C

cabage, to cut off the head of a deer close behind his horns. Turbervile, Hunting, xliii. 134; ‘I wyll cabage my dere, je cabacheray ma beste’, Palsgrave. ME. caboche (Book on Hunting; NED.). F. (Picard) caboche, the head, see H. Estienne, Précellence, 175. 397.

cabbish, a cabbage. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Sir O. Twi.). A Yorksh. pronunc. (EDD.).

cabinet, a cabin, hut, lodging. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 83; ‘(the lark’s) moist cabinet’, Venus and Adonis, 854.

cabrito, a kid. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3 (B. Knight). Span. cabrito.

cacafugo, a spitfire, a braggart, blustering fellow. Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. 1. 8. Span. cacafuego.

cackler, the domestic fowl. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman).

cackling-cheat; see cheat. (Cant.)

cacokenny, a purposely perverted form of cacochymy, an unhealthy state of the humours or fluids of the body. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, iii. 2 (Sweetball). Gk. κακοχυμία.

caddess, the jackdaw. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xvi. 541; ‘A cadesse or a dawe, Monedula’, Baret, Alvearie. An old Yorksh. word (EDD.).

caddow, the jackdaw. Huloet, Dict. (1552); spelt cadowe, Golding, Metam., vii. 468; Tusser, Husbandry, § 46. 28. ME. cadow(e, ‘monedula’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 313).

cade, a young animal brought up by hand; usually, a pet-lamb; rarely, a foal. ‘The Cade which cheweth the Cudde’ (here, apparently, a calf), Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, iii. 4 (Ambidexter). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Cade, sb.³ 1). ME. a cade, ‘ovis domestica’ (Cath. Angl.).

cade, oil of, oil from the prickly cedar. Oyle of Cade, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 66; p. 187. F. cade, the prickly cedar (Cotgr).

caitif, a captive. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 794; caitifes, unhappy men, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii. 253. Also, mean, niggardly, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 2, § 3. Norm. F. ‘caitif, malheureux, misérable, captif’ (Moisy); cp. Prov. caitiu, ‘captif, chétif, misérable, mauvais, méchant’ (Levy). Celto-L. type *cactivum, L. captivum.

calambac, an Eastern name of aloes-wood or eagle-wood. A Knack to know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 571. Malay kalambak. See NED.

caldesed, chaldesed, cheated. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 1010; Elephant in the Moon, 494. Coined from Chaldees, pl. of Chaldee, a Chaldean, an astrologer.

Calipolis, the wife of the Moor in Peele’s play, Battle of Alcazar, ii. 3: ‘Feed, then, and faint not, fair Calipolis.’ Hence Pistol has: ‘Feed, and be fat, my fair Calipolis’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 193; and Heywood has: ‘To feed, and be fat, my fine Cullapolis’, Royal King (Captain), vol. vi, p. 30. Those who consult Peele’s play will find the quotation to be extremely humorous. Pistol’s words occur again in Marston, What you Will, v. 1. 1.

calke, to calculate. Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 15; kalked, pp.; id. Clarence, st. 26. Short for calcule, F. calculer, L. calculare.

calker, calcar, a calculator, an astrologer; ‘Calkers of mens byrthes’, Coverdale, Isaiah ii. 6; calcars, Sir T. Wyatt, Song of Jopas, 60; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 95.

calkins, the turned-up ends of the horse-shoe which raise the heels from the ground. Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 4. 68; ‘Rampone, a calkin in a horses shoon to keepe him from sliding’, Florio. This word, with various pronunciations, is in prov. use in many parts of England from Lancash. to Shropsh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Calkin). OF. calcain, heel (Godefrey). L. calcaneum, heel (Vulg., John xiii. 18).

callet, a lewd woman, a tramp’s concubine. Othello, iv. 2. 122. B. Jonson, Volpono, iv. 1 (Lady P.); ‘Paillarde, a strumpet, callet’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland, Yorksh., and Lancash., see EDD. (s.v. Callet, sb.¹ 1). A Gipsy word, see Englische Studien, XXII (ann. 1895).

callot, calotte, a coif worn on the wig of a serjeant-at-law, a skull-cap. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Bias); Etheredge, She Would if she Could, iii. 3 (Sir Joslin). F. calotte, dimin. of cale, a caul.

†callymoocher, a term of abuse. Only occurs in Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, iii. 3 (Oliver).

calophantic, making a show of excellence; hypocritical. ‘Calophantic Puritaines’, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 53, st. 21. Gk. καλό-ς, fair + -φαντης, one who shows, from φαίνειν, to show.

calvered salmon, fresh salmon prepared in a particular way; sometimes, apparently, pickled salmon. Massinger, Maid of Honour, iii. 1 (Gasparo). ME. calvar, ‘as samone or oder fysch’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 320).

cambrel, a crooked stick with notches on it, on which butchers hang their meat. Also cambren, see Phillips (1706). Wel. cambren; cam crooked, and pren wood, stick. In prov. use in Scotland, and in England, from the Border as far south as Warwick, see EDD. (s.v. Cambrel, sb.¹). See gambrel.

cambrel, the hock of an animal; spelt camborell. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 107. 3; ‘His crooked cambrils’, Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal, x. 20; ‘Chapelet du jarret, the cambrel hogh of a horse’, Cotgrave. See EDD.

camisado, a night attack by soldiers; orig. one in which the attacking soldiers wore shirts over their armour, that they might recognize one another. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 297; Gascoigne, Jocasta, Act ii, sc. 2, l. 56. Span. camiçada, ‘a camisado, assault’ (Minsheu). Camiça, camisa, ‘a shirt’, id. Late L. camisia, a shirt (Jerome). See NED. (s.v. Chemise).

cammock, camocke, a crooked tree; esp. one that is artificially bent. Lyly, Euphues, pp. 46, 408; Peele, Works, ed. Dyce, p. 579, col. 2. ME. cambok, ‘pedum’ (Voc. 666. 27); Med. L. cambuca, ‘baculus incurvatus’ (Ducange).

camois(e. Of the nose: low and concave; ‘a Camoise nose, crooked upwarde as the Morians’, Baret, Alvearie; ‘Camously croked’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 28; camused, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1 (Lorel). F. camus, having a short and flat nose (Cotgr.).

camomile; said to grow the more, when the more trodden upon. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 441; Shirley, Hyde Park, iii. 2 (Mis. Carol).

camouccio, a term of reproach. B. Jonson. Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 3 (Sogliardo); spelt camooch, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable (Lazarillo). Perhaps Ital. camoscio, the chamois.

can, a wooden measure for liquor. Phr. burning of cans, branding measures, to show that they were of legal capacity; B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus).

Can, a lord, prince; ‘A great Emperor in Tartary whom they call Can’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 11; p. 106. See Dict. (s.v. Khan).

can, pres. indic., know; ‘Unlearned men that can no letters’, Foxe, Martyrs (ed. 1684, ii. 325); ‘Can you a remedy for the tysyke?’ Skelton, Magnyf. 561; B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass). ME. ‘I can a noble tale’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3126). See NED. (s.v. Can, vb.¹ 1).

can, used as an auxiliary of the past tense; ‘Tho can she weepe’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 50; ‘He can her fairely greet’, id. i. 4. 46. ME. very common in Cursor M.; e.g. ‘Moses fourti dais can (v.r. gan) þer-on duell’, 6462. See NED. (s.v. Can, vb.² 2).

canaglia, canaille, rabble. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. canaglia, ‘base and rascally-people, only fit for dogs company’ (Florio).

canary, a quick and lively dance. All’s Well, ii. 1. 77; pl. canaries, Middleton, Women beware, iii. 2 (Ward); to dance, L. L. L. iii. 12.

canceleer, cancelier, a hawking term. A hawk canceleers when, in stooping, she turns two or three times upon the wing, to recover herself before she seizes the prey. Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo); a turn or two in the air, Drayton, Pol. xx. 229. OF. (Picard) canceler (F. chanceler), to swerve, waver.

candle: phr. to hold a candle to the devil, to assist an evil person, to persevere in evil courses. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 316 (Orgalio, p. 93, col. 1). Cp. the Gloucestersh. saying, ‘To offer a candle to the devil’, see EDD. (s.v. Candle, 2 (5)).

candles’ ends, bits of lighted candle swallowed as flapdragons; see flapdragon. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, ii. 2. 24; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 267.

candle-waster, one who sits up late, and so wastes candles; a student, or a rake. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iii. 2 (Hedon); Much Ado, v. 1. A Somerset expression, see EDD. (s.v. Candle, 1 (22)).

cane, a ‘khan’, an Eastern inn. G. Sandys, Trav. p. 57. See Stanford (s.v. Khan). Arab, khān, a building (unfurnished) for the accommodation of travellers (Dozy, Glossaire, 83). See hane.

canicular, due to the dog-star. Canicular aspect, influence of the dog-star, excessive heat, Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 3 (2083); p. 144, col. 1. ‘Of the canicular or dog-days’, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors; bk. iv, ch. 13. L. canicula, dog-star (Horace).

canion, an ornamental roll laid in a set like sausages round the ends of the legs of breeches; ‘French hose . . . with Canions annexed reaching down beneath their knees’, Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (see Furnivall, 56). ‘Chausses à queue de merlus, round breeches with strait cannions’, Cotgrave. Span. cañon, a tube, pipe, gun-barrel.

