (near the end); _dever_,

Sternhold and Hopkins, Ps. xxii. 26. F. _devoir_.

=devolve,= to overturn, overthrow. Webster, Appius, i. 3 (Virginius);

Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, v. 4.

=devotion,= an offering made as an act of worship; a gift given in

charity, alms; ‘Then shal the Churche wardens . . . gather the devocion

of the people’, Bk. Com. Pr., Communion, 1552 (‘the alms for the poor,

and other devotions of the people’, 1662); Middleton, No Wit like a

Woman’s, ii. 2 (L. Twilight); _devotions_, objects of religious worship;

‘I beheld your devotions’, BIBLE, Acts xvii. 23 (‘the objects of your

worship’, R. V.); ‘Dametas . . . swearing by no meane devotions’,

Sidney, Arcadia (ed. 1598, p. 282). See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

=devow,= to devote. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Practice); Holland’s

Ammianus Marcellinus (Nares). F. _dévouer_, to devote.

=dewle;= See =dole= (2).

=dewtry,= ‘datura’; hence, a drug made from the datura or thornapple, a

powerful narcotic. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 321; spelt _deutroa_, Sir

T. Herbert, Travels (ed. 1677, p. 337). Marathi, _dhutrā_; Skt.

_dhattūra_. See Stanford (s.v. Datura).

=diacodion,= an opiate syrup prepared from poppy-heads. Bulleyn, Dial.

against Pestilence (EETS.), p. 51, l. 20; Congreve, Love for Love, iii.

4 (Scandal.). L. _diacodion_ (Pliny). _Dia_ is a prefix set before

medicinal confections that were devised by the Greeks. Gk. διὰ κωδειῶν

(a preparation) made from poppy-heads.

=diametral,= diametrically opposite. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1. 7.

=diapasm,= a scented powder for sprinkling over the person. B. Jonson,

Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer). Gk. διάπασμα, from διαπάσσειν, to

sprinkle.

=diapred,= adorned with a ‘diaper’ pattern; ‘And diapred lyke the

discolored mead’, Spenser, Epithalamion, 51.

=dicacity,= raillery, sarcasm. Heywood, Dialogue 4, vol. vi, p. 185.

Deriv. of L. _dicax_, sarcastic.

=dich:= in phr. ‘Much good dich thy good heart’, Timon, i. 2. 73; ‘Much

good do’t thy good heart’, Dekker, Satiro-mastix (Works, i. 204); ‘Much

good do’t yee’ (riming with ‘sit yee’), ib., i. 214; ‘Much good do it

you’ (vulgarly pronounced and phonetically spelt _mychgoditio_

(Salesbury in 1550), quoted by Ellis in his Early English Pronunciation,

p. 744, note 2. So it is clear that _dich you_ stands for _d’it you_ =

_do it you_. See further in Notes on Eng. Etym., pp. 67-9. Cp. phrase in

use in Cheshire and Lancashire, ‘Much good deet you’, see EDD. (s.v. Do,

subj. mood, § 3).

=dicion,= a dominion, kingdom. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 40;

Augustus, § 6. L. _dicio_, dominion, sovereignty.

=dickens, the,= (in exclamations) the deuce! the devil! Merry Wives,

iii. 2. 20; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. 1, p. 40.

=dicker,= half a score; esp. of hides or skins; ‘A dicker of cow-hides’,

Heywood; First Part of King Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 39; The Marriage

Night, ii. 1 (Latchet); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xv. 131. ME. _diker_

(NED.), L. _decuria_, a set of ten; from _decem_, ten. This Latin word

was adopted by the German tribes from ancient times. They had to pay

tribute to the Romans partly in skins, reckoned in _decuriae_ (NED.).

See Schade (s.v. Decher).

=didapper,= a diving bird; humorously, a mistress. Shirley, Gent. of

Venice, iii 4. 8. See =divedopper.=

=Diego,= a common name for a Spaniard. B. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 3

(Face); iv. 4 (Subtle). Allusions are often made to a Spaniard so named

who committed an indecency in St. Paul’s Cathedral, as in Middleton,

Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 3 (Blurt). Span. _Diégo_, the proper name

_James_, gradually corrupted from _Jacobus_, whence _Yágo_, then

_Diágo_, and at last _Diégo_ (Stevens). James was the patron saint of

Spain. See =Dondego.=

=diery,= harmful; ‘With dreadful _diery_ dent Of wrathful warre’, Mirror

for Mag., Guidericus, st. 12; Carassus, st. 26. See =dere.=

=difficile,= difficult. Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 53; spelt _dyfficyle_,

Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 311, back, 14. F. _difficile_.

=diffide in,= distrust. Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, xi. 636;

Congreve, Old Bachelor, v. 1 (Bellmour). L. _diffidere_.

=diffused,= dispersed, scattered. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 4; v. 11. 47;

confused, disordered, distracted, Merry Wives, iv. 4. 54; Hen. V, v. 2.

61.

=diggon,= enough. Shirley, Love Tricks, ii. 2 (Jenkin); iii. 5 (Jenkin).

In both places the word is used by a Welshman; and in Shirley’s Wedding,

iii. 2, Lodam gives, as a specimen of Welsh—_diggon a camrag_ (for

_digon o Cymraig_), i.e. ‘enough of Welsh.’ Welsh _digon_, enough.

=dight,= to prepare. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 24; as _pp._, arrayed,

decked, Shep. Kal., April, 29; prepared, Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce,

p. 522); framed, Sackville, Induction, st. 55. ‘To dight’ is in prov.

use in Scotland and the north of England in the sense of ‘to prepare’,

also, ‘to adorn, deck oneself’ (EDD.). ME. _dihten_, to prepare, array,

equip (Chaucer), OE. _dihtan_, to appoint, order.

=digladiation,= a fencing contest, hand-to-hand fight; _fig._

disputation, wrangling. Pattenham, E. Poesie, bk. i, c. 17 (ed. Arber,

p. 52). B. Jonson, Discoveries, cxl. Deriv. of L. _digladiari_, to fight

for life and death (Cicero).

=dildo,= ‘a word of obscure origin, occurring in the refrains of

ballads,’ NED. In Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 195.

=dill,= a sweetheart; a cant term; the same as =dell.= Middleton, Span.

Gipsy, iv. 1 (Sancho).

=dilling,= a darling, a well-beloved; ‘Vespasian the dilling of his

time’, Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 1896) iii. 27; the youngest, and

therefore the best-beloved child, Drayton, Pol. ii. 115. The word is in

common prov. use for the youngest child, also, the least and weakest of

a brood or litter (EDD.).

=dimble,= a dingle, a deep dell. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 (Alken);

Drayton, Pol. ii. 190. Allied to _dimple_, _dingle_. Still in use in the

Midlands, see EDD.

=dint,= to strike. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 31; a stroke, blow, id. i. 7.

47.

=dipsas,= a snake whose bite was said to produce extreme thirst. Milton,

P. L. x. 526; Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2. 1. Gk. δίψας, causing thirst;

from δίφα, thirst.