Also,court holy bread;‘He feeds thee with nothing but court holy bread, good words’, Dekker and Webster, Westward Ho, ii. 3 (M. Honeysuckle).
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 Fromcourt, andnoll, the head, hence, a person (nowlin Shakespeare).
court-passage,a game at dice. Middleton, Women beware, ii. 2 (Guardiano). Seepassage.
coustreling,a lad, knave, groom. Only in Udall, Roister Doister, i. 4 (Merygreek). Seecoistril.
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, forcouverte 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.21 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 typequetu-, L.quiētum. Seequoying.
coystrel.In Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1119, a corrupt form of ‘kestrel’ (a base kind of hawk).
coystril;seecoistril.
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. fromcosere, 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 hascracus(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). Henceyour 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). Alsocrack-hempe, Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 46; andcrack-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; speltcrake, Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 50; Sir Thos. More, i. 2. 29. Hencecracker, boaster, King John, ii. 1. 147. The vb.crackin 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). Theringwas the inmost circle around the inscription; a piece crackedwithinthat 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;seecrack.
crambe,cabbage, in literary use onlyfig., and gen. in reference to the L. phrasecrambe 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 ofcammock.
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. ofcrenel, 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 asadv.; ‘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.Crankis 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.14).
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.11 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;seecry 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;seekreking.
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 withgrease. 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 ascrib, a manger; usedfig.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. Speltcrepine,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 ‘justcrizzledover’, 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 compoundcrowne-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.11).
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’avoirni 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 forChrist-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)). SeeChrist-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 calledCroteys’, 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.14).
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).Crudis related tocrowd, to press close, see EDD. (s.v. Crowd, vb.13).
crudded,reduced to a curd-like mass, Heywood, Silver Age (Cerberus). ME.cruddyd, ‘coagulatus’ (Prompt.).
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). Hencecry, 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. Speltcockqueene; 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 acucking-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 letterqfor 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. Seecee.
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 ascoom, coal-dust, soot, dirt,’ in prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Coom, sb.11). 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.; speltcurets, 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). Fromcurb, 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 tocurry-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 seeFavell.
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 formcourteau, 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 aussicourtaultle 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’ wasCourtain.
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; Dauncastercuttys, Doncaster nags, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 296. Seecut 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.234).
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.coachin 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 ofcut, a short-tailed dog; seecut 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 uponcutting, 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. Seesymarr.
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.