canker, a caterpillar, a canker-worm. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 3; Milton, Lycidas, 45. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Canker, sb.² 6). ME. cankyr, ‘teredo’ (Prompt.).

canker, the dog-rose. 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 176. Cp. the prov. words canker-ball, the mossy excrescence on a wild rose-bush, canker-bell, the bud of a wild rose, canker-berry, the ‘hip’ of a wild rose, canker-rose, ‘Rosa canina’, the wild rose (EDD).).

cankered, ill-tempered. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 3; King John, ii. 1. 194. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.).

cannakin, a small can; ‘Let me the cannakin clinke’, Othello, ii. 3. 71.

cannel: Cannel bone; ‘The neck-bone or windpipe’, Phillips, Dict.; Golding, tr. Metam. 284; the collar-bone, Holland, Plutarch’s Mor. 409; spelt canell: canell of the necke (?), the nape of the neck, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 348. 10. Cp. cannell-bone (Lancash.), and channel-bone (Somerset) in prov. use for the collar-bone (EDD.). OF. (Picard) canel, a channel; F. canneau du col, ‘the nape of the neck’ (Cotgr.).

canon-bitt, a smooth round bit for horses. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 37; ‘Canon, a canon-bitt for a horse’, Cotgrave. O. Prov. canon, a tube (Levy).

canstick, a candlestick. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 131. Still in use in Berks. (EDD.).

cant, a corner, a niche; ‘Irene or Peace, she was placed aloft in a cant’, B. Jonson, James I’s Entertainment (1603); Warner, Monuments of Honour (ed. Dyce, 369) See EDD. (s.v. Cant, sb.³ 1). Norm. F. cant, ‘angle’ (Moisy).

cant, a piece, portion. Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii. 45. A Kentish term, see EDD. (s.v. Cant, sb⁴ 2). Cp. M. Du. kant (Verdam).

canted, tilted up, thrown up. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 211. See EDD. (s.v. Cant, vb.³ 9 (1)). E. Fris. kanten, ‘etwas auf die Seite legen’ (Koolman).

canter, one who cants, a vagrant. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. Can.).

cantharides, a kind of flies; Spanish flies; sometimes Aphides. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph, viii. 54. Used as a stimulant, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 1 (Cleremont). L. cantharides, pl. of cantharis; Gk. κανθαρίς, blister-fly.

canting out, singing out, in a beggar’s whine; ‘ ’Tis easier canting out, “A piece of broken bread for a poor man”, than singing “Brooms, maids, brooms: come, buy my brooms”,’ The London Chanticleers, scene 1 (Heath).

cantle, a part, portion; ‘Liron de pain, a cantle of bread’, Cotgrave; ‘A cantel pars, portio’, Levins. Manipulus. ME. cantel, ‘minutal’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 324). OF. (Picard) cantel = F. chanteau, ‘a corner-piece or piece broken off from the corner, hence, a cantel of bread’ (Cotgr.).

cantle, to portion out, Dekker, Whore of Babylon, i. 1. 9; Dryden, Juvenal’s Satire, vii.

cantore, counting-house, office; ‘A Dutchman’s money i’ th’ Cantore’, Butler, Abuse of human learning (Remains i. 211). Du. kantoor, F. comptoir, a counter.

cantred, a hundred; a district containing 100 townships. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 676, col. 1. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, 398. Wel. cantref, a cantred; cant, a hundred + tref, a town. See Ducange (s.v. Cantredus).

canvas: phr. to receive the canvas, to get the sack; i.e. to be dismissed. Shirley, The Brothers, ii. 1 (Luys); give the canvas, to dismiss, Hyde Park, i. 1 (end).

canvasado, a night attack by soldiers. Merry Devil, i. 1. 44. App. a perverted form of camisado, q.v.; due to confusion with canvass, vb., to knock about, to assault (NED.).

cap, to arrest. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, iii. 2 (Host). From. L. capias, the name of a writ; writ of capias, a writ of arrest.

cap a-huff, to set, to cock one’s cap or hat, to put on a swaggering appearance. Greene, James IV, iv. 4. 13. See huff-cap.

cap of maintenance, a kind of hat or cap worn as a symbol of official dignity, or carried before a sovereign or a high dignitary in processions. In the 17th cent. and later it is mentioned chiefly as borne, together with the sword, before the Lord Mayor, and before the Sovereign at his coronation. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 1; A Woman never vext, i. 1 (Stephen). See NED. (s.v. Maintenance).

capadochio, a prison. Puritan Widow, i. 3. 56; ‘in Caperdochy, i’ tha gaol’, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 72; spelt Capperdochy, id. p. 86. App. for Cappadocia (a bit of university slang).

cap-case, a bandbox, cover, basket. Middleton, The Changeling, iii. 4 (De F.); a small travelling-bag, Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 3 (Philogano).

caper, a privateer, cruiser. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, ii. 1 (Scapin). Du. kaper, a privateer (Sewel, ed. 1766).

capilotade, a kind of hash, or mixed dish; hence, a hash, a made-up story. ‘What a capilotade of a story’s here!’ Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, iii. 2 (Flippanta). F. capilotade, ‘a capilotadoe, or stued meat’, &c. (Cotgr.).

capnomanster, one who divines from the way in which smoke rises from an altar. For capnomancer, Birth of Merlin, iv. 1. 62. From capnomancy, divination by smoke. Gk. καπνομαντεία.

capocchia, a simpleton. In Tr. and Cr. iv. 2. 33. Fem. of Ital. capocchio, ‘a doult, a noddie’ (Florio).

capot, in the game of piquet, the winning of all the tricks by one player, which scores 40. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, ii. 2 (Wildair); to win all the tricks at the game of piquet against another; ‘I have capotted her’, id. i. 1 (Fireball). F. faire capot (Dict. de l’Acad., ed. 1762).

cappadocian. In Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, v. 1, Eyre, who had come to be Lord Mayor of London, says that he had promised ‘the mad Cappadocians’, who had been his fellow-apprentices, that he would feast them if he ever attained to that dignity. I think it is evidently a jocose expression for mad-caps, with a punning reference to the cap, i.e. the flat-cap, which was the special headgear of the London apprentice, and to which frequent references are made. Just below he varies it to ‘my fine dapper Assyrian lads’.

caprich, a freak, a whim, fancy, sudden giddy thought. Butler, Hadibras, ii. 1. 18; printed capruch, Shirley, Example, ii. 1 (Vainman). Ital. capriccio, ‘a sudden fear apprehended, making one’s hair to stand on end’ (Florio); lit. the bristling of the head (capo + riccio); see note on ‘Caprice’, by A. L. Mayhew, in Mod. Lang. Rev., July, 1912.

capricious, witty. As You Like It, iii. 3. 8; Heywood, The Fair Maid, iii. 2 (Roughman).

capte, capacity. Only in Udall: tr. of Apoph., Preface, p. vi (1877); fol. 23, back (1542); id. Cicero, § 45.

capuccio, a hood. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 10. Ital. capuccio, a cowl.

carabin(e, carbine, a mounted musketeer. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 1 (Merchant). F. carabin, ‘cavalier qui porte une carabine’ (Dict. de l’Acad.).

caract, worth, value. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., iii. 3. 23 (Kitely); Volpone, i. 1 (Corvino); Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass).

caract, carect, a mark, sign, character. Meas. for M. v. 1. 56; holy Carects, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Golding, De Mornay, iii. 37. ME. carect (Wyclif, Apoc. xx. 4). Prov. caracta, ‘marque, caractère’ (Levy). Norm. F. caractes, pl. caractères magiques (Moisy). L. caracter (Vulg., Apoc. xx. 4), Gk. χαρακτήρ.

caravan (Cant), an object inviting plunder; hence, a dupe, one easily cheated. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1; iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).

caravel, carvel, a kind of light ship. Eden, Three Books on America (ed. Arber, p. 45). Spelt carvel, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, i. 2. 15. F. caravelle, Ital. caravella, Port. caravéla.

carbonado, a piece of flesh scored across and grilled upon coals. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 4. 47; Coriolanus, iv. 5. 199; Lyly, Sapho, ii. 3. 175; to make a ‘carbonado’ of, King Lear, ii. 2. 42. Span. carbonada, ‘a carbonado on the coles’ (Minsheu).

carcanet, a collar or necklace of jewels. Com. Errors, iii. 1. 4; ‘Captain jewels in the carcanet’, Sonnet 52. 8. Cp. F. carcan, ‘une espèce de chaîne ou de collier de pierreries’ (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762).

card, a chart; esp. the circular card on which the points of the compass were marked. Macbeth, i. 3. 17; Fletcher, Loyal Subject, iii. 2 (Archas). To speak by the card, i.e. with the precision shown by such a card, Hamlet, v. 1. 149. ‘Climes that took up the greatest part o’ th’ card’, i.e. of the map, Heywood, If you know not me (Medina), vol. i. p. 334.

card, to play at cards. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers, ed. Arber, p. 25. To card a rest, to set up a rest, at the game of primero (see rest), Heywood, The Royal King, vol. vi, p. 32.

cardecu, an old silver coin, a quarter of a crown. All’s Well, iv. 3. 314; v. 2. 35. F. quart d’écu.

carduus benedictus, the Blessed Thistle, noted for its medicinal properties. Much Ado, iii. 4. 72; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, ii. 2 (Galatea). See Sin. Barth. 14.

