CRAB, noun [Gr. Latin ]
1 A crustaceous fish, the cray-fish, Cancer, a genus containing numerous species. They have usually ten feet, two of which are furnished with claws; two eyes, pedunculated, elongated and movable. To this genus belong the lobster, the shrimp, etc.
2. A wild apple, or the tree producing it; so named from its rough taste.
3. A peevish morose person.
4. A wooden engine with three claws for launching ships and heaving them into the dock.
5. A pillar used sometimes for the same purpose as a capstan.
6. Cancer, a sign in the zodiac.
CRABs claws, in the materia medica, the tips of the claws of the common crab; used as absorbents.
CRABs eyes, in pharmacy, concretions formed in the stomach of the cray-fish. They are rounded on one side, and depressed and sinuated on the other, considerably heavy, moderately hard, and without smell. They are absorbent, discussive and diuretic.
CRAB-lice, small insects that stick fast to the skin.
CRAB, adjective Sour; rough; austere.
CRABBED, adjective [from crab.]
1. Rough; harsh; austere; sour; peevish; morose; cynical; applied to the temper.
2. Rough; harsh; applied to things.
3. Difficult; perplexing; as a crabbed author or subject.
CRABBEDLY, adverb Peevishly; roughly; morosely; with perplexity.
CRABBEDNESS, noun
1. Roughness; harshness.
2. Sourness; peevishness; asperity.
3. Difficulty; perplexity.
CRABBY, adjective Difficult.
CRABER, noun The water-rat.
CRACK, verb transitive
1. To rend, break, or burst into chinks; to break partially; to divide the parts a little from each other; as, to crack a board or a rock; or to break without an entire severance of the parts; as, to crack glass, or ice.
2. To break in pieces; as, to crack nuts.
3. To break with grief; to affect deeply; to pain; to torture; as, to crack the heart. We now use break , or rend.
4. To open and drink; as, to crack a bottle of wine. [Low.]
5. To thrust out, or cast with smartness; as, to crack a joke.
6. To snap; to make a sharp sudden noise; as, to crack a whip.
7. To break or destroy.
8. To impair the regular exercise of the intellectual faculties; to disorder; to make crazy; as, to crack the brain.
CRACK, verb intransitive
1. To burst; to open in chinks; as, the earth cracks by frost; or to be marred without an opening; as, glass cracks by a sudden application of heat.
2. To fall to ruin, or to be impaired.
The credit of the exchequer cracks, when little comes in and much goes out. [Not elegant.]
3. To utter a loud or sharp sudden sound; as, the clouds crack; the whip cracks.
4. To boast; to brag; that is, to utter vain, pompous, blustering words; with of.
The Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack [Not elegant.]
CRACK, noun [Gr.]
1. A disruption; a chinkor fissure; a narrow breach; a crevice; a partial separation of the parts of a substance, with or without an opening; as a crack in timber, in a wall, or in glass.
2. A burst of sound; a sharp or loud sound, uttered suddenly or with vehemence; the sound of any thing suddenly rent; a violent report; as the crack of a falling house; the crack of a whip.
3. Change of voice in puberty.
4. Craziness of intellect; or a crazy person.
5. A boast, or boaster. [Low.]
6. Breach of chastity; and a prostitute. [Low.]
7. A lad; an instant. [Not used.]
CRACKER, noun
1. A noisy boasting fellow.
2. A rocket; a quantity of gunpowder confined so as to explode with noise.
3. A hard biscuit.
4. That which cracks any thing.
CRACKING, ppr. Breaking or dividing partially; opening; impairing; snapping; uttering a sudden sharp or loud sound; boasting; casting jokes.
CRACKLE, verb intransitive To make slight cracks; to make small abrupt noises, rapidly or frequently repeated; to decrepitate; as, burning thorns crackle
CRACKLING, participle present tense Making slight cracks, or abrupt noises.
CRACKLING, noun The making of small abrupt cracks or reports, frequently repeated.
The crackling of thorns under a pot. Ecclesiastes 7:6.
CRACKNEL, noun A hard brittle cake or biscuit. 1 Kings 14:3.
CRADLE, noun [Gr., to swing.]
1. A movable machine of various constructions, placed on circular pieces of board, for rocking children or inform persons to sleep, for alleviating pain, or giving moderate exercise.
Me let the tender office long engage, to rock the cradle of reposing age.
2. Infancy. From the cradle is from the state of infancy; in the cradle in a state of infancy.
3. That part of the stock of a cross-bow, where the bullet is put.
4. In surgery, a case in which a broken leg is laid after being set.
5. In ship-building, a frame placed under the bottom of a ship for launching. It supports the ship and slides down the timbers or passage called the ways.
6. A standing bedstead for wounded seamen.
7. In engraving, an instrument, formed of steel, and resembling a chisel, with one sloping side, used in scraping mezzotintos, and preparing the plate.
8. In husbandry, a frame of wood, with long bending teeth, to which is fastened a sythe, for cutting and laying oats and other grain in a swath.
CRADLE, verb transitive
1. To lay in a cradle; to rock in a cradle; to compose, or quiet.
It cradles their fears to sleep.
2. To nurse in infancy.
3. To cut and lay with a cradle as grain.
CRADLE, verb intransitive To lie or lodge in a cradle
CRADLED, participle passive Laid or rocked in a cradle; cut and laid with a cradle, as grain.
CRADLING, participle present tense Laying or rocking in a cradle; cutting and laying with a cradle, as grain.
CRAFT, noun
1. Art; ability; dexterity; skill.
Poesy is the poets skill or craft of making--
2. Cunning, art or skill, in a bad sense, or applied to bad purposes; artifice; guile; skill or dexterity employed to effect purposes by deceit.
The chief priests and scribes sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death. Mark 14:1.
3. Art; skill; dexterity in a particular manual occupation; hence, the occupation or employment itself; manual art; trade.
Ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. Acts 19:25.
4. All sorts of vessels employed in loading or unloading ships, as lighters, hoys, barges, scows, etc.
Small craft is a term given to small vessels of all hinds, as sloops, schooners, cutters, etc.
CRAFT, verb intransitive To play tricks. [Not in use.]
CRAFTILY, adverb [See Crafty.] With craft, cunning or guile; artfully; cunningly; with more art than honesty.
CRAFTINESS, noun Artfulness; dexterity in devising and effecting a purpose; cunning; artifice; stratagem.
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness Job 5:13.
Not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully. 2 Corinthians 4:2.
CRAFTSMAN, noun An artificer; a mechanic; one skilled in a manual occupation.
CRAFTSMASTER, noun One skilled in his craft or trade.
CRAFTY, adjective
1. Cunning; artful; skillful in devising and pursuing a scheme, by deceiving others, or by taking advantage of their ignorance; wily; sly; fraudulent.
He disappointeth the devices of the crafty Job 5:12.
2. Artful; cunning; in a good sense, or in a laudable pursuit.
Being crafty I caught you with guile. 2 Corinthians 12:16.
CRAG, noun [Gr., to break, Latin , breaking. See Crack.] A steep rugged rock; a rough broken rock, or point of a rock.
CRAG, noun [Gr. Roughness, or break. We now call it rack.] The neck, formerly applied to the neck of a human being, as in Spenser. We now apply it to the neck or neck-piece of mutton, and call it a rack of mutton.
CRAGGED, adjective Full of crags or broken rocks; rough; rugged; abounding with prominences, points and inequalities.
CRAGGEDNESS, noun The state of abounding with crags, or broken, pointed rocks.
CRAGGINESS, noun The state of being craggy.
CRAGGY, adjective Full of crags; abounding with broken rocks; rugged with projecting points of rocks; as the craggy side of a mountain; a craggy cliff.
CRAKE, noun A boast. [See Crack.]
CRAKE, noun The corn-crake, a migratory fowl, is a species of the rail, Rallus, found among grass, corn, broom or furze. Its cry is very singular, crek, crek, and is imitated by rubbing the blade of a knife on an indented bone, by which it may be decoyed into a net.
CRAM, verb transitive
1. To press or drive, particularly in filling or thrusting one thing into another; to stuff; to crowd; to fill to superfluity; as, to cram any thing into a basket or bag; to cram a room with people; to cram victuals down the throat.
2. To fill with food beyond satiety; to stuff.
Children would be more free from diseases, if they were not crammed so much by fond mothers.
3. To thrust in by force; to crowd.
Fate has crammed us all into one lease.
CRAM, verb intransitive TO eat greedily or beyond satiety; to stuff.
CRAMBO, noun A rhyme; a play in which one person gives a word to which another finds a rhyme.
CRAMMED, participle passive Stuffed; crowded; thrust in; filled with food.
CRAMMING, participle present tense Driving in; stuffing; crowding; eating beyond satiety of sufficiency.
CRAMP, noun
1. Spasm; the contraction of a limb, or some muscle of the body, attended with pain, and sometimes with convulsions, or numbness.
2. Restraint; confinement; that which hinders from motion or expansion.
A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind.
3. A piece of iron bent at the ends, serving to hold together pieces of timber, stones, etc.; a cramp-iron.
CRAMP, verb transitive
1. To pain or affect with spasms.
2. To confine; to restrain; to hinder from action or expansion; as, to cramp the exertions of a nation; to cramp the genius.
3. To fasten, confine or hold with a cramp or cramp-iron.
CRAMP, adjective Difficult; knotty. [Little used.]
CRAMPED, participle passive Affected with spasm; convulsed; confined; restrained.
CRAMPING, participle present tense Affecting with cramp; confining.
CRANAGE, noun [from crane. Low Latin ] The liberty of using a crane at a wharf for raising wares from a vessel; also, the money or price paid for the use of a crane.
CRANBERRY, noun [crane and berry.] A species of Vaccinium; a berry that grows on a slender, bending stalk. Its botanical name is oxycoccus, [sour berry, ] and it is also called moss-berry, or moor-berry, as it grows only on peat-bogs or swampy land. The berry when ripe is red, and of the size of a small cherry or of the hawthorn berry. These berries form a sauce of exquisite flavor, and are used for tarts. The cranberry of the United States is a distinct species, the V. Macrocarpon. [The common pronunciation, cramberry, is erroneous.]
CRANE, noun [Gr., the plant, cranes-bill.]
1. A migratory fowl of the genus Ardea, belonging to the grallic order. The bill is straight, sharp and long, with a furrow from the nostrils towards the point; the nostrils are linear, and the feet have four toes. These fowls have long legs, and a long neck, being destined to wade and seek their food among grass and reeds in marshy grounds. The common crane is about four feet in length, of a slender body, with ash-coloured feathers.
2. A machine for raising great weights, consisting of a horizontal arm, or piece of timber, projecting from a post, and furnished with a tackle or pulley.
3. A siphon, or crooked pipe for drawing liquors out of a cask.
CRANIOGNOMY, noun [Gr., the skull, and knowledge; index; Latin , the skull.] The doctrine or science of determining the properties or characteristics of the mind by the conformation of the skull.
CRANIOLOGICAL, adjective Pertaining to craniology.
CRANIOLOGIST, noun One who treats of craniology, or one who is versed in the science of the cranium.
CRANIOLOGY, noun [Gr., the skull, and discourse.] A discourse or treatise on the cranium or skull; or the science which investigates the structure and uses of the skulls in various animals, particularly in relation to their specific character and intellectual powers.
CRANIOMETER, noun [the skull, and measure.] An instrument for measuring the skulls of animals.
CRANIOMETRICAL, adjective Pertaining to craniometry.
CRANIOMETRY, noun The art of measuring the cranium, or skulls, of animals, for discovering their specific differences.
CRANIOSCOPY, noun [supra, and to view.] The science of the eminences produced in the cranium by the brain, intended to discover the particular part of the brain in which reside the organs which influence particular passions or faculties.
CRANIUM, noun [Latin Gr.] The skull of an animal; the assemblage of bones which inclose the brain.
CRANK, noun [This word probably belongs to the root of cringe, krinkle, to bend.]