care: phr. to take care for, to give attention to. Bible, 2 Kings xxii, and Esther vi (contents).

carect, carrect, a carrack, a ship of burden. ‘Carects or hulks’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 36 (in Shak. Plut., p. 213, n. 3); carrects, pl., Com. Errors, iii. 2. 140. Med. L. carraca, see Ducange, and Dozy, Glossaire (s.v. Caraca).

careful, anxious, solicitous. Titus And. iv. 4. 84; Milton, P. L. iv. 983; Bible, Dan. iii. 16. ME. careful, full of care, sorrowful (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1565).

carfe, an incision, cut. Golding, Metam. viii. 762; fol. 104, bk. (1603) ‘Carf’ is in prov. use for the incision or notch made by a saw or axe in felling timber (EDD.).

cargazon, a cargo; ‘A cargazon of complements’, Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. xv, p. 67. Also, a list of goods shipped; Hakluyt, vol. ii, pt. 1, p. 217. Span. cargazon, cargo.

cargo, used as an exclamation. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, iv (Butler); Tomkis, Epil. to Albumazar. In both cases the context refers to great riches.

cark(e, anxiety, grief. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 44; Massinger, Roman Actor, ii. 1 (Paris); ‘Esmoy, cark, care, thought, sorrow, heaviness’, Cotgrave; Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in the north country; gen. in phr. cark and care (EDD.). ME. cark(e, anxiety (Gamelyn, 760). Anglo-F. cark (kark), charge, load (Rough List). The Norman and Picard form of Central F. charge. See Dict. Cark(e, to be anxious; ‘I carke, I care, I take thought’, Palsgrave; Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 15; Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia, 107.

carl, a countryman, a churl. Cymb. v. 2. 4; Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 54. Icel. karl, a man, also, one of the common folk; opposed to jarl, as OE. ceorl to eorl.

carl, to act as a carl or churl, to snarl. Return from Parnassus, last scene (Furor). The verb is given as a north Yorksh. word in EDD. (s.v. Carl, sb.¹ 3).

carlot, a peasant. As You Like It, iii. 5. 108.

carnadine, a carnation-coloured stuff. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 2. 4. Ital. carnadino, a flesh-colour (Florio); carne, flesh.

carnifex, a hangman; hence, a scoundrel. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo). L. carnifex, an executioner.

caroche, a luxurious kind of carriage. Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 6); Duchess of Malfi, iv. 2; Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Leonora). F. carroche (Cotgr.). Ital. carroccio, a carriage, a ‘caroche’.

carosse, a carriage. Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, v. i (D’Escures). F. carosse (Cotgr.); Med. F. carrosse.

†carpell. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, p. 401, col. 1. Sense unknown.

carpet, a table-cloth, a table-cover. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 2 (Truewit); Staple of News, i. 2. 2; ‘a carpet to cover the table’, Heywood, A Woman killed, iii. 2 (Jenkin); ‘carpets for their tables’, Heylin, Hist. of the Reformation, To the Reader. It was in this sense that a matter was said to be ‘on the carpet’ (i.e. of the council-table). See Trench, Select Glossary.

carpet-knight, a contemptuous term for a knight whose achievements belong rather to the carpet (the lady’s boudoir) than to the field of battle; ‘Mignon de couchette, a Carpet-knight, one that ever loves to be in women’s chambers’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, i. 1 (Alberto). There was once an order of Knights of the Carpet, so called to distinguish them from knights that are dubbed for service in the field. See NED.

carriage, that which is carried, baggage. Bible, 1 Sam. xvii. 22; Acts xxi. 15; ‘Carriages of an army are termed impedimenta’, Fuller, Worthies of England, Norfolk; manner of carrying one’s body, bodily deportment, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 472; demeanour, behaviour, Com. Errors, iii. 2. 14; moral conduct, Timon, iii. 2. 89; Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Sanchio); Island Princess, ii. 6. 12.

carricado, a movement in fencing. Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler); Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 57. See NED. (s.v. Caricado).

carvel; see caravel.

carwitchet, carwhitchet, a pun, quibble, conundrum. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, v. 1 (Leath.); Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (Morello). See NED. (s.v. Carriwitchet), and Nares (s.v. Carwhichet).

case, a pair; ‘This case of rapiers’, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, ii. 2 (description of Wrath); ‘A case (pair) of matrons’, B. Jonson, Case is altered, ii. 3. 1; ‘a case of pistols’, Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 1 (Rogers); ‘two case of jewels’, Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 46).

case, to skin. All’s Well, iii. 6. 111; ‘A cased rabbit’, Dryden, Span. Friar, v. 2 (Gomez); Vanbrugh, Provok’d Wife, iv. 1 (Taylor). Still in use in the north and the W. Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Case, sb.¹ 6).

casible, a chasuble. Middleton, A Game at Chess, i. 1 (Blk. Knt.’s Pawn). Med. Lat. casibula (Ducange, s.v. Casula).

caskanet, a word common in the 17th cent., used sometimes in the sense of a necklace set with jewels (or carcanet), sometimes in the sense of a casket. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Jolenta); Lingua, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 426. See NED.

cass, to cashier, dismiss; ‘Malandrin, a cassed soldier’, Cotgrave. The pp. was confused with cast, and so spelt. ‘Pontius, you are cast’, Beaumont and Fl., Valentinian, ii. 3 (Aëcius). F. casser, ‘to break, to casse, casseere, discharge, turn out of service’ (Cotgr.). Prov. casar, ‘casser, briser’ (Levy).

cassan, casson, cheese. (Cant.) Harman, Caveat, p. 83. Casson, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song). Cp. Du. kaas, a cheese.

cassock, a soldier’s cloak or long coat. All’s Well, iv. 3. 191; B. Jonson, Every Man, ii (near the end). The military use is the original; so F. casaque, Span. and Port. casaca, and Ital. casacca. Cp. MHG. casagân, a horseman’s coat (Schade). Probably of Persian origin (through the Arabic), see NED.

cast, for cassed; see cass.

caster, one who casts dice, in gaming. The setter is one who sets, or proposes, the amount of the stake against him. If the setter wants to propose a very high stake, he says—ware the caster! i.e. let him beware. The caster usually says at all! i.e. I cast against all setters; but he may limit the amount of the stake. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2 (Tradewell).

caster, a cant term for a cloak. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Harman, Caveat, p. 82.

casting, anything given to a hawk to cleanse and purge her gorge. Massinger, Picture, iv. 1 (Ubaldo).

casting-bottle, a bottle for sprinkling perfumes. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Cupid); Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, v. 1 (Livia). So also casting-glass, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Macilente).

castrel, a kestrel, a base kind of hawk. Fletcher, The Pilgrim, i. 1 (Alphonso); Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Futelli). F. cercerelle, a kestrel (Cotgr.).

cat, in military phrase; a lofty work used in fortifications and sieges. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Canter); Shirley, Honoria, i. 2. This military work was also called a cavalier, q.v. See NED. (s.v. Cat, sb.¹ 6 b).

Cataian, a Cathaian, an inhabitant of Cathay; hence a thief, a scoundrel; because the Chinese were thought to be clever thieves, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 148; Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). See Nares.

cataphract, a horse-soldier, protected (as well as his horse) with a coat-of-mail. Milton, Samson, 1619. Gk. κατάφρακτος, one completely protected.

catasta, a jocose term for the stocks. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 259. L. catasta, a stage on which slaves were exposed for sale; Med. L. catasta, an engine of torture (Ducange).

catastrophe, conclusion; (humorously) the posteriors. L. L. L. iv. 1. 77; (2) 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 66; Merry Devil, ii. 1. 10.

†Catazaner, only in Shirley, Ball, v. 1 (Freshwater). Perhaps a misprint for Catayaner = Cataian, q.v.

cater, a caterer, purveyor, buyer of provisions. Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1 (Luke); Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 26. ME. catour (Gamelyn, 321), for Anglo-F. acatour, a buyer. See Dict.

cater-tray, lit. ‘four-three’; alluding to the four and three on opposite faces of a die. Hence stop-cater-tray, the name of a false or loaded die. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. 1 (Dique). See quatre.

Catherine pear, a small and early variety of pear. Suckling, Ballad on Wedding. Catherine-pear-coloured, of a light red colour, used of a lady’s complexion, Westward Ho, ii. 3 (Birdlime). [Cp. Crabbe, Tales of the Hall, ‘ ’Twas not the lighter red, that partly streaks The Catherine pear that brighten’d o’er her cheeks’ (x. 599).]

catlings, catgut strings for a violin. Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 306.

catso, a rogue, a scamp. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, ii. 1 (Carlo); also as interj., ‘Cat-so! let us drink’, Motteux, Rabelais, v. 8 (NED.). Ital. cazzo, an interjection of admiration, as some women cry suddenly (Florio); cazzo, ‘membrum virile’.

catstick, a stick or bat used in playing tip-cat or trap-ball. Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Page); Middleton, Women beware Women, i. 2 (Ward).

catzerie, roguery. Only in Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5. 12.

cauled, having or adorned with a caul or close-fitting cap; ‘My cauled countenance’, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 327. ME., P. Plowman, C. xvii. 351.

causen, to give reasons. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 26. Med. L. causare. (Ducange).

cautel(e, wariness, caution. Elyot, Governour, i. 4; a crafty device, trickery, Hamlet, i. 3. 15. OF. cautele, L. cautela (in Roman Law) precaution. Anglo-F. cautele, deceit (Rough List).

cautelous, cautious, wary. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Wit.); Spenser, View of Ireland (Globe ed. 619); crafty, wily, Coriolanus, iv. 1. 33.

cavalier(o. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, ii. 4. 83; iii. 2. 81. Span. cavalléro, ‘in Fortification, a Cavalier, or Mount, which is an Elevation of Earth with a platform for Canon on it, to overlook other Works’ (Stevens, 1706); cp. Ital. cavagliére a cavállo (Florio). F. cavalier, ‘se dit d’une pièce de fortification de terre fort élevée, & où l’on met du canon’ (Dict. de l’Acad., ed. 1762).

cavallerie, an order of chivalry; ‘The knighthood and cavallerie of Rome’, Holland, Pliny, ii. 460; the collective name for horse-soldiers, Bacon, Hen. VII, 74; Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 3 (Gonzaga). F. cavallerie, ‘horsemanship; horsemen’ (Cotgr.).

cavell, a mean fellow. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2217; Lyndesay, Satyre, 2863. See Jamieson.

caveson, a strong nose-piece for a horse, a kind of curb; ‘The Lithuanians, sir, . . . must Be rid with cavesons’, Sir J. Suckling, Brennoralt, iii. 1; ed. Hazlitt, vol. ii, p. 104. F. caveçon, ‘a cavechine or cavasson for a horse’s nose’ (Cotgr.). Ital. cavezzone, augmentative of cavezza a halter; Med. L. capitia, capitium, a head-covering (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. cavesson).

cazimi, cazini: in phr. in cazimi, ‘a Planet is in the heart of the Sunne, or in Cazimi, when he is not removed from him 17 minutes’, Lilly, Astrology, xix. 113; ‘In cazini of the sun’, Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Stargaze); Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 5. 6; Selden’s notes to Drayton, Pol. xiv (near the end).

cecchin, a sequin, gold coin. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2. Ital. zecchino, ‘a coin of gold current in Venice’ (Florio). See chequin.

cedule, a slip or scroll of parchment or paper containing writing. Caxton, Golden Legend, 114; spelt cedle, Morte Arthur, leaf 421, back, 5, bk. xxi, ch. 2; spelt sedyl (same page). OF. cedule; Med. Lat. cedula, scedula (Ducange), dimin. of sceda, scheda. See NED. (s.v. Schedule).

cee, a small portion of beer; marked in the buttery-book of a college with the letter c, which denoted one-sixteenth of a penny, or half a cue, as being its price. ‘Eate cues, drunk cees’, 1 Part of Jeronimo, ii. 3. 9; see Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 367. ‘Cues and cees’, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 16, ed. Arber, p. 38. See cue.

cellar, a case or stand for holding bottles. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iii. 1 (last line).

cemitare, a ‘scimitar’. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 3. F. cimeterre (Cotgr.), Span. cimitarra.

censure, judgement, opinion, Richard III, ii. 2. 144; to form or give an opinion, to estimate, ‘How you are censured here in the city’, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 25.

cent, a game at cards; also spelt saint, sant; it seems to have resembled piquet. Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One; Triumph of Death, sc. 5 (Gentille); Shirley, Example, iii. 1 (Confident). So called, because 100 was ‘game’. See Nares.

centener, a centurion. North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 4 (Shak. Plut., p. 237, n. 2); centiner, id. § 3 (p. 235, n. 2). F. centenier (Cotgr.), L. centenarius, consisting of a hundred; = centurio (Vegetius, fl. A.D. 385).

cento, a patched garment; ‘His apparel is a cento’, Shirley, Willy Fair, ii. 2; used fig., ‘There is under these centoes and miserable outsides . . . a soule of the same alloy with our owne’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 2, § 13. L. cento, a garment of patchwork.

centre, the centre of the earth, which was supposed to be also the fixed centre of the universe; ‘The firm centre’, Webster, Appius, i. 3 (Mar. Claudius).

centrinel, centronel, a sentinel. Young, Diana, 120 (NED.); Marlowe, Dido, ii. 1. 323 (Venus).

cerastes, a horned snake. Milton, P. L. x. 525. Gk. κεράστης.

ceration, a reducing to the consistency of wax. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face). L. cera, wax.

cere, to cover with wax, to shroud in a cere-cloth; ‘Then was the bodye . . . embawmed and cered’, Hall, Hen. VIII, ann. 5. L. cerare, to wax; cera, wax.

cere-cloth, the linen cloth dipped in melted wax to be used as a shroud. Merch. Ven. ii. 7. 51; cp. cerements, Hamlet, i. 4. 48. See sear-cloth.

certes, certainly. Temp. iii. 3. 30; Com. Errors, iv. 4. 77. F. certes, truly (Cotgr.), O. Prov. certas (Levy).

cestron, a ‘cistern’. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 52.

cetywall, see setwall.

ch, a form of ich, utch, southern form of the first personal pronoun I. Cha, I have, More, Heresyes, iv (Works, 278); chad, I had, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 3; cham, I am, Peele, Sir Clyom., Works, iii. 85; B. Jonson, Tale of Tub, i. 1; chave, I have, Peele, Arr. Paris, i. 1 (Pan); chee (for ich), I, London Prodigal, ii. 168; I chid, I should, ii. 1. 20; chill, I will, King Lear, iv. 6. 239; chud, I would, ib. See NED. and EDD.

chacon, a slow Spanish dance, or its tune; ‘Chacon: Two Nymphs and Triton sing’, Dryden, Albion, Act ii (end). F. chaconne (Hatzfeld); Span. chacona (Neuman and B.).

†chaflet, (?) a small platform or stage; ‘He satte vpon a chaflet in a chayer’ [chair], Morte Arthur, leaf 422, back, 2, bk. xxi, c. 3. Only in this passage. Probably the same as OF. chafault, a temporary platform. See NED. (s.v. Catafalque), and Dict. (s.v. Scaffold).

chaldrons, entrails of a calf, &c. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I. iii. 1 (Fustigo). Spelt chawdron, Macbeth, iv. 1. 33. Cp. dialect forms, chauldron, Hertford, chaudron, Gloucester, chawdon, Leicester, see EDD. (s.v. Chawdon). OF. chaudun, tripes (Roquefort); cp. G. kaldaunen.

challes, jaws. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 75; chall-bones, jaw-bones; id. § 86. In common prov. use in England as far south as Bedford, see EDD. (s.v. Chawl). ME. chaul (Wyclif, 1 Kings xvii. 35); OE. ceafl.

cham, khan. The Great Cham, the Great Khan; commonly applied to the ruler of the Mongols and Tartars, and to the Emperor of China. Much Ado, ii. 1. 277; Fletcher, The Chances, v. 3 (Don John). Turki khān, lord, prince. See NED. (s.v. Cham, Khan).

chamber, a small cannon used to fire salutes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 57; Massinger, Renegado, v. 8. See NED. (s.v. Chamber. 10 b).

chambering, wanton behaviour in private places. Bible, Romans xiii. 13; Beaumont and Fl., Woman’s Prize, ii. 4 (Citizen). Cp. chamberer, one of wanton habits, Othello, iii. 3. 265.

chamber-lie, see lye.

chamelot, a name originally applied to some beautiful and costly eastern fabric, camlet. Water Chamelot, camlet with a wavy or watered surface. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 45; Holland, Pliny, i. 228; Bacon, New Atlantis (ed. 1650, p. 3). OF. chamelot (Littré).

chamfered, furrowed, wrinkled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 23. OF. chanfraindre, to chamfer, to furrow, also, to bevel an edge. Possibly for chant-fraindre, which may = Med. L. cantum frangere, to break the edge or side.

champian, champion, the champaign, level open country, Bible, Deut. xi. 30; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 29; Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 173; Gosson, School of Abuse, 29.

chandry, chandrie, short for chandlery, the place where candles were kept in a household; ‘Six torches from the chandry’, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Notch). OF. chandel(l)erie.

changeling, a half-witted person. In Middleton’s play ‘The Changeling’, the reference is to Antonio, who enters ‘disguised as an idiot’, A. i, sc. 2. To play the changeling, to play the fool, Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Mis. Knavesby). See EDD. (s.v. Change. 8).

chank, to champ, to eat noisily. Golding, Metam. viii. 292 (fol. 97), viii. 825 (fol. 105, back).

channel, the neck. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, 1. 3 (Calyphus). See cannel.

channel-bone, the collar-bone, clavicle. Chapman, Iliad, xvii. 266; Holinshed, Chron. iii. 805; Kyd, Soliman, i. 4. 55. See cannel.

chapine, a high-heeled shoe. Massinger, Renegado, i. 2 (Donusa); Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 5 (last Song). See Stanford (s.v. Chopine). Span. chapin, a woman’s high cork shoes (Minsheu). See choppine.

char, chare, car, chariot. Surrey, A Complaint by Night, 4; Sackville, Induction, st. 7. F. char, a chariot (Cotgr.).

character, handwriting. Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 6. 6; Meas. for M. iv. 2. 208. F. caractere, a form of writing (Cotgr.).

chare, chary, careful. Golding, tr. Ovid, Met. xiv. 336 (ed. 1593); dear, Golding, Calvin on Deut. xxiii. 134.