1. Literally, a bend or turn. Hence, an iron axis with the end bent like an elbow, for moving a piston, the saw in a saw-mill, etc., and causing it to rise and fall at every turn.
2. Any bend, turn or winding.
3. A twisting or turning is speech; a conceit which consists in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles.
4. An iron brace for various purposes.
CRANK, adjective [g., to careen a ship.]
1. In seamens language, liable to be overset, as a ship when she is too narrow, or has not sufficient ballast to carry full sail.
2. Stout; bold; erect; as a cock crowing crank
CRANK, CRANKLE, verb intransitive [See crank noun , and Crinkle.] To run in a winding course; to bend, wind and turn.
See how this river comes me crankling in.
CRANKLE, verb transitive To break into bends, turns or angles; to crinkle.
Old Vagas stream--Crankling her banks.
CRANKLE, noun A bend or turn; a crinkle.
CRANKNESS, noun
1. Liability to be overset, as a ship.
2. Stoutness; erectness.
CRANNIED, adjective [See Cranny.] Having rents, chinks or fissures; as a crannied wall.
CRANNY, noun [Latin , to split; to cut off; to divide; a piece.]
1. Properly, a rent; but commonly, any small narrow opening, fissure, crevice or chink, as in a wall, or other substance.
In a firm building, the cavities ought to be filled with brick or stone, fitted to the crannies.
2. A hole; a secret retired place.
He peeped into every cranny
3. In glass-making, an iron instrument for forming the necks of glasses.
CRANTS, noun [G.] Garlands carried before the bier of a maiden and hung over her grave.
CRAPE, noun [See Crisp.] A thin transparent stuff, made of raw silk gummed and twisted on the mill, woven without crossing, and much used in mourning. crape is also used for gowns and the dress of the clergy.
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
CRAPE, verb transitive To curl; to form into ringlets; as, to crape the hair.
CRAPLE, noun A claw.
CRAPNEL, noun A hook or drag.
CRAPULENCE, noun [Latin , a surfeit. See Crop.] Cropsickness; drunkenness; a surfeit, or the sickness occasioned by intemperance.
CRAPULOUS, adjective Drunk; surchared with liquor; sick by intemperance.
CRASH, verb transitive To break; to bruise.
CRASH, verb intransitive To make the loud, clattering, multifarious sound of many things falling and breaking at once.
When convulsions cleave the labring earth, before the dismal yawn appears, the ground trembles and heaves, the nodding houses crash
CRASH, noun The loud mingled sound of many things falling and breaking at once; as the sound of a large tree falling and its branches breaking, or the sound of a falling house.
CRASHING, noun The sound of many things falling and breaking at once.
There shall be a great crashing from the hills. Zephaniah 1:10.
CRASIS, noun [Gr., to mix, to temper.]
1. The temper or healthy constitution of the blood in an animal body; the temperament which forms a particular constitution of the blood.
2. In grammar, a figure by which two different letters are contracted into one long letter or into a diphthong.
CRASS, adjective [Latin , the same as gross, which see.] Gross; thick; coarse; not thing, nor fine; applied to fluids and solids; as, crass and fumid exhalations. [Little used.]
CRASSAMENT, noun The thick red part of the blood, as distinct from the serum, or aqueous part; the clot.
CRASSITUDE, noun [Latin] Grossness; coarseness; thickness; applied to liquids or solids.
CRASSNESS, noun Grossness.
CRATCH, noun A rack; a grated crib or manger. [I believe not used in New England.]
CRATCH. [See Scratch.]
CRATCHES, noun [G., the itch, cratches; to scratch.] In the manege, a swelling on the pastern, under the fetlock, and sometimes under the hoof of a horse.
CRATE, noun [Latin] A kind of basket or hamper of wicker-word, used for the transportation of china, crockery and similar wares.
CRATER, noun [Latin , Gr, a great cup.]
1. The aperture or mouth of a volcano.
2. A constellation of the southern hemisphere, said to contain 31 stars.
CRAUNCH, verb transitive To crush with the teeth; to chew with violence and noise.
CRAUNCHING, participle present tense Crushing with the teeth with violence.
CRAVEN, CRAVENT, CRAVANT, n.
1. A word of obloquy, used formerly by one vanquished in trial by battle, and yielding to the conqueror. Hence, a recreant; a coward; a weak-hearted spiritless fellow.2. A vanquished, dispirited cock.CRAVAT, noun A neck-cloth; a piece of fine muslin or other cloth worn by men about the neck.
CRAVE, verb transitive
1. To ask with earnestness or importunity; to beseech; to implore; to ask with submission or humility, as a dependent; to beg; to entreat.
As for my nobler friends, I crave their pardons.
Joseph--went in boldly to Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. Mark 15:43.
2. To call for, as a gratification; to long for; to require or demand, as a passion or appetite; as, the stomach or appetite craves food.
3. Sometimes intransitively, with for before the thing sought; as, I crave for mercy.
CRAVED, participle passive Asked for with earnestness; implored; entreated; longed for; required.
CRAVEN, CRAVENT, CRAVANT, n.
1. A word of obloquy, used formerly by one vanquished in trial by battle, and yielding to the conqueror. Hence, a recreant; a coward; a weak-hearted spiritless fellow.2. A vanquished, dispirited cock.CRAVEN, CRAVENT CRAVANT, noun
1. A word of obloquy, used formerly by one vanquished in trial by battle, and yielding to the conqueror. Hence, a recreant; a coward; a weak-hearted spiritless fellow.
2. A vanquished, dispirited cock.
CRAVEN, verb transitive To make recreant, weak or cowardly.
CRAVER, noun One who craves or begs.
CRAVING, participle present tense
1. Asking with importunity; urging for earnestly; begging; entreating.
2. Calling for with urgency; requiring; demanding gratification; as an appetite craving food.
CRAVING, noun Vehement or urgent desire, or calling for; a longing for.
CRAW, noun [G.] The crop or first stomach of fowls.
CRAWL, verb intransitive
1. To creep; to move slowly by thrusting or drawing the body along the ground, as a worm; or to move slowly on the hands and knees or feet, as a human being. A worm crawls on the earth; a boy crawls into a cavern, or up a tree.
2. To move or walk weakly, slowly, or timorously.
He was hardly able to crawl about the room.
3. To creep; to advance slowly and slyly; to insinuate ones self; as, to crawl into favor. [This use is vulgar.]
4. To move about; to move in any direction; used in contempt.
Absurd opinions crawl about the world.
5. To have the sensation of insects creeping about the body; as, the flesh crawls.
CRAWL, noun A pen or inclosure of stakes and hurdles on the sea coast for containing fish.
CRAWLER, noun He or that which crawls; a creeper; a reptile.
CRAWLING, participle present tense Creeping; moving slowly along the ground, or other substance; moving or walking slowly, weakly or timorously; insinuating.
CRAY or CRAYER, noun A small sea vessel. [Not in use.]
CRAYON, noun [Latin]
1. A general name for all colored stones, earths, or other minerals and substances, used in designing or painting in pastel or paste, whether they have been beaten and reduced to paste, or are used in their primitive consistence. Red crayons are made of blood-stone or red chalk; black ones, of charcoal or black lead.
2. A kind of pencil, or roll of paste, to draw lines with.
3. A drawing or design done with a pencil or crayon
CRAZE, verb transitive [See Crush.]
1. To break; to weaken; to break or impair the natural force or energy of.
Till length of years, and sedentary numbness, craze my limbs.
2. To crush in pieces; to grind to powder; as, to craze tin.
3. To crack the brain; to shatter; to impair the intellect; as, to be crazed with love or grief.
CRAZED, participle passive Broken; bruised; crushed; impaired; deranged in intellect; decrepit.
CRAZEDNESS, noun A broken state; decrepitude; an impaired state of the intellect.
CRAZILY, adverb [See Crazy.] In a broken or crazy manner.
CRAZINESS, noun [See Crazy.]
1. The state of being broken or weakened; as the craziness of a ship or of the limbs.
2. The state of being broken in mind; imbecility or weakness of intellect; derangement.
CRAZY, adjective
1. Broken; decrepit; weak; feeble; applied to the body, or constitution, or any structure; as a crazy body; a crazy constitution; a crazy ship.
2. Broken, weakened, or disordered in intellect; deranged, weakened, or shattered in mind. We say, the man is crazy
CREAGHT, noun Herds of cattle. [Not used.]
CREAGHT, verb intransitive To graze on lands. [Not used.]
CREAK, verb intransitive [Latin , Gr., to comb, scrape, rake; to cry.] To make a sharp harsh grating sound, of some continuance, as by the friction of hard substances. Thus, the hinge of a door creaks in turning; a tight firm shoe creaks in walking, by the friction of the leather.
CREAKING, participle present tense Making a harsh grating sound; as creaking hinges or shoes.
CREAKING, noun A harsh grating sound.
CREAM, noun [Latin , G.]
1. In a general sense, any part of a liquor that separates from the rest, rises and collects on the surface. More particularly, the oily part of milk, which, when the milk stands unagitated in a cool place, rises and forms a scum on the surface, as it is specifically lighter than the other part of the liquor. This by agitation forms butter.
2. The best part of a thing; as the cream of a jest or story.
CREAM of lime, the scum of lime water; or that part of lime which, after being dissolved in its caustic state, separates from the water int he mild state of chalk or limestone.
CREAM of tartar, the scum of a boiling solution of tartar.
The purified and crystalized supertartrate of potash.
CREAM, verb transitive
1. To skim; to take off cream by skimming.
2. To take off the quintessence or best part of a thing.
CREAM, verb intransitive
1. To gather cream; to flower or mantle.
2. To grow stiff, or formal.
CREAMY, adjective Full of cream; like cream; having the nature of cream; luscious.
CREANCE, noun In falconry, a fine small line, fastened to a hawks leash, when she is first lured.
CREASE, noun A line or mark made by folding or doubling any thing; a hollow streak, like a groove.
CREASE, verb transitive To make a crease or mark in a thing by folding or doubling.
CREAT, noun In the manege, an usher to a riding master.
CREATE, verb transitive [Latin]
1. To produce; to bring into being from nothing; to cause to exist.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1.
2. To make or form, by investing with a new character; as, to create one a peer or baron; to create a manor.
I create you companions to our person.
3. To produce; to cause; to be the occasion of.
Your eye in Scotland would create soldiers, and make women fight.
Long abstinence creates uneasiness in the stomach; confusion is created by hurry.
4. To beget; to generate; to bring forth.
The people which shall be created, shall praise the Lord. Psalms 102:18.
5. To make or produce, by new combinations of matter already created, and by investing these combinations with new forms, constitutions and qualities; to shape and organize.
God created man in his own image. Genesis 1:1.
6. To form anew; to change the state or character; to renew.
CREATE in me a clean heart. Psalms 51:10.
We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:10.
CREATED, participle passive Formed from nothing; caused to exist; produced; generated; invested with a new character; formed into new combinations, with a peculiar shape, constitution and properties; renewed.
CREATING, participle present tense Forming from nothing; originating; producing; giving a new character; constituting new beings from matter by shaping, organizing and investing with new properties; forming anew.
CREATION, noun
1. The act of creating; the act of causing to exist; and especially, the act of bringing this world into existence. Romans 1:20.
2. The act of making, by new combinations of matter, invested with new forms and properties, and of subjecting to different laws; the act of shaping and organizing; as the creation of man and other animals, of plants, minerals, etc.
3. The act of investing with a new character; as the creation of peers in England.
4. The act of producing.
5. The things created; creatures; the world; the universe.
As subjects then the whole creation came.
6. Any part of the things created.
Before the low creation swarmed with men.
7. Any thing produced or caused to exist.
A false creation proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain.
CREATIVE, adjective Having the power to create, or exerting the act of creation; as creative fancy; creative power.
CREATOR, noun [Latin]
1. The being or person that creates.
Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth. Ecclesiastes 12:1.