chare, charre, a turn of work, an odd job or business. Ant. and Cl. iv. 15. 75; Chare, to do a turn of work, esp. in phr. (This) char(re is char’d, this bit of business is done, Sir Thos. More, iii. 1. 118; Marriage of Wit and Science, in Hazlitt’s Old Plays, ii. 375; Peele, Edward I (ed. Dyce 392); ‘Here’s two chewres chewred’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 2 (Bobadilla). See EDD. (s.v. Chare, sb.¹). OE. cerr, a turn, ‘temporis spatium’ (B. T.).

charet(t, a car, chariot. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 32; Bible, Exod. xiv. 6; 2 Kings ix. 16; charettes, carts, Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 1 (Erostrato). F. charette, a chariot (Cotgr.).

charm, the blended sound of harmonious notes, as of music, children’s voices or song-birds. Milton, P. L. iv. 642; Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1 (Pomona); Bunyan, The Holy War (Temple ed., 293); Udall, Erasmus (ed. 1548, Luke ii, fol. xxxii a); charme, to make a melodious sound, Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 13. ‘Charm’ is in gen. prov. use in the midland and southern counties in the sense of a confused murmuring sound of many voices, of birds, bees, &c.; see EDD. (s.v. Charm, sb.¹). See chirm.

charm, to control, to silence, as if by a strong charm. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, v. 1 (Russell). Also, to induce to speak, as by a charm, Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, ii. 1 (Rhetias).

charneco, charnico, a species of sweet wine. From a village so called near Lisbon (Steevens). 2 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 63; Charnico, Puritan Widow, iv. 3. 89; Heywood, Maid of West, iii (Wks. ed. 1874, ii. 301). See Stanford.

chartel, a ‘cartel’, a written challenge. B. Jonson, i. 5 (or 4): Bobadil. Span. cartel, Ital. cartello, dimin. of carta, paper, letter.

chase, a hunting-ground. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 137; Titus, ii. 3. 255; ‘The chase alwaie open and nothing at all inclosed’, Harrison, Desc. England, ii. 19 (ed. Furnivall, 310). Anglo-F. chace, a hunting-ground, a chase (Rough List).

chatillionte, delightful, amusing. Farquhar, Sir H. Wildair, iv. 2 (Lurewell). F. chatouillant, pr. pt. of chatouiller, to tickle, to provoke with delight (Cotgr.).

chauf, to chafe, heat, vex. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 18, § 2; chauffed, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 33. OF. chaufer (F. chauffer), to warm.

chave, for ich have, I have. Peele, Araygnement of Paris, i. 1 (Pan). See ch.

chawne, a gap, fissure. Holland, Pliny, i. 37; to gape open, id. i. 435; to cause to gape open, to rive asunder, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 1 (Andrugio); ‘Crevasser, to chop, chawn . . . rive’, Cotgrave. ‘Chawn’ is in prov. use in the Midlands for a crack in the ground caused by dry weather, see EDD. (s.v. Chaum). See choane.

cheasell, gravel. Turbervile, Epitaph II. on Master Win, st. 5. Cp. the Chesil Bank (Portland), Chiselhurst, Kent. ME. chisel or gravel, ‘arena, sabulum’ (Prompt. EETS. 82), OE. ceosel, cysel, gravel.

cheat, wheaten bread of the second quality. Chapman, Batrachom., 3; Drayton, Polyolb. xvi, p. 959; cheat bread, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Chough); Eastward Hoe, v. 1 (Mrs. T.); cheat loaf, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs, vol. vi, p. 123; Corbet, Poetica Stromata (Nares). Bread of the first quality was called manchet. See NED. (s.v. Cheat, sb.²).

cheat (Thieves’ Cant), used in general sense ‘thing’, gen. preceded by some descriptive word. The Cheate (= treyning cheate), the gallows, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 28; cackling-cheate, the domestic fowl, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Prigg); grunting cheate, a pig (id.); belly-cheat, an apron, id. ii. 1 (Higgen). See NED. (s.v. Cheat, sb.¹ 3). See backcheat.

cheator, a cheat. Esp. used of one who lived by cheating at dice; Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Quadratus).

check (in Hawking), a false stoop, when a hawk forsakes her proper game, and pursues rooks, doves, &c. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Maria); to fly at check, Dryden, Ann. Mirab. st. 86; check, base game, rooks, &c, Drayton, Pol. xx. 217; Turbervile, Falconrie, 110.

checked, chequered, variegated. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 18; Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 83; spelt chequed, ‘The chequed, and purple-ringed daffodillies’, B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd).

checker-approved, approved by one who checks, a controller. Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone). See NED. (s.v. Checker, sb.¹ 1).

checklaton, a cloth of rich material; ‘A Jacket, quilted richly rare Upon checklaton’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 43. OF. chiclaton, also ciclaton (Godefroy). The ME. form was ciclatun (syklatoun); see Juliana, 8, and Chaucer, C. T. B. 1924. See NED. (s.v. Ciclatoun).

chedreux, a kind of perruque. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iii. 2 (Sir Fopling); Oldham, tr. of Juvenal, Sat. iii. 191. From the maker’s name. Also Shaddrew (NED.).

chequin, an Italian gold coin, a ‘sequin’. Pericles, iv. 2. 28 (chickeens in ed. 1608); B. Jonson, Volpone, i (last speech but 8 of Volpone). See Dict. (s.v. Sequin), and Stanford. See cecchin.

cherry, to cherish, cheer, delight. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 22. F. chérir, to hold dear.

cherry-pit, a children’s game, in which cherry-stones were thrown into a pit or small hole. Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 129; Witch of Edmonton, iii. 1 (Cuddy).

cheve, to bring to an end, to finish; ‘I cheve, I bring to an ende, Je aschieve’, Palsgrave. OF. chever, to finish (NED.).

cheve, chive, to befall, happen to. Phr. foul cheeve him, ill befall him, Sir A. Cockain, Obstinate Lady, iii. 2; foul chive him, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the Burning Pestle, i. 3 (Mrs. Merry Thought).

cheveril, kid-leather; used allusively as a type of pliability. Twelfth Nt. iii. i. 13; B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Tucca). ME. cheverel, ‘ledyr’ (Prompt.), Anglo-F. cheveril (Rough List), deriv. of OF. chevre, a goat.

chevin, cheven, the chub. Book of St. Albans, fol. F 7, back; Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 244; ‘Chevesne, a chevin’, Cotgrave. ‘Cheven’ is a Yorks. word for the chub (EDD.). OF. chevesne; see Hatzfeld (s.v. Chevanne).

chevisaunce, merchandise, gain (in a bad sense). Coverdale, Deut. xxi. 14. ME. chevisaunce (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1519). OF. chevissance, ‘pactum, transactio, conventio’. Med. L. chevisantia (Ducange).

chevisaunce (as used by Spenser and his imitators), enterprise, achievement, expedition on horseback, chivalry, F. Q. ii. 9. 8.

che vor: in phr. che vor ye. The meaning seems to be ‘I warrant you’, King Lear, iv. 6. 246, but the relationship or etymology of the word vor has not yet been discovered; nothing like it is known to exist in prov. use. Che vore ’un, (?) I warrant him, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts). Cha vore thee is found in The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, ii. 3 (Tenacity), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 345, ‘What will you give me? Cha vore thee, son . . . Chill give thee a vair piece of three half-pence’. (Here, cha vore thee may be West dialect for ‘I have for thee.’)

chewet, chewit, a chough, fig. a chatterer. 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 29. F. chouette, a chough, jackdaw (Cotgr.).

chewet, a dish of meat or fish, chopped fine and mixed with spices and fruits. Middleton, The Witch, ii. 1 (Francisca).

chewre, a turn of work; see chare.

Cheyney; see Philip.

chiarlatan, a mountebank or Cheap Jack who descants volubly to a crowd. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 971; ciarlitani, pl., B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Volpone, Speech, 3). Ital. ciarlatano, a babbler, mountebank, fr. ciarlare, to babble; whence F. charlatan, ‘a pratling quack-salver’ (Cotgr.).

chiaus(e, a Turkish messenger, sergeant, or lictor. Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4; B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 2. 25. Turkish chāush.

chiause, chouse, one easily cheated, a dupe, gull. Newcastle, The Variety, in Dramatis Personae (‘A country Chiause’). [Cp. Johnson’s Dict., A chouse, a man fit to be cheated.]

chiause, chowse, v., to chouse, to cheat. ‘Chiaus’d by a scholar!’, Shirley, Honoria, ii. 3 (Conquest); ‘And sows of sucking-pigs are chowsed’, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 114, also l. 1010.

chibbal, a young onion with the green stalk attached, Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius); chibal, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (2 Gipsy). ‘Chibbal’ (‘chibble’) is in gen. prov. use in the Midlands and south-west country, see EDD. (s.v. Chibbole). ME. chibolle (P. Plowman, B. vi. 296). OF. (Picard) chibole (F. ciboule); L. cepulla, dimin. of cepa, onion.

chibrit, sulphur. B. Jonson, Alchem., ii. 1 (Surly). Also spelt kibrit (NED.). Arab. kibrīt, sulphur; cp. Heb. gophrīth, Aramaic, kubrīth.

chiches, chick-peas. B. Jonson, tr. of Horace, Art of Poetry (L. ciceris, l. 249); spelt chittes, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, iv. 10; Udall, Apoph., Diogenes, 47. F. chiches, ‘sheeps-cich-peason, chiches’ (Cotgr.); OF. chiche (Roman. Rose, 6911).

chiefrie, the payment of rent or dues to an Irish chief. Spenser, View of Ireland (Globe ed., p. 663).

chievance, raising of money. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 64). F. ‘chevance, wealth, substance, riches’ (Cotgr.).

child: phr. to be with child, used fig., to be full of expectation. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 3 (King); also, to long after, desire vehemently, id., Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Viola).