2. The thing that creates, produces or causes.
CREATRESS, noun A female that creates any thing.
CREATURE, noun
1. That which is created; every being besides the Creator, or every thing not self-existent. The sun, moon and stars; the earth, animals, plants, light, darkness, air, water, etc., are the creatures of God.
2. In a restricted sense, an animal of any kind; a living being; a beast. In a more restricted sense, man. Thus we say, he was in trouble and no creature was present to aid him.
3. A human being, in contempt; as an idle creature; a poor creature; what a creature!
4. With words of endearment, it denotes a human being beloved; as a pretty creature; a sweet creature
5. That which is produced, formed or imagined; as a creature of the imagination.
6. A person who owes his rise and fortune to another; one who is made to be what he is.
Great princes thus, when favorites they raise, to justify their grace, their creatures praise.
7. A dependent; a person who is subject to the will or influence of another.
CREATURELY, adjective Having the qualities of a creature. [Little used.]
CREATURESHIP, noun The state of a creature. [Little used.]
CREDENCE, noun [See Creed.]
1. Belief; credit; reliance of the mind on evidence of facts derived from other sources than personal knowledge, as from the testimony of others. We give credence to a historian of unsuspected integrity, or to a story which is related by a man of known veracity.
2. That which gives a claim to credit, belief or confidence; as a letter of credence which is intended to commend the bearer to the confidence of a third person.
CREDENDA, noun [Latin , See Creed.] In theology, things to be believed; articles of faith; distinguished from agenda, or practical duties.
CREDENT, adjective
1. Believing; giving credit; easy of belief.
2. Having credit; not to be questioned.
CREDENTIALS, noun plural [Rarely or never used in the singular.] That which gives credit; that which gives a title or claim to confidence; the warrant on which belief, credit or authority is claimed, among strangers; as the letters of commendation and power given by a government to an embassador or envoy, which give him credit at a foreign court. So the power of working miracles given to the apostles may be considered as their credentials authorizing them to propagate the gospel, and entitling them to credit.
CREDIBILITY, noun [Latin] Credibleness; the quality or state of a thing which renders it possible to be believed, or which admits belief, on rational principles; the quality or state of a thing which involves no contradiction, or absurdity. credibility is less than certainty, and greater than possibility; indeed it is less than probability, but is nearly allied to it. [See Credible.]
CREDIBLE, adjective [Latin]
1. That may be believed; worthy of credit. A thing is credible when it is known to be possible, or when it involves no contradiction or absurdity; it is more credible when it is known to come within the ordinary laws or operations of nature. With regard to the Divine Being and his operations, every thing is credible which is consistent with his perfections, and supported by evidence or unimpeachable testimony, for his power is unlimited. With regard to human affairs, we do not apply the word to things barely possible, but to things which come within the usual course of human conduct, and the general rules of evidence.
2. Worthy of belief; having a claim to credit; applied to persons. A credible person is one of known veracity and integrity, or whose veracity may be fairly deduced from circumstances. We believe the history of Aristides and Themistocles, on the authority of credible historians.
CREDIBLENESS, noun Credibility; worthiness of belief; just claim to credit. [See Credibility.]
CREDIBLY, adverb In a manner that deserves belief; with good authority to support belief.
CREDIT, noun [Latin , See Creed.]
1. Belief; faith; a reliance or resting of the mind on the truth of something said or done. We give credit to a mans declaration, when the mind rests on the truth of it, without doubt or suspicion, which is attended with wavering. We give credit to testimony or to a report, when we rely on its truth and certainty.
2. Reputation derived from the confidence of others. Esteem; estimation; good opinion founded on a belief of a mans veracity, integrity, abilities and virtue; as a physician in high credit with his brethren. Hence,
3. Honor; reputation; estimation; applied to men or things. A man gains no credit by profaneness; and a poem may lose no credit by criticism. The credit of a man depends on his virtues; the credit of his writings, on their worth.
4. That which procures or is entitled to belief; testimony; authority derived from ones character, or from the confidence of others. We believe a story on the credit of the narrator. We believe a story on the credit of the narrator. We believe in miracles on the credit of inspired men. We trust to the credit of assertion, made by a man of known veracity.
5. Influence derived from the reputation of veracity or integrity, or from the good opinion or confidence of others; interest; power derived from weight of character, from friendship, fidelity or other cause. A minister may have great credit with a prince. He may employ his credit to good or evil purposes. A man uses his credit with a friend; a servant, with his master.
6. In commerce, trust; transfer of goods in confidence of future payment. When the merchant gives a credit he sells his wares on an expressed or implied promise that the purchaser will pay for them at a future time. The seller believes in the solvability and probity of the purchaser, and delivers his goods on that belief or trust; or he delivers them on the credit or reputation of the purchaser. The purchaser takes what is sold, on credit In like manner, money is loaned on the credit of the borrower.
7. The capacity of being trusted; or the reputation of solvency and probity which entitles a man to be trusted. A customer has good credit or no credit with a merchant.
8. In book-keeping, the side of an account in which payment is entered; opposed to debit. This article is carried to ones credit and that to his debit. We speak of the credit side of an account.
9. Public credit the confidence which men entertain in the ability and disposition of a nation, to make good its engagements with its creditors; or the estimation in which individuals hold the public promises of payment, whether such promises are expressed or implied. The term is also applied to the general credit of individuals in a nation; when merchants and others are wealthy, and punctual in fulfilling engagements; or when they transact business with honor fidelity; or when transfers of property are made with ease for ready payment. So we speak of the credit of a bank, when general confidence is placed in its ability to redeem its notes; and the credit of a mercantile house rests on its supposed ability and probity, which induce men to trust to its engagements.
Cherish public credit
When the public credit is questionable, it raises the premium on loans.
10. The notes or bills which are issued by the public or by corporations or individuals, which circulate on the confidence of men in the ability and disposition in those who issue them, to redeem them. They are sometimes called bills of credit
11. The time given for payment for lands or goods sold on trust; as a long credit or a short credit
12. A sum of money due to any person; any thing valuable standing on the creditor side of an account. A has a credit on the books of B. The credits are more than balanced by the debits.
[In this sense, the word has the plural number.]
CREDIT, verb transitive [from the Noun.]
1. To believe; to confide in the truth of; as, to credit a report, or the man who tells it.
2. To trust; to sell or loan in confidence of future payment; as, to credit goods or money.
3. To procure credit or honor; to do credit; to give reputation or honor.
May here her monument stand so, to credit this rude age.
4. To enter upon the credit side of an account; as, to credit the amount paid.
5. To set to the credit of; as, to credit to a man the interest paid on a bond.
CREDITABLE, adjective Reputable; that may be enjoyed or exercised with reputation or esteem; estimable. A man pursues a creditable occupation, or way of living.
CREDITABLENESS, noun Reputation; estimation.
CREDITABLY, adverb Reputable; with credit; without disgrace.
CREDITED, participle passive Believed; trusted; passed to the credit, or entered on the credit side of an account.
CREDITING, participle present tense Believing; trusting; entering to the credit in account.
CREDITOR, noun [Latin See Creed.]
1. A person to whom a sum of money or other thing is due, by obligation, promise or in law; properly, one who gives credit in commerce; but in a general sense, one who has a just claim for money; correlative to debtor. In a figurative sense, one who has a just claim to services.
CREDITORs have better memories than debtors.
2. One who believes. [Not used.]
CREDITRIX, noun A female creditor.
CREDULITY, noun [Latin , to believe. See Creed and Credulous.] Easiness of belief; a weakness of mind by which a person is disposed to believe, or yield his assent to a declaration or proposition, without sufficient evidence of the truth of what is said or proposed; a disposition to believe on slight evidence or no evidence at all.
CREDULOUS, adjective [Latin See Creed.] Apt to believe without sufficient evidence; unsuspecting; easily deceived.
CREDULOUSNESS, noun Credulity; easiness of belief; readiness to believe without sufficient evidence.
Beyond all credulity is the credulousness of atheists, who believe that chance could make the world, when it cannot build a house.
CREED, noun [This word seems to have been introduced by the use of the Latin credo, I believe, at the beginning of the Apostles creed or brief system of Christian faith. See creed ]
1. A brief summary of the articles of Christian faith; a symbol; as the Apostolic creed
2. That which is believed; any system of principles which are believed or professed; as a political creed
CREEK, verb transitive To make a harsh sharp noise. [See Creak.]
CREEK, noun [See Crack.]
1. A small inlet, bay or cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river.
They discovered a certain creek with a shore. Acts 27:39.
2. Any turn in winding.
3. A prominence or jut in a winding coast. [This sense is probably not legitimate.]
4. In some of the American States, a small river. This sense is not justified by etymology, but as streams often enter into creeks and small bays or form them, the name has been extended to small streams in general.
CREEKY, adjective Containing creeks; full of creeks; winding.
CREEP, verb intransitive [Gr., the sense is to catch, to grapple; Latin , to scrape or scratch.]
1. To move with the belly on the ground, or the surface of any other body, as a worm or serpent without legs, or as many insects with feet and very short legs; to crawl.
2. To move along the ground, or on the surface of any other body, in growth, as a vine; to grow along.
3. To move slowly, feebly or timorously; as an old or infirm man, who creeps about his chamber.
4. To move slowly and insensibly, as time.
To morrow, and to morrow, and to morrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day.
5. To move secretly; to move so as to escape detection, or prevent suspicion.
Of this sort are they who creep into houses, and lead away captive silly women. 2 Timothy 3:6.
6. To steal in; to move forward unheard and unseen; to come or enter unexpectedly or unobserved; as, some error has crept into the copy of a history.
7. To move or behave with servility; to fawn.
CREEPER, noun
1. One who creeps; that which creeps; a reptile; also, a creeping plant, which moves along the surface of the earth or attaches itself to some other body, as ivy.
2. An iron used to slide along the grate in kitchens.
3. A kind of pattern or clog worn by women.
4. creeper or creepers, an instrument of iron with hooks or claws, for drawing up things from the bottom of a well, river or harbor.
5. A genus of birds, the Certhia, or ox-eye, of many species. These birds run along the body or branch of a tree, and when they observe a person near, they run to the side opposite, so as to keep out of sight.
CREEPHOLE, noun A hole into which an animal may creep to escape notice or danger; also, a subterfuge; an excuse.
CREEPING, participle present tense Moving on the belly, or close to the surface of the earth or other body; moving slowly, secretly, or silently; moving insensibly; stealing along.
CREEPINGLY, adverb By creeping; slowly; in the manner of a reptile.
CREEPLE. [Not used.] [See Cripple.]
CREESE, noun A Malay dagger.
CREMATION, noun [Latin , to burn.] A burning; particularly, the burning of the dead, according to the custom of many ancient nations.
CREMOR, noun [Latin See cream.] Cream; any expressed juice of grain; yeast; scum; a substance resembling cream.
CRENATE, CRENATED, adjective [Latin , a notch. See Cranny.] Notched; indented; scolloped. In botany, a crenate leaf has its edge, as it were, cut with angular or circular incisures, not inclining towards either extremity. When the scallops are segments of small circles, it is said to be obtusely crenated; when the larger segments have smaller ones upon them, a leaf is said to be doubly crenate
CRENATE, CRENATED adjective [Latin , a notch. See Cranny.] Notched; indented; scolloped. In botany, a crenate leaf has its edge, as it were, cut with angular or circular incisures, not inclining towards either extremity. When the scallops are segments of small circles, it is said to be obtusely crenated; when the larger segments have smaller ones upon them, a leaf is said to be doubly crenate.
CRENATURE, noun A scollop, like a notch, in a leaf, or in the style of a plant.
CRENKLE, CRENGLE CRENULATE, adjective [See Cringle.] Having the edge, as it were, cut into very small scollops.
CRENKLE, CRENGLE, CRENULATE, adjective [See Cringle.] Having the edge, as it were, cut into very small scollops.