Child Rowland, a young knight; with reference to a scrap of an old ballad. King Lear, iii. 4. 187; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1. 16.

chilis, a large vein. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 2. 4 (where it is equated to vena cava). Dyce’s note says—‘Out of the gibbosyte . . . of the liuer there issueth a veyne called concava or chilis’, Traheron, Vigo’s Workes of Chirurgerie, 1571, fol. ix. Gk. φλὲψ κοίλη, vena cava.

chill; as in I chill, for Ich ’ill, I will. ‘Tell you I chyll’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 1. See ch.

china-house, a china-shop. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 2 (Subtle).

chinchard, a niggard, miser. Spelt chyncherde, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2517. ME. chinche, a niggard (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2793); Norm. F. chinche, ‘mesquin avare’ (Moisy).

chinclout, a muffler covering the lower part of the face. Middleton, A Mad World, iii. 3 (Follywit). Cp. muffler in Merry Wives, iv. 2. 73.

chine, to divide or break the back of. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 13. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iii. 3. 6; ‘Eschiner (échiner), to chine, to break the back of’, Cotgrave. In everyday use in Suffolk (EDD.).

chink, a bed-bug. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Hostess). Also spelt chinch. Span. chinche, a bug; L. cimex.

chink, a piece of money. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 503.

chire, a slender blade of grass, a sprout. Spelt chyer, Drayton, Harmony, Song Solomon, ch. ii, l. 3. ME. chire, ‘genimen’ (Cath. Angl.).

chirm, a confused noise, the mingled din or noise of many birds or voices. Spelt chyrme, Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 5; churm, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 170). See charm.

chirr, to chirp like a grasshopper; ‘The chirring grasshopper’, Herrick, Oberon’s Feast, 16.

chitterling, a frill, ruff; esp. the frill down the breast of a shirt. Like Will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 310; Gascoigne, Delic Diet Droonkardes (NED.). For examples of prov. use see EDD. (s.v. 4).

chitterlings, the smaller intestines of the pig, &c., esp. when fried or boiled. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Fustigo); Butler, Hudibras, i. 2. 120. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

chitty-face, one who has a thin pinched face; used as a term of contempt; ‘You half-fac’d groat, you thin-cheek’d chitty-face’, Munday, Downfall of E. of Huntingdon, v. 1 (Jailer), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 188; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, i. 2 (Spungius); ‘Chittiface, puellulus, improbulus’, Coles, Dict. (1679); ‘A chittiface, proprie est facies parva et exigua’, Minsheu, Ductor (1617). OF. chiche-face (chiche-fache), lean face (Godefroy). The word occurs in Rabelais, i. 183 (ed. Jaunet). From this word comes the perverted form chichevache (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1188), the name of a fabulous monster said to feed on patient wives.

chival, a horse; ‘Upon the captive chivals’ (in captivis equis), Turbervile, Ovid’s Ep., 148 b; Mucedorus, Induction, 29, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 204; but here chival may be for ’chieval, achieval, achievement.

chive, cive, a small kind of onion or garlic; ‘Escurs, the little sallad herb called Cives or Chives’, Cotgrave. F. cive (North F. chive), onion; L. cepa, onion.

chive; see cheve.

choane, a cleft, rift, fissure; ‘Fendasse, a cleft, choane’, Cotgrave. See chawne.

choke-pear, a rough, harsh pear; also, something impossible to swallow or get over. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 321); Mydas, iv. 3 (end).

choplogic, a contentious, sophistical arguer. Awdelay, Fratern. of Vacabondes, p. 15. Shortened to choploge; ‘Choploges or greate pratlers’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Antigonus, § 27; Roister Doister, iii. 2 (Merygreek).

choppine, a kind of shoe raised above the ground by means of a cork sole or the like. Hamlet, ii. 2. 445; ‘Pianelloni, great pattins or choppins’, Florio; ‘Corke shooes, chopines’, Marston, Dutch Courtezan, iii. 1 (Tissefew). See Stanford (s.v. Chopine). See chapine.

chreokopia, a cancelling of debts, or of a part of a debt. Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (2 Lawyer). Gk. χρεωκοπία, a cutting off of debt.

Christ-cross, Chriss-cross, Crisscross, a cross (✠) placed at the beginning of the alphabet in a horn-book. Hence, Christcross-row, the alphabet, Two Angry Women, v. 1 (Mall); shortened to cross-row, Richard III, i. 1. 55. A similar cross was sometimes used (instead of XII) to mark noon on a clock or dial; hence ‘the Chrisse-crosse of Noone’, Puritan Widow, iv. 2. 85; see Nares.

Christ-tide, Christmas. A term for Christmas, used by Puritans, to avoid the use of the word mass. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Ananias) See NED.

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

chrysosperm, seed of gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Gk. χρυσός, gold + σπέρμα, seed.

chuck, darling; a term of endearment. Hen. V, iii. 2. 20; Macbeth, iii. 2. 45; ‘His chuck, that is, his wife’, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 68 (ed. Arber, p. 94). See EDD. (s.v. Chuck, sb.¹ 4).

chuff, a rustic, a clown. Generally applied opprobriously to any person disliked, esp. a rude coarse fellow. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 93; a churlish miser, Nashe, P. Pennilesse (NED.); Massinger, Duke of Milan, iii. 1 (Medina). In prov. use in the sense of surly, ill-tempered, see EDD. (s.v. Chuff, adj.¹ 1). ME. choffe or chuffe, ‘rusticus’ (Prompt.).

church-book, (1) the Bible; (2) the parish register. Both senses are quibbled upon; Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (1 Lawyer).

ciarlitani; see chiarlatan.

cibation, a process in alchemy; lit. ‘a feeding’. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol). From L. cibus, food.

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

cinque-pace, a kind of lively dance. Much Ado, ii. 1. 77. F. cinq pas, lit. five paces; Littré gives cinq pas et trois visages (five paces, three faces) as the name of an old French dance.

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

circling: phr. a circling boy, i.e. a kind of roarer, one who circumvented and cheated his dupes. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 2 (Edgworth). See Nares.

circular, going round-about, indirect. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii. 2 (Physician).

circumstance, detailed and circuitous narration; details, particulars; ‘Without circumstance’, i.e. without further details, Romeo, v. 3. 181; ceremony, formality, ‘Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war’, Othello, iii. 3. 355.

citronise, to bring to the colour of citron; a process in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Subtle).

cittern-headed, ugly; because the head of the cittern (a kind of guitar) was often grotesquely carved to resemble a human head. Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone). The citterns were mostly found in barbers’ shops.

†city-wires (?); ‘His cates . . . Be fit for ladies: some for lords, knights, ’squires; Some for your waiting-wench, and city-wires’, B. Jonson, Epicoene (Prologue).

civil, sober, grave, not gay; said of colour. Romeo, iii. 2. 10; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Maria); ‘civil-suited Morn’, Milton, Il Pens., 122.

clack-dish, a wooden dish with a lid, carried and clacked by beggars as an appeal for contributions. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 2 (Gerardine). See clapdish.

clad, to clothe. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 4; Peele, Poems, ed. Dyce p. 602.

cladder, a man of loose and vicious manners. (Cant.) ‘Cladders? Yes, catholic lovers’, Mayne, City Match, ii. 3 (Bright and Aurelia).

clair-voyant, clear-sighted, having good insight. Clara voyant, Buckingham, The Rehearsal, iii. 1 (end).

clamper up, to gather up together hastily. Ascham, Toxophilus, (ed. Arber, 83). [Sir W. Scott uses the expression ‘to clamper up a story’, in a letter to Joanna Baillie (Feb. 10, 1822).]

clap, a sudden stroke of misfortune; a touch of disrepute. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 4. 3; to catch a clap, to meet with a mischance, Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, iii. 1 (Wise Woman).

clapdish, a wooden dish for alms with a cover that shut with a clapping noise, used by lepers and other mendicants. Massinger, Parl. of Love, ii. 2 (Leonora); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). See clack-dish.

clapper, a rabbit-burrow. Tusser, Husbandry, § 36. 25; ‘As a cony . . . in his claper’, Fabyan, Chron. pt. vii, an. 1294-5 (p. 395). ‘Clapier, a clapper of conies’, Cotgrave. A Dorset word for a rabbit-hole (EDD.). O. Prov. clapier, ‘garenne privée’ (Levy).

clapperclaw, to beat, to maul. Merry Wives, ii. 3. 67; Tr. and Cr. v. 4. 1. In prov. use in various parts of England, and in Scotland (EDD.).

clapperdudgeon, a cant name for a beggar; a term of reproach. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. sen.); Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. i. 4; Greene, George-a-Greene (l. 909), ed. Dyce, p. 265, col. 1; Harman, Caveat, p. 44. Cp. clapper, the lid of a beggar’s clap-dish; dudgeon was the name of a kind of wood for making handles of knives, &c.