CRENKLE, CRENGLE, CRENULATE adjective [See Cringle.] Having the edge, as it were, cut into very small scollops.
CREOLE, noun In the West Indies and Spanish America, a native of those countries descended from European ancestors.
CREPANCE, CREPANE, noun [Latin , to burst.] A chop or cratch in a horses leg, caused by the shoe of one hind foot crossing and striking the other hind foot. It sometimes degenerates into an ulcer.
CREPANCE, CREPANE noun [Latin , to burst.] A chop or cratch in a horses leg, caused by the shoe of one hind foot crossing and striking the other hind foot. It sometimes degenerates into an ulcer.
CREPITATE, verb intransitive [Latin , to crackle, to crack, to burst with a sharp sound.] To crackle; to snap; to burst with a small sharp abrupt sound, rapidly repeated; as salt in fire, or during calcination. It differs from detonate, which signifies, to burst with a single loud report.
CREPITATING, participle present tense Crackling; snapping.
CREPITATION, noun
1. The act of bursting with a frequent repetition of sharp sounds; the noise of some salts in calcination; crackling.
2. The noise of fractured bones, when moved by a surgeon to ascertain a fracture.
CREPT, preterit tense and participle passive of creep.
CREPUSCLE, CREPUSCULE, noun [Latin , a little burst or break of light, or broken light.] Twilight; the light of the morning from the first dawn to sunrise, and of the evening from sunset to darkness. It is occasioned by the refraction of the suns ray.
CREPUSCULAR, CREPUSCULOUS, adjective Pertaining to twilight; glimmering; noting the imperfect light of the morning and evening; hence, imperfectly clear or luminous.
CREPUSCLE, CREPUSCULE noun [Latin , a little burst or break of light, or broken light.] Twilight; the light of the morning from the first dawn to sunrise, and of the evening from sunset to darkness. It is occasioned by the refraction of the suns ray.
CREPUSCULINE, adjective Crepuscular. [Not used.]
CREPUSCULAR, CREPUSCULOUS adjective Pertaining to twilight; glimmering; noting the imperfect light of the morning and evening; hence, imperfectly clear or luminous.
CRESCENT, adjective [Latin , to grow. See Grow.] Increasing; growing; as crescent horns.
CRESCENT, noun
1. The increasing or new moon, which, when receding from the sun, shows a curving rim of light, terminating in points or horns. It is applied to the old or decreasing moon, in a like state, but less properly.
2. The figure or likeness of the new moon; as that borne in the Turkish flag or national standard. The standard itself, and figuratively, the Turkish power.
3. In heraldry, a bearing in the form of a half moon.
4. The name of a military order, instituted by Renatus of Anjou, king of Sicily; so called from its symbol or badge, a crescent of gold enameled.
CRESCENT, verb transitive To form into a crescent
CRESCIVE, adjective [Latin , to grow.] Increasing; growing.
CRESS, noun [G., Latin ] The name of several species of plants, most of them of the class tetradynamia. Watercresses, of the genus Sisymbrium, are used as a salad, and are valued in medicine for their antiscorbutic qualities. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste. They grow on the brinks of rivulets and in other moist grounds. The word is generally used in the plural.
CRESSET, noun [See Cross.]
1. A great light set on a beacon, lighthouse, or watch tower.
2. A lamp or torch.
CREST, noun [Latin This is probably, a growing or shooting up, from the root of cresco.]
1. The plume of feathers or other material on the top of the ancient helmet; the helmet itself.
2. The ornament of the helmet in heraldry.
3. The comb of a cock; also, a tuft of feathers on the head of other fowls.
4. Any tuft or ornament worn on the head.
5. Loftiness; pride; courage; spirit; a lofty mien.
CREST, verb transitive
1. To furnish with a crest; to serve as a crest for.
2. To mark with long streaks.
CRESTED, adjective [from crest.]
1. Wearing a crest; adorned with a crest or plume; having a comb; as a crested helmet; a crested cock.
2. In natural history, having a tuft like a crest.
CRESTLESS, adjective Without a crest; not dignified with coat-armor; not of an eminent family; of low birth.
CRETACEOUS, adjective [Latin , chalk.] Chalky; having the qualities of chalk; like chalk; abounding with chalk.
CRETIC, noun [Gr.] A poetic foot of three syllables, one short between two long syllables.
CRETIN, noun A name given to certain deformed and helpless idiots in the Alps.
CREVICE, noun [Latin , to burst. See Crepitate and Rip.] A crack; a cleft; a fissure; a rent; an opening; as a crevice in a wall.
CREVICE, verb transitive To crack; to flaw.
CREVIS, noun The craw-fish.
CREW, noun
1. A company of people associated; as a noble crew; a gallant crew
2. A company, in a low or bad sense, which is now most usual; a herd; as a rebel crew
So we say, a miserable crew
3. The company of seamen who man a ship, vessel or boat; the company belonging to a vessel. Also, the company or gang of a carpenter, gunner, boatswain, etc. It is appropriated to the common sailors.
CREW, preterit tense of crow, but the regular preterit and participle, crowed, is now most commonly used.
CREWEL, noun Yarn twisted and wound on a knot or ball, or two threaded worsted.
CREWET. [See Cruet.]
CRIB, noun
1. The manger of a stable, in which oxen and cows feed. In America, it is distinguished from a rack for horses.
Where no oxen are, the crib is clean. Proverbs 14:4.
The manger for other beasts.
The ass knoweth his masters crib Isaiah 1:3.
2. A small habitation or cottage.
3. A stall for oxen.
4. A case or box in salt works.
5. A small building, raised on posts, for storing Indian corn.
CRIB, verb transitive To shut or confine in a narrow habitation; to cage.
CRIBBAGE, noun A game at cards.
CRIBBED, participle passive Shut up; confined; caged.
CRIBBLE, noun
1. A corn-sieve or riddle.
2. Coarse flour or meal. [Not used in the United States.]
CRIBBLE, verb transitive To sift; to cause to pass through a sieve or riddle.
CRIBRATION, noun [See Cribble.] The act of sifting or riddling; used in pharmacy.
CRIBRIFORM, adjective [Latin , a sieve, and form.] Resembling a sieve or riddle; a term applied to the lamen of the ethmoid bone, through which the fibers of the olfactory nerve pass to the nose.
CRICHTONITE, noun A mineral so called from Dr. Crichton, physician to the Emperor of Russia. It has a velvet black color, and crystalizes in very acute small rhomboids. It occurs in primitive rocks with octahedrite.
CRICK, noun [See Creak.]
1. The creaking of a door. [Not used.]
2. A spasmodic affection of some part of the body, as of the neck or back; local spasm or cramp.
CRICKET, noun An insect of the genus Gryllus, belonging to the order of Hemipters. There are several species, so named probably on account of their creaking or chirping voice.
The cricket chirping in the hearth.
CRICKET, noun
1. A play or exercise with bats and ball.
2. A low stool.
CRICKETER, noun One who plays at cricket.
CRIED, preterit tense and part. of cry.
CRIER, CRYER, noun [See Cry.] One who cries; one who makes proclamation. The crier of a court is an officer whose duty is to proclaim the orders or commands of the court, to open or adjourn the court, keep silence, etc. A crier is also employed to give notice of auctions, and for other purposes.
CRIME, noun [Latin , Gr. , to separate, to judge, to decree, to condemn.]
1. An act which violates a law, divine or human; an act which violates a rule of moral duty; an offense against the laws of right, prescribed by God or man, or against any rule of duty plainly implied in those laws. A crime may consist in omission or neglect, as well as in commission, or positive transgression. The commander of a fortress who suffers the enemy to take possession by neglect, is as really criminal, as one who voluntarily opens the gates without resistance.
But in a more common and restricted sense, a crime denotes an offense, or violation of public law, of a deeper and more atrocious nature; a public wrong; or a violation of the commands of God, and the offenses against the laws made to preserve the public rights; as treason, murder, robbery, theft, arson, etc. The minor wrongs committed against individuals or private rights, are denominated trespasses, and the minor wrongs against public rights are called misdemeanors. Crimes and misdemeanors are punishable by indictment, information or public prosecution; trespasses or private injuries, at the suit of the individuals injured. But in many cases an act is considered both as a public offense and a trespass, and is punishable both by the public and the individual injured.
2. Any great wickedness; iniquity; wrong.
No crime was thing, if tis no crime to love.
Capital crime a crime punishable with death.
CRIMEFUL, adjective Criminal; wicked; partaking of wrong; contrary to law, right to duty.
CRIMELESS, adjective Free from crime; innocent.
CRIMINAL, adjective
1. Guilty of a crime; applied to persons.
2. Partaking of a crime; involving a crime; that violates public law, divine or human; as, theft is a criminal act.
3. That violates moral obligation; wicked.
4. Relating to crimes; opposed to civil; as a criminal code; criminal law.
CRIMINAL, noun A person who has committed an offense against public law; a violator of law, divine or human. More particularly, a person indicted or charged with a public offense, and one who is found guilty, by verdict, confession or proof.
CRIMINAL conversation, the illegal commerce of the sexes; adultery.
CRIMINALITY, CRIMINALNESS, noun The quality of being criminal, or a violation of law; guiltiness; the quality of being guilty of a crime.
CRIMINALLY, adverb In violation of public law; in violation of divine law; wickedly; in a wrong or iniquitous manner.
CRIMINALITY, CRIMINALNESS noun The quality of being criminal, or a violation of law; guiltiness; the quality of being guilty of a crime.
This is by no means the only criterion of criminality.
CRIMINATE, verb transitive [Latin] To accuse; to charge with a crime; to alledge to be guilty of a crime, offense or wrong.
Our municipal laws do not require the offender to plead guilty or criminate himself.
CRIMINATED, participle passive Accused; charge with a crime.
CRIMINATING, participle present tense Accusing; alledging to be guilty.
CRIMINATION, noun [Latin] The act of accusing; accusation; charge of having been guilty of a criminal act, offense or wrong.
CRIMINATORY, adjective Relating to accusation; accusing.
CRIMINOUS, adjective Very wicked; hainous; involving great crime. [Not used.]
CRIMINOUSLY, adverb Criminally; hainously; enormously. [Not used.]
CRIMINOUSNESS, noun Wickedness; guilt; criminality. [Not used.]
CRIMOSIN. [See Crimson.]
CRIMP, adjective [See Crumble.]
1. Easily crumbled; friable; brittle. [Little used.]
The fowler--treads the crimp earth.
2. Not consistent. [Not used.]
CRIMP, verb transitive To catch; to seize; to pinch and hold. [See Crimple.]
CRIMP, verb transitive To curl or frizzle; as, to crimp the hair. This is evidently the same word as the foregoing.
CRIMP, noun
1. In England, an agent for coal-merchants, and for persons concerned in shipping.
2. One who decoys another into the naval or military service.
3. A game at cards.
CRIMPLE, verb transitive [G. See Crumple and Rumple.] To contract or draw together; to shrink; to cause to shrink; to curl.
CRIMPLED, participle passive Contracted; shrunk; curled.
CRIMPLING, participle present tense Contracting; shrinking; curling; hobbling.
CRIMSON, noun [G.] A deep red color; a red tinged with blue; also, a red color in general; as the virgin crimson of modesty.
He made the vail of blue, and purple, and crimson 2 Chronicles 3:14.
CRIMSON, adjective Of a beautiful deep red; as the crimson blush of modesty; a crimson stream of blood.
CRIMSON, verb transitive To dye with crimson; to dye of a deep red color; to make red.
CRIMSON, verb intransitive To become of a deep red color; to be tinged with red; to blush.
Her cheeks crimsoned at the entrance of her lover.
CRIMSONED, participle passive Dyed or tinged with a deep red.
CRIMSONING, participle present tense Dyeing or tinging with a deep red.
CRINCUM, noun A cramp; a contraction; a turn or bend; a whim. [A vulgar word.]
CRINGE, verb transitive [G.] Properly, to shrink; to contract; to draw together; a popular use of the word. [Vulgarly, scringe.]