clarissimo, a grandee. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2. 6. A Span. word, lit. most illustrious.

clary, clare, a pot-herb, the Salvia Sclarea, supposed to be good for the eyes, and so by pop. etym. often spelt Cleare-eie, Clear-eye; ‘Spirits of clare to bathe our temples in’, Davenant, The Wits, v (Thwack); spelt clary, ‘Clary quasi Clear Eye’, W. Coles, Adam in Eden, xxiii. 47. See NED. (s.v. Clary, sb.²).

clary, a sweet liquor made of wine, clarified honey, and spices. Congreve, Way of World, iv. 5 (Mirabell); Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iii. 1 (Lord Rake). ME. clarree (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1471). OF. claré, that which is cleared or clarified, see NED. (s.v. Clary, sb.¹).

classhe. See closh.

claw, to stroke; hence, to flatter. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 186; Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 1 (Piero); Much Ado, i. 3. 18. Phr. claw me, I’ll claw thee, ‘We saye, clawe me, clawe thee’, Tyndal, Expos. John (ed. 1537, 72), see NED.; to claw the back, to flatter, Hall, Sat. i. prol. 11. ‘Claw’ means to flatter in Leic. and Warw., see EDD. (s.v. Claw, vb. 7).

clawback, one who strokes the back; a flatterer; ‘These flattering clawbackes’, Latimer, 2 Sermon bef. King, p. 64; Mirror for Mag., Iago, st. 6; ‘Blandisseur, a flattering sycophant or clawback’, Cotgrave. So in north Yorks. and Leic., see EDD. (s.v. Claw, vb. 10 (b)).

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

cleave the pin; see pin.

cleaze; see clee.

clee, a claw; ‘Pied d’un cancre, the clee or claw of a crab’, Cotgrave; ‘The clee of a bittor’, Turbervile, Falconrie, 349; cleaze pl., Phaer, tr. Aeneid, viii. 209; Studley, Seneca’s Hercules, 206 b (NED.). See EDD. (s.v. Clee). ME. cle, ‘ungula’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. clēa. Cp. cleye.

cleeves, cliffs; ‘Dover’s neighbouring cleeves’, Drayton, Pol. xviii; Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 62. ME. clefe of an hyll, ‘declivum’ (Prompt.). Due to OE. cleofu, the plural form, or to cleofe, the dat. of clif. ‘Cleeve’ is very common in place-names in the west of England: Cleeve (Clyffe Pypard) in Wilts.; Church Cleves in Dorset; Old Cleeve, Huish Cleeve, Bitter Cleeve in Somerset.

clem, to starve for want of food. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1 (Shift); Poetaster, i. 1 (Tucca). To ‘clem’ (or to ‘clam’) is the ordinary word for starving in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Clam, vb.² 1). The lit. meaning of clam (clem) is ‘to pinch’, still used in this sense in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Clam, vb.¹ 1. Cp. Dan. klemme, Sw. klämma, to pinch.

clench, clinch, a pun. Dryden, Mac Flecknoe, 83; Prologue to Tr. and Cr. (1679), 27.

clenchpoop, a lout, a clown; a term of contempt. Warner, Albion’s England; bk. vi, ch. xxxi, st. 22; clinchpoop, or clenchpoop, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 256.

clepe, to call. L. L. L. v. 1. 24; Hamlet, i. 4. 19. The pp. is spelt cleeped in Chapman, Gent. Usher, ii. 1 (Pogio); the usual form is the archaic y-clept, spelt y-clep’d in Milton, L’Allegro, 12. OE. clipian, cleopian, to call; pp. ge-cleopod.

clergion, a young songster, fig. of birds. Surrey, Description Restless State, 22; Poems, 72; in Tottel’s Misc. 231. ME. clergeon, a chorister (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1693). F. clergeon.

clergy, clerkly skill, learning. Proverb, ‘An Ounce of Mother-Wit is worth a Pound of Clergy (or Book-learning)’, see NED.; Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 3 (Purge). The privilege of exemption from sentence which might be pleaded by every one who could read; ‘Stand to your clergy, uncle, save your life’, Munday, Death Huntington, i. 3, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 244. Clergy of belly, respite claimed by a pregnant woman. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 884. ME. clergy: ‘Lewdnesse of clergy, illiteratura’ (Prompt. EETS., 261).

cleye, a claw. Marlowe, tr. Lucan, bk. i, l. 36 from end; B. Jonson, Underwoods, Eupheme, ix. 18; ‘The cleyes of a lobster’, Skinner (1671). ‘Cley’ is an E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Clee). ME. cley of a beast, ‘ungula’ (Prompt. EETS., 85, see note, no. 383). Cp. clee.

clicket, to be maris appetens, to copulate. Massinger, Picture, iii. 4 (Eubulus); Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, ii. 4 (Leontius); Tusser, Husbandry, § 77. 9. As a hunting term, it had reference to the fox and the wolf; see Turbervile, Hunting, c. 66, p. 186; c. 75, p. 205.

cliffe, a clef, key, in music. Tr. and Cr. v. 2. 11; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1. 159. F. clef.

clift, a cliff. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 79; p. 90, col. 1; clifte, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 23. The E. Anglian form (EDD.).

clighte; see clitch.

Clim of the Clough, a proverbially famous archer. Clement of the Glen, in the ballad of Adam Bell. Gascoigne, Flowers, ed. Hazlitt, i. 72; B. Jonson, Alchemist, i (Face). Clem a Clough, Drayton, Pastorals, vi. 36.

clinch; see clench.

cling, to cause to shrink, shrivel; ‘Till famine cling thee’, Macbeth, v. 5. 40. Cp. prov. use in Ireland and in the north of England, where the word means to wither, contract, also, of cattle, to become thin from want of proper food, see EDD. (s.v. Cling, vb.¹ 4). ME. clyngyn, to shrink, to shrivel (Prompt.). OE. clingan, ‘marcere’ (Ælfric).

clip, to embrace. Wint. Tale, v. 2. 59; Coriolanus, i. 6. 29; iv. 5. 115. Still in use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. clippen (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. lii. 1344). OE. clyppan.

clip, to go fast, to run swiftly. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 86. A Suffolk use; see EDD. (s.v. Clip, vb.² 11).

clipped, uttered aloud; ‘Thy clipped name’, Middleton, The Witch, ii. 2 (near the end). See clepe.

clips, clyps, ‘eclipse’. Berners, tr. of Froissart, ch. 130. Common in the north (EDD.). ME. Clypps of þe son or þe mone, ‘eclipsis’ (Prompt.).

clitch, to bend, clench (the fist). Hellowes, Guevara’s Fam. Ep. 145 (NED.); clighte, pp., Bossewell, Armorie, ii. 119^b. Cp. the west country clitch, to grasp tightly (EDD.). OE. clycchan, pp. geclyht.

clogdogdo, a term of contempt. B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iv. 1 (Otter). A nonce-word.

close fight, a sea term; a kind of screen used in a naval engagement. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Antonio). See fights.

closh, clash, the name of an old game, played with a ball or bowl. Spelt claisshe, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 27, § 8. See Cowell’s Interpreter and Strutt’s Sports. Closh was orig. the name of the bowl. Du. klos, a wooden Boule (Hexham).

closure, bound, limit, circuit. Richard III, iii. 3. 11; an entrenchment, fortress, Greene, Looking Glasse (ed. 1861, p. 123); Surrey, tr. Aeneid, ii. 296. OF. closure, confine, limits (Dialoge Greg., 74); Late L. clausura, a castle, fort (Justinian).

clote, the yellow water-lily; Nuphar lutea. Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 2. 12. Still in use in the south-west of England, see EDD. (s.v. Clote, (1)). OE. clāte, which was the name of various plants resembling the burdock, see NED.

clottered, clotted. Mirror for Mag., Buckingham, st. 14; ‘Congrée, congealed, clottered’, Cotgrave. Du. kloteren, or klonteren, ‘to curdle or growe thick as milke doth’ (Hexham). See cluttered.

clout, a piece of cloth or linen, a rag. Hamlet, ii. 2. 537; Richard III, i. 3. 177; hence, clouted, patched, Bible, Joshua ix. 5. In prov. use, esp. in the north, see EDD. (s.v. Clout, sb.¹ 3).

clout, a square piece of canvas, which formed the mark to be aimed at, at the archery butts, L. L. L. iv. 1. 138; 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 52.

clout, to cuff heavily, Bible, 2 Sam. xxii. 39; clouted, pp. hit, Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, iii. 7. 1. In gen. vulgar use, see EDD. (s.v. Clout, vb.² 1).

clouted; of cream: clotted, by scalding milk. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 99; Borde, Dyetarie, 267. A Devon word (EDD.).

clowre, grassy surface, turf. In pl. clowres; Golding, Metam. iv. 301. (L. cespite); viii. 756 (L. terram). ME. clowre, grassy ground (Lydgate).

cloy, to prick a horse with a nail in shoeing; ‘I cloye a horse, I drive a nayle in to the quycke of his foote, jencloue’, Palsgrave; to pierce as with a nail, to gore, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 48; to spike a gun, Beaumont and Fl., The False One, v. 4 (Photinus). OF. cloyer (F. clouer), to nail, deriv. of OF. clo (F. clou), a nail.