You see him cringe his face.
CRINGE, verb intransitive To bow; to bend with servility; to fawn; to make court by mean compliances.
Flatterers are always bowing and cringing.
CRINGE, noun A bow; servile civility.
CRINGER, noun One who cringes, or bows and flatters with servility.
CRINGING, participle present tense Shrinking; bowing servilely.
CRINGLE, noun [See Crank and Cringe.]
1. A withe for fastening a gate. [Local.]
2. In marine language, a hole in the boltrope of a sail, formed by intertwisting the division of a rope, called a strand, alternately round itself, and through the strand of the colt-rope, till it becomes three-fold, and takes the shape of a ring. Its use is to receive the ends of the ropes by which the sail is drawn up to its yard, or to extend the leech by the bow-line-bridles.
Iron-cringles or hanks, are open rings running on the stays, to which the heads of the stay sails are made fast.
CRINIGEROUS, adjective [Latin , hear, to wear.] Hairy; overgrown with hair.
CRINITE, adjective [Latin , hair.] Having the appearance of a tuft of hair.
CRINKLE, verb intransitive To turn or wind; to bend; to wrinkle; to run in and out in little or short bends or turns; as, the lightning crinkles.
CRINKLE, verb transitive To form with short turns or wrinkles; to mold into inequalities.
CRINKLE, noun A wrinkle; a winding or turn; sinuosity.
CRINOSE, adjective Hairy. [See Crinite.] [Little used.]
CRINOSITY, noun Hairiness. [Little used.]
CRIPPLE, noun [G.] A lame person; primarily, one who creeps, halts or limps; one who has lost, or never enjoyed the use of his limbs. Acts 14:8.
The word may signify one who is partially or totally disabled from using his limbs.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing.
CRIPPLE, adjective Lame.
CRIPPLE, verb transitive
1. To lame; to deprive of the use of the limbs, particularly of the legs and feet.
2. To disable; to deprive of the power of exertion. We say, a fleet was crippled in the engagement.
CRIPPLED, participle passive Lamed; rendered impotent in the limbs; disabled.
CRIPPLENESS, noun Lameness.
CRIPPLING, participle present tense Laming; depriving of the use of the limbs; disabling.
CRISIS, noun plural [Gr. Latin , to separate, to determine, to decide. See Crime.]
1. In medical science, the change of a disease which indicates its event; that change which indicates recovery or death. It is sometimes used to designate the excretion of something noxious from the body, or of the noxious fluids in a fever.
2. The decisive state of things, or the point of time when an affair is arrive to its highth, and must soon terminate or suffer a material change.
This hours the very crisis of your fate.
CRISP, adjective [Latin G. See the Verb.]
1. Curled; formed into curls or ringlets.
2. Indented; winding; as crisp channels.
3. Brittle; friable; easily broken or crumbled.
CRISP, verb transitive [Latin]
1. To curl; to twist; to contract or form into ringlets, as the hair; to wreathe or interweave, as the branches of trees.
2. To indent. To twist or eddy. But the sense is, to curl; to wrinkle in little undulations, as a fretted surface.
From that sapphire fount the crisped brooks, rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold, ran nectar, visiting each plant.
CRISPATION, noun The act of curling, or state of being curled.
CRISPATURE, noun A curling; the state of being curled.
CRISPED, participle passive Curled; twisted; frizzled.
CRISPING, participle present tense Curling; frizzling.
CRISPNESS, noun A state of being curled; also, brittleness.
CRISPY, adjective
1. Curled; formed into ringlets; as crispy locks.
2. Brittle; dried so as to break short; as a crispy cake.
CRISTATE, CRISTATED, adjective [Latin , a crest.] In botany, crested; tufted; having an appendage like a crest or tuft, as some anthers and flowers.
CRISTATE, CRISTATED adjective [Latin , a crest.] In botany, crested; tufted; having an appendage like a crest or tuft, as some anthers and flowers.
CRITERION, noun plural [Gr., to judge. See Crime.] A standard of judging; any established law, rule, principle or fact, by which facts, propositions and opinions are compared, in order to discover their truth or falsehood, or by which a correct judgment may be formed.
CRITHOMANCY, noun [Gr., barley, and divination.] A kind of divination by means of the dough of cakes, and the meal strewed over the victims, in ancient sacrifices.
CRITIC, noun [Gr., a judge or discerner, to judge, to separate, to distinguish. See Crime.]
1. A person skilled in judging of the merit of literary works; one who is able to discern and distinguish the beauties and faults of writing. In a more general sense, a person skilled in judging with propriety of any combination of objects, or of any work of art; and particularly of what are denominated the Fine Arts. A critic is one who, from experience, knowledge, habit or taste, can perceive the difference between propriety and impropriety, in objects or works presented to his view; between the natural and unnatural; the high and the low, or lofty and mean; the congruous and incongruous; the correct and incorrect, according to the established rules of the art.
2. An examiner; a judge.
And make each day a critic on the last.
3. One who judges with severity; one who censures or finds fault.
CRITIC, adjective Critical; relating to criticism, or the art of judging of the merit of a literary performance or discourse, or of any work in the fine arts. [See Critical.]
CRITIC, verb intransitive To criticise; to play the critic [Little used.]
CRITICAL, adjective [Latin Gr. See Critic.]
1. Relating to criticism; nicely exact; as a critical dissertation on Homer.
2. Having the skill or power nicely to distinguish beauties from blemishes; a a critical judge; a critical auditor; a critical ear; critical taste.
3. Making nice distinctions; accurate; as critical rules.
4. Capable of judging with accuracy; discerning beauties and faults; nicely judicious in matters of literature and the fine arts; as, Virgil was a critical poet.
5. Capable of judging with accuracy; conforming to exact rules of propriety; exact; particular; as, to be critical in rites and ceremonies, or in the selection of books.
6. Inclined to find fault, or to judge with severity.
7. [See Crisis.] Pertaining to a crisis; marking the time or state of a disease which indicates its termination in the death or recovery of the patient; as critical days, or critical symptoms.
8. Producing a crisis or change in a disease; indicating a crisis; as a critical sweat.
9. Decisive; noting a time or state on which the issue of things depends; important, as regards the consequences; as a critical time or moment; a critical juncture.
10. Formed or situated to determine or decide, or having the crisis at command; important or essential for determining; as a critical post.
CRITICALLY, adverb
1. In a critical manner; with nice discernment of truth or falsehood, propriety or impropriety; with nice scrutiny; accurately; exactly; as, to examine evidence critically; to observe critically
2. At the crisis; at the exact time.
3. In a critical situation, place or condition, so as to command the crisis; as a town critically situated.
CRITICALNESS, noun
1. The state of being critical; incidence at a particular point of time.
2. Exactness; accuracy; nicety; minute care in examination.
CRITICISE, verb intransitive s as z.
1. To examine and judge critically; to judge with attention to beauties and faults; as, to criticise on a literary work, on an argument or discourse.
2. To write remarks on the merit of a performance; to notice beauties and faults.
Cavil you may, but never criticise
3. To animadvert upon as faulty; to utter censure; as, to critise on a mans manners, or his expenses.
CRITICISE, verb transitive
1. To notice beauties and blemishes or faults in; to utter or write remarks on the merit of a performance; as, to criticise the writings of Milton.
2. To pass judgment on with respect to merit or blame; as, to criticise an author; to criticise the conduct.
CRITICISED, participle passive Examined and judged with respect to beauties and faults.
CRITICISING, participle present tense Examining and judging with regard to beauties and faults; remarking on; animadverting on.
CRITICISM, noun
1. The art of judging with propriety of the beauties and faults of a literary performance, or of any production in the fine arts; as the rules of criticism
2. The act of judging on the merit of a performance; animadversion; remark on beauties and faults; critical observation, verbal or written. We say, the authors criticisms are candid, or they are severe.
CRITIQUE, CRITIC, noun
1. A critical examination of the merits of a performance; remarks or animadversions on beauties and faults.
Addison wrote a critique on PARADISE LOST.
2. Science of criticism; standard or rules of judging of the merit of performances.
If ideas and words were distinctly weighed, and duly considered, they would afford us another sort of logic and critic.
CRIZZEL, CRIZZELING, noun [See Crisp.] A kind of roughness on the surface of glass, which clouds its transparency.
CRIZZEL, CRIZZELING noun [See Crisp.] A kind of roughness on the surface of glass, which clouds its transparency.
CROAK, verb intransitive [Latin G. See Crow.]
1. To make a low, hoarse noise in the throat, as a frog or other animal.
2. To caw; to cry as a raven or crow.
3. To make any low, muttering sound, resembling that of a frog or raven; as, their bellies croak
4. In contempt, to speak with a low, hollow voice.
CROAK, noun The low, harsh sound uttered by a frog or a raven, or a like sound.
CROAKER, noun One that croaks, murmurs or grumbles; one who complains unreasonably.
CROAKING, participle present tense Uttering a low, harsh sound from the throat, or other similar sound.
CROAKING, noun A low, harsh sound, as of a frog, or the bowels.
CROATS, noun Troops, natives or Croatia.
CROCALITE, noun A mineral, a variety of zeolite, of an orange or brick red color. It is sometimes found in reniform or globular masses, with a radiated texture.
CROCEOUS, adjective [Latin] Like saffron; yellow; consisting of saffron.
CROCHES, noun Little buds or knobs about the tops of a deers horn.
CROCITATION, noun [Latin] A croaking.
CROCK, noun An earthen vessel; a pot or pitcher; a cup.
CROCK, noun Soot, or the black matter collected from combustion on pots and kettles, or in a chimney.
CROCK, verb transitive or I. To black with soot, or other matter collected from combustion; or to black with the coloring matter of cloth.
CROCKERY, noun [See Crock.] Earthen ware; vessels formed of clay, glazed and baked. The term is applied to the coarser kinds of ware; the finer kinds being usually called china or porcelain.
CROCODILE, noun [Gr., saffron, and fearing. Latin ]
1. An amphibious animal of the genus Lacerta or lizard, of the largest kind. It has a naked body, with four feet and a tail; it has five toes on the fore feet, and four on the hind feet. It grows to the length of sixteen or eighteen feet, runs swiftly on land, but does not easily turn itself. It inhabits the large rivers in Africa and Asia, and lays its eggs, resembling those of a goose, in the sand, to be hatched by the heat of the sun. [See Alligator.]
2. In rhetoric, a captious and sophistical argument contrived to draw one into a snare.
CROCODILE, adjective Pertaining to or like a crocodile; as crocodile tears, that is, false or affected tears, hypocritical sorrow.
CROCUS, noun [Gr.]
1. Saffron, a genus of plants.
2. In chimistry, a yellow powder; any metal calcined to a red or deep yellow color.
CROFT, noun [Latin , Gr., to conceal.] A little close adjoining or near to a dwelling house, and used for pasture, tillage or other purposes.
CROISADE, noun A holy war; an expedition of Christians against the infidels, for the conquest of Palestine. [See the more common word, Crusade.]
CROISES, noun [See Cross.]
1. Soldiers enrolled under the banners of the cross.
2. Pilgrims who carry the cross.
CROKER, noun A fowl that inhabits the Chesapeak and the large rivers in Virginia; sometimes of three feet in length.
CROMLECH, noun Huge flat stones resting on other stones, set on end for that purpose; supposed to be the remains of druidical altars.
CRONE, noun [Gr., old.]
1. An old woman.
2. An old ewe.
CRONET, noun [coronet.]
1. The hair which grows over the top of a horses hoof.
2. The iron at the end of a tilting spade.
CRONICAL, CRONYCAL. [See Acronical.]
CRONY, noun [See Crone. But this word seems to carry the sense of fellowship; to join, to associate; whence its derivative, an associate.] An intimate companion; an associate; a familiar friend.
To oblige your crony Swift, bring our dame a new years gift.
Hence, an old crony is an intimate friend of long standing.
CRONICAL, CRONYCAL [See Acronical.]
CROOK, noun [G., the back, or ridge of an animal. Latin , a wrinkle, a circle; rough, hoarse. The radical sense of crook is to strain or draw; hence, to bend.]
1. Any bend, turn or curve; or a bent or curving instrument. We speak of a crook in a stick of timber, or in a river; and any hook is a crook
2. A shepherd staff, curving at the end; a pastoral staff. When used by a bishop or abbot, it is called a crosier.
He left his crook he left his flocks.
3. A gibbet.
4. An artifice; a trick.
CROOK, verb transitive
1. To bend; to turn from a straight line; to make a curve or hook.
2. To turn from rectitude; to pervert.
3. To thwart. [Little used.]
CROOK, verb intransitive To bend or be bent; to be turned from a right line; to curve; to wind.
CROOKED, participle passive or adjective
1. Bent; curved; curving; winding.
2. Winding in moral conduct; devious; froward; perverse; going out of the path of rectitude; given to obliquity or wandering from duty.
They are a perverse and crooked generation. Deuteronomy 32:5.
CROOKEDLY, adverb
1. In a winding manner.
2. Untowardly; not compliantly.
CROOKEDNESS, noun
1. A winding, bending or turning; curvity; curvature; inflection.
2. Perverseness; untowardness; deviation from rectitude; iniquity; obliquity of conduct.
3. Deformity of a gibbous body.
CROOKEN, verb transitive To make crooked. [Not in use.]
CROOKING, participle present tense Bending; winding.
CROOP, CROUP, noun The disease called technically cynanche trachealis, and affection of the throat accompanied with a hoarse difficult respiration. It is vulgarly called rattles.
CROUPADE, CROOPADE noun [from croup, or its root.] In the manege, a leap in which the horse pulls up his hind legs, as if he drew them up to his belly.
CROP, noun [G., Latin The crop of a fowl, and a crop of grain or hay are consistently the same word.]
1. The first stomach of a fowl; the craw.
2. The top or highest part of a thing; the end. [Not in use.]
3. That which is gathered; the corn, or fruits of the earth collected; harvest. The word includes every species of fruit or produce, gathered for man or beast.
4. Corn and other cultivated plants while growing; a popular use of the word.
5. Any thing cut off or gathered.
6. Hair cut close or short.
CROP, verb transitive
1. To cut off the ends of any thing; to eat off; to pull off; to pluck; to mow; to reap; as, to crop flowers, trees, or grass. Man crops trees or plants with an instrument, or with his fingers; a beast crops with his teeth.
2. To cut off prematurely; to gather before it falls.
While force our youth, like fruits, untimely crops.
CROP, verb intransitive To yield harvest. [Not in use.]
CROPFUL, adjective Having a full crop or belly; satiated.
CROPPED, CROPT, participle passive Cut off; plucked; eaten off; reaped, or mowed.
CROPPER, noun A pigeon with a large crop.
CROPPING, participle present tense Cutting off; pulling off; eating off; reaping, or mowing.
CROPPING, noun
1. The act of cutting off.
2. The raising of crops.
CROPPED, CROPT participle passive Cut off; plucked; eaten off; reaped, or mowed.
CROSIER, noun
1. A bishop crook or pastoral staff, a symbol of pastoral authority and care. It consists of a gold or silver staff, crooked at the top, and is carried occasionally before bishops and abbots, and held in the hand when they give solemn benedictions. The use of crosiers is ancient. Originally a crosier was a staff with a cross on the top, in form of a crutch or T.
2. In astronomy, four stars in the southern hemisphere, in the form of a cross.
CROSLET, noun [See Cross.] A small cross. In heraldry, a cross crossed at a small distance from the ends.
CROSS, noun [G., Latin ]
1. A gibbet consisting of two pieces of timber placed across each other, either in form of a T or of an X. That on which our Savior suffered, is represented on coins and other monuments, to have been of the former kind.
2. The ensign of the Christian religion; and hence figuratively, the religion itself.
3. A monument with a cross upon it to excite devotion, such as were anciently set in market places.
4. Any thing in the form of a cross or gibbet.
5. A line drawn through another.
6. Any thing that thwarts, obstructs, or perplexes; hindrance; vexation; misfortune; opposition; trial of patience.
Heaven prepares good men with crosses.
7. Money or coin stamped with the figure of a cross
8. The right side or face of a coin, stamped with a cross
9. The mark of a cross instead of a signature, on a deed, formerly impressed by those who could not write.
10. Church lands in Ireland.
11. In theology, the suffering of Christ by crucifixion.
That he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross Ephesians 2:16.
12. The doctrine of Christs sufferings and of the atonement, or of salvation by Christ.
The preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1:17. Galatians 5:11.
To take up the cross is to submit to troubles and afflictions from love to Christ.
13. In mining, two nicks cut in the surface of the earth, thus +.
CROSS and pile, a play with money, at which it is put to chance whether a coin shall fall with that side up, which bears the cross or the other which is called pile or reverse.
CROSS, adjective
1. Transverse; oblique; passing from side to side; falling athwart; as a cross beam.
The cross refraction of a second prism.
2. Adverse; opposite; obstructing; sometimes with to; as an event cross to our inclinations.
3. Perverse; untractable; as the cross circumstances of a mans temper.
4. Peevish; fretful; ill-humored; applied to persons or things; as a cross woman or husband; a cross answer.
5. Contrary; contradictory; perplexing.
Contradictions that seem to lie cross and uncouth.
6. Adverse; unfortunate.
Behold the cross and unlucky issue of my design.
7. Interchanged; as a cross marriage, when a brother and sister intermarry with two persons who have the same relation to each other.
8. Noting what belongs to an adverse party; as a cross interrogatory.
CROSS, preposition Athwart; transversely; over; from side to side; so as to intersect.
This is admissible in poetry, as an abbreviation of across.
CROSS, verb transitive
1. To draw or run a line, or lay a body across another; as, to cross a word in writing; to cross the arms.
2. To erase; to cancel; as, to cross an account.
3. To make the sign of the cross as catholics in devotion.
4. To pass from side to side; to pass or move over; as, to cross a road; to cross a river, or the ocean. I crossed the English channel, from Dieppe to Brighton, in a steam-boat, Sept. 18, 1824.
5. To thwart; to obstruct; to hinder; to embarrass; as, to cross a purpose or design.
6. To counteract; to clash or interfere with; to be inconsistent with; as, natural appetites may cross our principles.
7. To counteract or contravene; to hinder by authority; to stop. [See No. 5.]
8. To contradict.
9. To debar or preclude.
To cross the breed of an animal, is to produce young from different varieties of the species.
CROSS, verb intransitive
1. To lie or be athwart.
2. To move or pass laterally, or from one side towards the other, or from place to place, either at right angles or obliquely; as, to cross from Nantucket to New Bedford.
3. To be inconsistent; as, mens actions d not always cross with reason.
CROSSCUT, verb transitive To cut across.
CROSSED, participle passive Having a line drawn over; canceled; erased; passed over; thwarted; opposed; obstructed; counteracted.
CROSSING, participle present tense Drawing; running or passing a line over; erasing; canceling; thwarting; opposing; counteracting; passing over.
CROSSING, noun A thwarting; impediment; vexation.
CROSSLY, adverb
1. Athwart; so as to intersect something else.
2. Adversely; in opposition; unfortunately.
3. Peevishly; fretfully.
CROSSNESS, noun Peevishness; fretfulness; ill humor; perverseness.
CROTCH, noun [See Crook and Crutch.]
1. A fork or forking; the parting of two legs or branches; as the crotch of a tree.
2. In ships, a crooked timber placed on the keel, in the fore and aft parts of a ship.
3. A piece of wood or iron, opening on the top and extending two horns or arms, like a half moon, used for supporting a boom, a spare topmast, yards, etc.
CROTCHED, adjective Having a crotch; forked.
CROTCHET, noun [See Crook.]
1. In printing, a hook including words, a sentence or a passage distinguished form the rest, thus [ ].
2. In music, a note or character, equal in time to half a minim, and double of a quaver.
3. A piece of wood resembling a fork, used as a support in building.
4. A peculiar turn of the mind; a whim, or fancy; a perverse conceit.
All the devices and crotchets of new inventions.
CROTCHETED, adjective Marked with crotchets.
CROUCH, verb intransitive [G., to creep, to stoop, to cringe.]
1. To bend down; to stoop low; to lie close to the ground; as an animal. A dog crouches to his master; a lion crouches in the thicket.
2. To bend servilely; to stoop meanly; to fawn; to cringe.
Every one that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of bread. 1 Samuel 2:36.
CROUCH, verb transitive [See Cross.] To sign with the cross; to bless. [Not in use.]
CROUCHING, participle present tense Bending; stooping; cringing.
CROUP, CROOP, noun
1. The rump of a fowl; the buttocks of a horse, or extremity of the reins above the hips.
2. [See Croop.] The cynanche trachealis, a disease of the throat.
CROUPADE, CROOPADE, noun [from croup, or its root.] In the manege, a leap in which the horse pulls up his hind legs, as if he drew them up to his belly.
CROUT, KROUT, noun [G., an herb.] Sour crout is made by laying minced or chopped cabbage in layers in a barrel, with a handful of salt and caraway seeds between the layers; then ramming down the whole, covering it, pressing it with a heavy weight, and suffering it to stand, till it has gone through fermentation. It is an efficacious preservative against scurvy in long voyages.
CROW, noun [G., Latin ]
1. A large black fowl, of the genus Corvus; the beak is convex and cultrated, the nostrils are covered with bristly feathers, the tongue is forked and cartilaginous. This is a voracious fowl, feeding on carrion and grain, particularly maiz, which it pulls up, just after it appears above ground.
To pluck or pull a crow is to be industrious or contentious about a trifle, or thing of no value.
2. A bar of iron with a beak, crook or two claws, used in raising and moving heavy weights.
3. The voice of the cock. [See the Verb.]
CROW, verb intransitive preterit tense and participle passive crowed; formerly, preterit tense crew. [Gr. See the Noun.]
1. To cry or make a noise as a cock, in joy, gaiety or defiance.
2. To boast in triumph; to vaunt; to vapor; to swagger. [A popular, but not an elegant use of the word.]
CROWD, CROWTH, noun An instrument of music with six strings; a kind of violin.
CROWDED, participle passive Collected and pressed; pressed together; urged; driven; filled by a promiscuous multitude.
CROWDER, noun A fiddler; one who plays on a crowd.
CROWDING, participle present tense Pressing together; pushing; thrusting; driving; assembling in a promiscuous multitude; filling; urging.
CROWING, participle present tense Uttering a particular voice, as a cock; boasting in triumph; vaunting; bragging.
CROWN, noun [G., Latin ]
1. An ornament worn on the head by kings and sovereign princes, as a badge of imperial or regal power and dignity. Figuratively, regal power; royalty; kingly government, or executive authority.
2. A wreath or garland.
3. Honorary distinction; reward.
They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; we, an incorruptible. 1 Corinthians 9:25.
4. Honor; splendor; dignity.
The crown has fallen from our heads. Lamentations 5:16. Philippians 4:1.
A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. Proverbs 12:4.
5. The top of the head; the top of a mountain or other elevated object. The end of an anchor, or the point from which the arms proceed.
6. The part of a hat which covers the top of the head.
7. A coin anciently stamped with the figure of a crown The English crown is five shillings sterling. The French crown is a hundred and nine cents. Other coins bear the same name.
8. Completion; accomplishment.
9. Clerical tonsure in a circular form; a little circle shaved on the top of the head, as a mark of ecclesiastical office or distinction.
10. Among jewelers, the upper work of a rose diamond.
11. In botany, an appendage to the top of a seed, which serves to bear it in the wind.
CROWN, verb transitive
1. To invest with a crown or regal ornament. Hence, to invest with regal dignity and power.
2. To cover, as with a crown; to cover the top.
And peaceful olives crowned his hoary head.
3. To honor; to dignify; to adorn.
Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor. Psalms 8:5.
4. To reward; to bestow an honorary reward or distinction on; as the victor crowned with laurel.
5. To reward; to recompense.
Shell crown a grateful and a constant flame.
6. To terminate or finish; to complete; to perfect.
7. To terminate and reward; as, our efforts were crowned with success.
CROWNED, participle passive Invested with a crown, or with regal power and dignity; honored; dignified; rewarded with a crown, wreath, garland or distinction; recompensed; terminated; completed; perfected.
CROWNER, noun He or that which crowns or completes.
CROWNET, noun A coronet, which see. Shakspeare has used it for chief end or last purpose; but this sense is singular.
CROWNING, participle present tense Investing with a crown, or with royalty or supreme power; honoring with a wreath or with distinction; adorning; rewarding; finishing; perfecting.
CROWNING, noun
1. In architecture, the finishing of a member or any ornamental work.
2. In marine language, the finishing part of a knot, or interweaving of the strands.
CROWD, CROWTH noun An instrument of music with six strings; a kind of violin.
CROWD, noun [See Crew.]
1. Properly, a collection; a number of things collected, or closely pressed together.
2. A number of persons congregated and pressed together, or collected into a close body without order; a throng. Hence,
3. A multitude; a great number collected.
4. A number of things near together; a number promiscuously assembled or lying near each other; as a crowd of isles in the Egean Sea.
5. The lower orders of people; the populace; the vulgar.
CROWD, verb transitive
1. To press; to urge; to drive together.
2. To fill by pressing numbers together without order; as, to crowd a room with people; to crowd the memory with ideas.
3. To fill to excess.
Volumes of reports crowd a lawyers library.
4. To encumber by multitudes.
5. To urge; to press by solicitation; to dun.
6. In seamanship, to crowd sail, is to carry an extraordinary force of sail, with a view to accelerate the course of a ship, as in chasing or escaping from an enemy; to carry a press of sail.
CROWD, verb intransitive
1. To press in numbers; as, the multitude crowded through the gate or into the room.
2. To press; to urge forward; as, the man crowded into the room.
3. To swarm or be numerous.
CROYLSTONE, noun Crystalized cauk, in which the crystals are small.
CRUCIAL, adjective [Latin , a cross.] In surgery, transverse; passing across; intersecting; in form of a cross; as crucial incision.
CRUCIAN, noun A short, thick, broad fish, of a deep yellow color.
CRUCIATE, verb transitive [Latin , to torture, a cross.] To torture; to torment; to afflict with extreme pain or distress; but he verb is seldom used. [See Excruciate.]
CRUCIATE, adjective Tormented. [Little used.]
CRUCIATION, noun The act of torturing; torment. [Little used.]
CRUCIBLE, noun
1. A chemical vessel or melting pot, made of earth, and so tempered and baked, as to endure extreme heat without melting. It is used for melting ores, metals, etc.
2. A hollow place at the bottom of a chemical furnace.
CRUCIFEROUS, adjective [Latin , a cross, and to bear.] Bearing the cross.
CRUCIFIER, noun [See Crucify.] A person who crucifies; one who puts another to death on a cross.
CRUCIFIX, noun [Latin , to fix on a cross; to fix.]
1. A cross on which the body of Christ is fastened in effigy.
2. A representation, in painting or statuary, of our Lord fastened to the cross.
3. Figuratively, the religion of Christ. [Little used.]
CRUCIFIXION, noun [See Crucifix.] The nailing or fastening of a person to a cross, for the purpose of putting him to death; the act or punishment of putting a criminal to death by nailing him to a cross.
CRUCIFORM, adjective [Latin , a cross, and form.] Cross-shaped.
In botany, consisting of four equal petals, disposed int he form of a cross.
CRUCIFY, verb transitive [Latin , cross, to fix.]
1. To nail to a cross; to put to death by nailing the hands and feet to a cross or gibbet, sometimes anciently, by fastening a criminal to a tree, with cords.
But they cried, crucify him, crucify him. Luke 23:21.
2. In scriptural language, to subdue; to mortify; to destroy the power or ruling influence of.
They that are Christs have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts. Galatians 5:24.
3. To reject and despise.
They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh. Hebrews 6:6.
To be crucified with Christ, is to become dead to the law and to sin, and to have indwelling corruption subdued. Galatians 2:20 and 6.
4. To vex or torment. [Not used.]
CRUCIFYING, participle present tense Putting to death on a cross or gibbet; subduing; destroying the life and power of.
CRUD, noun Curd. [See crud the usual orthography.]
CRUDE, adjective [Latin G.]
1. Raw; not cooked or prepared by fire or heat; in its natural state; undressed; as crude flesh; crude meat. In this sense, raw is more generally used.
2. Not changed from its natural state; not altered or prepared by any artificial process; as crude salt; crude alum.
3. Rough; harsh; unripe; not mellowed by air or other means; as crude juice.
4. Unconcocted; not well digested in the stomach.
5. Not brought to perfection; unfinished; immature; as the crude materials of the earth.
6. Having indigested notions.
7. Indigested; not matured; not well formed, arranged, or prepared in the intellect; as, crude notions; a crude plan; a crude theory.
CRUDELY, adverb Without due preparation; without form or arrangement; without maturity or digestion.
CRUDENESS, noun
1. Rawness; unripeness; an undigested or unprepared state; as the crudeness of flesh or plants, or of any body in its natural state.
2. A state of being unformed, or indigested; immatureness; as the crudeness of a theory.
CRUDITY, noun [Latin] Rawness; crudeness. Among physicians, undigested substances in the stomach; or unconcocted humors, not well prepared for expulsion; excrements. In the latter senses, it admits of the plural.
CRUDLE, verb transitive To coagulate. But this word is generally written curdle, which see.
CRUDY, adjective
1. Concreted; coagulated. [Not in use. See Curd.]
2. Raw; chill. [Not used. See Crude.]
CRUEL, adjective [Latin See Crude and Rude.]
1. Disposed to give pain to others, in body or mind; willing or pleased to torment, vex or afflict; inhuman; destitute of pity, compassion or kindness; fierce; ferocious; savage; barbarous; hardhearted; applied to persons or their dispositions.
They are cruel and have no mercy. Jeremiah 6:23.
2. Inhuman; barbarous; savage; causing pain, grief or distress; exerted in tormenting, vexing or afflicting.
Cursed be their wrath, for it was cruel Genesis 44:1.
The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel Proverbs 12:10.
Others had trials of cruel mockings. Hebrews 11:36.
CRUELLY, adverb
1. In a cruel manner; with cruelty; inhumanly; barbarously.
Because he cruelly oppressed, he shall die in his iniquity. Ezekiel 18:18.
2. Painfully; with severe pain, or torture; as, an instrument may cut the flesh most cruelly
CRUELNESS, noun Inhumanity; cruelty.
CRUELTY, noun [Latin]
1. Inhumanity; a savage or barbarous disposition or temper, which is gratified in giving unnecessary pain or distress to others; barbarity; applied to persons; as the cruelty of savages; the cruelty and envy of the people.
2. Barbarous deed; any act of a human being which inflicts unnecessary pain; any act intended to torment, vex or afflict, or which actually torments or afflicts, without necessity; wrong; injustice; oppression.
With force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. Ezekiel 34:4.
CRUENTATE, adjective [Latin] Smeared with blood. [Little used.]
CRUET, noun [See Cruse.] A vial or small glass bottle, for holding vinegar, oil, etc.
CRUISE, noun [See Cruse.]
CRUISE, verb intransitive s as z. [See cross.] To sail back and forth, or to rove on the ocean in search of an enemys ships for capture, or for protecting commerce; or to rove for plunder as a pirate. The admiral cruised between the Bahama isles and Cuba. We cruised off Cape Finisterre. A pirate was cruising in the gulf of Mexico.
CRUISE, noun A voyage made in crossing courses; a sailing to and fro in search of an enemys ships, or by a pirate in search of plunder.
CRUISER, noun A person or a ship that cruises; usually, an armed ship that sails to and fro for capturing an enemys ships, for protecting the commerce of the country, or for plunder.
CRUISING, participle present tense Sailing for the capture of an enemys ships, or for protecting commerce, or for plunder as a pirate.
CRUM, noun [G.] A small fragment or piece; usually, a small piece of bread or other food, broken or cut off.
Lazarus, desiring to be fed with the crums which fell from the rich mans table. Luke 16:1.
CRUMBLE, verb transitive [G.] To break into small pieces; to divide into minute parts.
CRUMBLE, verb intransitive
1. To fall into small pieces; to break or part into small fragments.
I a stone is brittle, it will crumble into gravel.
2. To fall into decay; to perish; as, our flesh shall crumble into dust.
CRUMBLED, participle passive Broken or parted into small pieces.
CRUMBLING, participle present tense Breaking into small fragments; falling into small pieces; decaying.
CRUMENAL, noun [Latin] A purse. [Not used.]
CRUMMY, adjective Full of crums; soft.
CRUMP, adjective [G. crump rump, rumple, crumple, crimple, are doubtless of one family.] Crooked; as crump-shouldered.
CRUMPET, noun A soft cake.
CRUMPLE, verb intransitive [from crump. See Rumple, the same word without a prefix.] To draw or press into wrinkles or folds; to rumple.
CRUMPLE, verb intransitive To contract; to shrink.
CRUMPLED, participle passive Drawn or pressed into wrinkles.
CRUMPLING, participle present tense Drawing or pressing into wrinkles.
CRUMPLING, noun A small degenerate apple.
CRUNK, CRUNKLE, verb intransitive To cry like a crane. [Not used.]
CRUNK, CRUNKLE verb intransitive To cry like a crane. [Not used.]
CRUOR, noun [Latin] Gore; coagulated blood.
CRUP, CROUP, noun The buttocks.
CRUP, adjective Short; brittle. [Not in use.]
CRUPPER, noun [See Croup.]
1. In the manege, the buttocks of a horse; the rump.
2. A strap of leather which is buckled to a saddle, and passing under a horses tail, prevents the saddle from being cast forward onto the horses neck.
CRUPPER, verb transitive To put a crupper on; as, to crupper a horse.
CRURAL, adjective [Latin , the leg.] Belonging to the leg; as the crural artery, which conveys blood to the legs, and the crural vein, which returns it.
CRUSADE, noun [Latin] A military expedition undertaken by Christians, for the recovery of the Holy Land, the scene of our Saviors life and sufferings, from the power of infidels or Mohammedans. Several of these expeditions were carried on from Europe, under the banner of the cross, from which the name originated.
CRUSADE, noun A Portuguese coin stamped with a cross.
CRUSADER, noun A person engaged in a crusade.
CRUSE, noun [See crucible.] A small cup.
Take with thee a cruse of honey. 1 Kings 14:3.
In New England, it is used chiefly or wholly for a small bottle or vial for vinegar, called a vinegar-cruse.
CRUSET, noun [See Crucible.] A goldsmiths crucible or melting pot.
CRUSH, verb transitive
1. To press and bruise between two hard bodies; to squeeze, so as to force a thing out of its natural shape; to bruise by pressure.
The ass--crushed Balaams foot against the wall. Numbers 22:25.
To crush grapes or apples, is to squeeze them till bruised and broken, so that the juice escapes. Hence, to crush out, is to force out by pressure.
2. To press with violence; to force together into a mass.
3. To overwhelm by pressure; to beat or force down, by an incumbent weight, with breaking or bruising; as, the man was crushed by the fall of a tree.
To crush the pillars which the pile sustain.
Who are crushed before the moth. Job 4:19.
4. To overwhelm by power; to subdue; to conquer beyond resistance; as, to crush ones enemies; to crush a rebellion.
5. To oppress grievously.
Thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always. Deuteronomy 28:33.
6. To bruise and break into fine particles by beating or grinding; to comminute.
CRUSH, verb intransitive To be pressed into a smaller compass by external weight or force.
CRUSH, noun A violent collision, or rushing together, which breaks or bruises the bodies; or a fall that breaks or bruises into a confused mass; as the crush of a large tree, or of a building.
The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.
CRUSHED, participle passive Pressed or squeezed so as to break or bruise; overwhelmed or subdued by power; broken or bruised by a fall; grievously oppressed; broken or bruised to powder; comminuted.
CRUSHING, participle present tense Pressing or squeezing into a mass, or until broken or bruised; overwhelming; subduing by force; oppressing; comminuting.
CRUST, noun [Latin , G.]
1. An external coat or covering of a thing, which is hard or harder than the internal substance; as the crust of bread; the crust of snow; the crust of dross; the crust of a pie.
2. A piece of crust; a waste piece of bread.
3. A shell, as the hard covering of a crab and some other animals.
4. A scab.
5. The superficial substances of the earth are, in geology, called its crust
CRUST, verb transitive
1. To cover with a hard case or coat; to spread over the surface a substance harder than the matter covered; to incrust; as, to crust a thing with clay; to crust cake with sugar; crusted with bark.
2. To cover with concretions.
CRUST, verb intransitive To gather or contract into a hard covering; to concrete or freeze, as superficial matter.
CRUSTACEOLOGY. [See Crustalogy.]
CRUSTACEOUS, adjective [Latin] Pertaining to crust; like crust; of the nature of crust or shell. crustaceous animals, or Crustacea, have a crust or shell composed of several jointed pieces, and in their external form have a great resemblance to insects; but in their internal structure and economy, they are quite different. They were arranged by Linne, in the same class with the insects, but now form a class by themselves. They include the crab, lobster, shrimp, etc.
CRUSTACEOUSNESS, noun The quality of having a soft and jointed shell.
CRUSTALOGICAL, adjective [See Crustalogy.] Pertaining to curstalogy.
CRUSTALOGIST, noun One who describes, or is versed in the science of crustaceous animals.
CRUSTALOGY, noun [Latin , a shell, Gr., discourse.] That part of zoology which treats of crustaceous animals, arranging them in orders, tribes and families, and describing their forms and habits.
[Crustaceology, the word sometimes used, is ill-formed, and its derivatives inconveniently long. Who can endure such words as crustaceological?]
CRUSTATED, adjective Covered with a crust; as crustated basalt.
CRUSTATION, noun An adherent crust; incrustation.
CRUSTED, participle passive Covered with a crust.
CRUSTILY, adverb [from crusty.] Peevishly; harshly; morosely.
CRUSTINESS, noun
1. The quality of crust; harness.
2. Peevishness; moroseness; surliness.
CRUSTING, participle present tense Covering with crust.
CRUSTY, adjective
1. Like crust; of the nature of crust; pertaining to a hard covering; hard; as a crusty coat; a crusty surface or substance.
2. Peevish; snappish; morose; surly; a word used in familiar discourse, but not deemed elegant.
CRUTCH, noun [G.]
1. A staff with a curving cross piece at the head, to be placed under the arm or shoulder, to support the lame in walking.
2. Figuratively, old age.
CRUTCH, verb transitive To support on crutches; to prop or sustain, with miserable helps, that which is feeble.
Two fools that crutch their feeble sense on verse.
CRUX, noun [Latin , a cross.] Any thing that puzzles and vexes. [Little used.]
CRUYSHAGE, noun A fish of the shark kind, having a triangular head and mouth.
CRY, verb intransitive preterit tense and participle passive cried. It ought to be cryed.
1. To utter a loud voice; to speak, call or exclaim with vehemence; in a very general sense.
2. To call importunately; to utter a loud voice, by way of earnest request of prayer.
The people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Genesis 41:1.
The people cried to Moses, and he prayed. Numbers 11:1.
3. To utter a loud voice in weeping; to utter the voice of sorrow; to lament.
But ye shall cry for sorrow of heart. Isaiah 65:14.
Esau cried with a great and bitter cry Genesis 27:34.
Also, to weep or shed tears in silence; a popular use of the word.
4. To utter a loud sound in distress; as, Heshbon shall cry Isaiah 15:4.
He giveth food to the young raves which cry Psalms 147:9.
5. To exclaim; to utter a loud voice; with out.
And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out. Luke 9:1.
6. To proclaim; to utter a loud voice, in giving public notice.
Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 2:2.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. Isa 40.
7. To bawl; to squall; as a child.
8. To yelp, as a dog. It may be used for the uttering of a loud voice by other animals.
To cry against, to exclaim, or utter a loud voice, by way of reproof, threatening or censure.
Arise, go to Nineveh, and cry against it. Jonah 1:2.
To cry out, to exclaim; to vociferate; to scream; to clamor. 2. To complain loudly.
To cry out against, to complain loudly, with a view to censure; to blame; to utter censure.
To cry to, to call on in prayer; to implore.
CRY, verb transitive
1. To proclaim; to name loudly and publicly for giving notice; as, to cry goods; to cry a lost a child.
To cry down,
1. To decry; to depreciate by words or in writing; to dispraise; to condemn.
Men of dissolute lives cry down religion, because they would not be under the restraints of it.
2. To overbear.
CRY down this fellows insolence.
To cry up,
1. To praise; to applaud; to extol; as, to cry up a mans talents or patriotism, or a womans beauty; to cry up the administration.
2. To raise the price by proclamation; as, to cry up certain coins. [Not in use.]
To cry off, in the vulgar dialect, is to publish intentions of marriage.
CRY, noun plural cries.
1. In a general sense, a loud sound uttered by the mouth of an animal; applicable to the voice of man or beast, and articulate or inarticulate.
2. A loud or vehement sound, uttered in weeping, or lamentation; it may be a shriek or scream.
And there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt. Exodus 11:6.
3. Clamor; outcry; as, war, war, is the public cry
And there arose a great cry Acts 23:9.
4. Exclamations of triumph, or wonder, or of other passion.
5. Proclamation; public notice.
At midnight there was a cry made. Matthew 25:6.
6. The notices of hawkers of wares to be sold int he street are called cries; as the cries of London.
7. Acclamation; expression of popular favor.
The cry went once for thee.
8. A loud voice in distress, prayer or request; importunate call.
He forgetteth no the cry of the humble. Psalms 9:12.
There was a great cry in Egypt. Exodus 12:30.
9. Public reports or complaints; noise; fame.
Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great--I will go down, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it. Gen 18.
10. Bitter complaints of oppression and injustice.
He looked for righteousness, and behold a cry Isa 5.
11. The sound or voice of irrational animals; expression of joy, fright, alarm, or want; as the cries of fowls, the yell or yelping of dogs, etc.
1. A pack of dogs.
CRYAL, noun The heron.
CRYER, noun A crier, which see.
CRYER, noun A kind of hawk, called the falcon gentle, an enemy to pigeous, and very swift.
CRYING, participle present tense Uttering a loud voice; proclaiming; etc.
CRYING, adjective Notorious; common; great; as a crying sin or abuse.
CRYING, noun Importunate call; clamor; outcry.
CRYOLITE, noun [Gr., cold, and stone, ice-stone.] A fluate of soda and alumin, found in Greenland, of a pale grayish white, snow white, or yellowish brown. It occurs in masses of a foliated structure. It has a glistening, vitreous luster.
CRYOPHORUS, noun [Gr., frost, and to bear.] Frost-bearer; an instrument for showing the relation between evaporation at low temperatures and the production of cold.
CRYPT, noun [Gr., to hide.] A subterranean cell or cave, especially under a church for the interment of persons; also, a subterranean chapel or oratory, and the grave of a martyr.
CRYPTIC, CRYPTICAL, adjective Hidden; secret; occult.
CRYPTIC, CRYPTICAL adjective Hidden; secret; occult.
CRYPTICALLY, adverb Secretly.
CRYPTOGAM, noun [See Cryptogamy.] In botany, a plant whose stamens and pistils are not distinctly visible.
CRYPTOGAMIAN, adjective Pertaining to plants of the class Cryptogamia, including ferns, mosses, sea-weeds, mushrooms, etc.
CRYPTOGAMY, noun [Gr., concealed, and marriage.] Concealed marriage; a term applied to plants whose stamens and pistils are not well ascertained, or too small to be numbered with certainty.
CRYPTOGRAPHER, noun One who writes in secret characters.
CRYPTOGRAPHICAL, adjective Written in secret characters or in cipher, or with sympathetic ink.
CRYPTOGRAPHY, noun [Gr., hidden, and to write.] The act or art of writing in secret characters; also, secret characters or cypher.
CRYPTOLOGY, noun [Gr., secret, and discourse.] Secret or enigmatical language.
CRYSTAL, noun [Latin Gr., frost.]
1. In chemistry and mineralogy, an inorganic body, which, by the operation of affinity, has assumed the form of a regular solid, terminated by a certain number of plane and smooth surfaces.
2. A factitious body, cast in glass houses, called crystal glass; a species of glass, more perfect in its composition and manufacture, than common glass. The best kind is the Venice crystal It is called also factitious crystal or paste.
3. A substance of any kind having the form of a crystal
4. The glass of a watch-case.
Rock crystal or mountain crystal a general name for all the transparent crystals of quartz, particularly of limpid or colorless quartz.
Iceland crystal a variety of calcarious spar, or crystalized carbonate of lime, brought from Iceland. It occurs in laminated masses, easily divisible into rhombs, and is remarkable for its double refraction.
CRYSTAL, adjective Consisting of crystal or like crystal; clear; transparent; lucid; pellucid.
By crystal streams that murmur thorough the meads.
CRYSTALINE, adjective [Latin , Gr.]
1. Consisting of crystal; as a crystaline palace.
2. Resembling crystal; pure; clear; transparent; pellucid; as a crystalline sky.
CRYSTALINE heavens, in ancient astronomy, two spheres imagined between the primum mobile and the firmament, in the Ptolemaic system, which supposed the heavens to be solid and only susceptible of a single motion.
CRYSTALINE humor, crystaline lens, a lentiform pellucid body, composed of a very white, transparent, firm substance, inclosed in a membranous capsule, and situated in a depression in the anterior part of the vitreous humor of the eye. It is somewhat convex, and serves to transmit and refract the rays of light to the vitreous humor.
CRYSTALIZABLE, adjective [from crystalize.] That may be crystalized; that may form or be formed into crystals.
CRYSTALIZATION, noun [from crystalize.]
1. The act or process by which the parts of a solid body, separated by the intervention of a fluid or by fusion, again coalesce or unite, and form a solid body. If the process is slow and undisturbed, the particles assume a regular arrangement, each substance taking a determinate and regular form, according to its natural laws; but if the process is rapid or disturbed, the substance takes an irregular form. This process is the effect of refrigeration or evaporation.
2. The mass or body formed by the process of crystalizing.
CRYSTALIZE, verb transitive To cause to form crystals.
Common salt is crystalized by the evaporation of sea water.
CRYSTALIZE, verb intransitive To be converted into a crystal; to unite, as the separate particles of a substance, and form a determinate and regular solid.
Each species of salt crystalizes in a peculiar form.
CRYSTALIZED, participle passive Formed into crystals.
CRYSTALIZING, participle present tense Causing to crystalize; forming or uniting in crystals.
CRYSTALLITE, noun A name given to whinstone, cooled slowly after fusion.
CRYSTALOGRAPHER, noun [infra.] One who describes crystals, or the manner of their formation.
CRYSTALOGRAPHIC, CRYSTALOGRAPHICAL, adjective Pertaining to crystalography.
CRYSTALOGRAPHIC, CRYSTALOGRAPHICAL adjective Pertaining to crystalography.
CRYSTALOGRAPHICALLY, adverb IN the manner of crystalography.
CRYSTALOGRAPHY, noun [crystal, as above, and description.]
1. The doctrine or science of crystalization, teaching the principles of the process, and the forms and structure of crystals.
2. A discourse or treatise on crystalization.