cloyer, a pick-pocket’s accomplice. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). See Nares.

cloyne, a clown, rustic. Mirror for Mag., Rivers, st. 44. The word clown (cloyne) was a late introduction from some Low German source, originally meaning ‘clod, lump’, see NED.

cloyne, cloine, to act deceitfully or fraudulently. Bale, Sel. Wks. (ed. 1849, p. 170 (NED.)); to take furtively, to steal away, Phaer, tr. Aeneid, vi. 524; vii. 364. Probably the same word as OF. cluigner, clugner, cluyner (F. cligner), to wink, often as the expression of secret understanding, cunning, or hypocrisy. See NED.

club, a country fellow; ‘Homely and playn clubbes of the countrey’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 14; ‘Hertfordshire clubs and clouted shoon’, Ray, Eng. Proverbs, 310. Cp. ME. clubbyd, ‘rudis’ (Prompt.).

clubfist, a thick-fisted ruffian. Mirror for Magistrates, Sabrine, st. 10.

clubs! A popular cry to call out the London apprentices, who had clubs for their weapons; also, a cry to call out citizens; as in Romeo, i. 1. 80. There are frequent allusions to this cry; ‘Cry clubs for prentices’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 2 (All).

clunch, a clodhopper; ‘Casois, a countrey clown, boore, clunch, hinde’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Cumberland, Lancashire, and E. Yorks. (EDD.). See NED.

clunch, to clench; ‘His fist is clunched’, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 20; ed. Arber, p. 41.

clunged, drawn together by the action of cold; ‘By the Northern winds . . . clunged and congealed withall’, Holland, Pliny, i. 513; ‘The Earth made clunged with the cold of winter’, B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (NED.).

cluttered, clotted. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Alberto); ‘Engrommelé, clotted, cluttered, curded thick’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Cheshire and Shropshire (EDD.). See clottered.

cly (thieves’ cant), to seize, take; to steal (NED.). Phr. to cly the Jerk, to be whipped, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman); Harman, Caveat, p. 84. In Lower Rhenish dialect klauen (kläuen, kleuen) is used in the sense of ‘steal’. See NED.

coals: phr. to carry coals, to be very servile, to submit to insults. Romeo, i. 1. 2. See colcarrier.

coal-sleck, coal-dust. Drayton, Pol. iii. 280. Cp. prov. E. sleck, slack, small coal.

coart, to confine, restrain; ‘Streatly coarted’, Skelton, Why come ye not, 438; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, i. 138. L. co-arctare, to compress, from arctus, close.

coast, cost(e, the side. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 294; the border, frontier of a country, Bible, Mark vii. 31; Judges i. 18; phr. on even coast, on even terms, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 17. OF. coste (F. côte).

coast, to keep by the side of a person moving. Fletcher and Rowley, Maid Mill, i. 1; to march on the flank of, Berners, Froissart, i. 40. 55; to move in a roundabout course, fig. Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 38; to skirt, Milton, P. L. iv. 782; spelt cost, to approach, Spenser, Daphnaida, st. 6; Venus and Adonis, 870.

coat; see cote.

coat-card, a playing card bearing a ‘coated’ figure (king, queen, or knave). In regular use till the Revolution, 1688; afterwards perverted into Court-card. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Madrigal). Also, coat, Massinger, Old Law, iii. 1 (Cook); B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1.

coath, to faint, to swoon away. Skinner, 1671 (a Lincoln word); ‘To coath (swoon away), Animo linqui, deficere’, Coles, 1679. ‘Coath’ is still used in this sense in E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. cothe, or swownyng, ‘sincopa’ (Prompt.). OE. coðu, disease; cp. coe, a word for a disease of sheep, cattle in W. Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Coe, sb.¹ 1). See quoth.

cob, the head of a red herring. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. (Wks., 1873, ii. 147); ‘A herring cob, la teste d’un harang sor’, Sherwood.

cob, cobbe, a wealthy man; a miser; ‘Ryche cobbes’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 149; Stubbes, Anat. Abuses, ii. 27 (NED.).

cobbe, a male swan; ‘The hee swanne is called the cobbe, and the she-swanne the penne’, Best, Farm. Bks. (ed. 1856, p. 122). Hence cob-swan, B. Jonson, Catiline, ii. 1 (Fulvia). ‘Cob’ is still in use in Norfolk (EDD.).

cockal(l, a knucklebone of a sheep, with which boys played ‘knucklebones’. Herrick, The Temple, 59; the game played, Cotgrave (s.v. Tales). See Nares.

cockall, a paragon, a pattern, of supreme excellence; ‘He was the very cockall of a husband’, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2. 6.

cockatrice, a name for the basilisk, a serpent supposed to kill by its mere glance, and to be hatched from a cock’s egg. Bible, Isaiah lix. 5; Romeo, iii. 2. 47; applied to a woman of loose life, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev. iv. 1; Killigrew’s Pandora (Nares). Orig. a name for the crocodile. OF. caucatris (cocatris), crocodile; Med. L. caucatrices, ‘crocodili’ (Ducange); cp. O. Prov. calcatris, crocodile (Levy). See NED.

cock-a-two, cock of two, a cock that has conquered two, a conqueror of two. Little French Lawyer, ii. 3 (La Writ). See Nares.

cockers, leggings, gaiters. Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 59. In prov. use from the north country to the W. Midlands and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. cokeres (P. Plowman, C. Text, ix. 59). Probably the same word as OE. cocor, a quiver.

cocket, a ship’s certificate that goods for export had paid duty. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, ll. 258, 1058. Anglo-F. cokette, app. the seal with which the certificate was assured (Rough List).

cocket, pert, saucy, stuck up. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, ii. 5 (song); Coles Dict. 1677. In prov. use from north country to the W. Midlands, meaning ‘pert, saucy’, also, ‘brisk, merry, lively’ (EDD.).

cockledemois, pl. (perhaps) a natural product of some kind representing money. Chapman, Mask of the Middle Temple, § 2. (Not found elsewhere, except as Cockledemoy, the name of a knave in Marston’s Dutch Courtezan). Dr. H. Bradley suggests that this word may represent Port. coquílho de moeda; coquílho, fruit of an Indian palm; moeda, money.

cockloche, a term of reproach or contempt, a mean fellow, a silly coxcomb. Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 2 (Clare); spelt cocoloch, Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Triumph of Honour, sc. 1 (Nicodemus). F. coqueluche, a hood, also a person who is all the vogue. See Dict. de l’Acad. (1762).

Cock Lorel, the name of the owner and captain of the boat containing jovial reprobates of all trades in a sarcastic poem, Cocke Lorelles Bote, printed c. 1515; used also allusively with the sense of ‘rogue’; ‘Here is fyrst, Cocke Lorell the Knyght’ (ed. 1843, p. 4); ‘Cock-Lorrell would needs have the Devill his guest’, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam. (Song). See Lorel.

cockney, (1) a cockered child, a child tenderly brought up, hence (2) a squeamish, foppish, effeminate fellow. (1) Tusser, Husbandry, 183; Baret, Alvearie, C. 729; (2) Twelfth Nt. iv. 1. 15; a squeamish woman, King Lear, ii. 4. 123. ME. cokenay, an effeminate person (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4208); coknay, ‘delicius’ (Prompt.).

cockqueene; the same as cuckquean.

cockshut time, twilight. Richard III, v. 3. 70. The twilight, or dim light in which woodcocks could most easily be caught in cockshuts. A cockshut, or cockshoot, was a broadway or glade in a wood, through which woodcocks might dart or shoot, and in which they might be caught with nets; see EDD. ‘A fine cock-shoot evening’, Middleton, The Widow, iii. 1. 6; cp. Arden of Feversham, iii. 2. 47.

cocksure, absolutely secure. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Court, 279; Conflict of Conscience, iii. 3. 1 (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 67); with absolute security, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 94.

cocoloch; see cockloche.

cocted, boiled. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 15. L. coctus, pp. of coquere, to cook.

cod, a bag, Lyly, Mydas, iv. 2 (Corin); a civet-bag, musk-bag, B. Jonson, Epigrams, xix; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Livia). OE. codd, a bag.

coddle, to parboil, to stew; ‘To codle, coctillo’, Coles, Dict. 1679; ‘I’ll have you coddled’ (alluding to ‘Prince Pippin’), Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4. 31. See Dict. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Coddle, vb.³ 1).

codes!, coads-nigs!, cuds me!, ejaculations of surprise, no doubt orig. profane. Codes! Codes!, Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, i. 2 (Diagoras). Coads-nigs!, Middleton, Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (Freedom); Cuds me, ib. (Lucre).

cod’s-head, a stupid fellow, a blockhead. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, v. 2 (Cat. Bountinall). In prov. use in Derbysh. (EDD.).

coffin, pie-crust, raised crust of a pie. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy sen.); Titus And. v. 2. 189. So in prov. use in Lincolnsh. and Hertfordsh., see EDD. (s.v. Coffin, 5).

coft(e, pp. bought. Mirror for Magistrates, Clarence, st. 49; Dalrymple, Leslie’s Hist. Scotland (NED.). M. Dutch coft(e, pret., and gecoft (mod. gecocht), pp. of copen, to buy (Verdam); cp. G. kaufen.

cog, to cheat, deceive, Much Ado, v. 1. 95; to employ feigned flattery, to fawn. Merry Wives, iii. 3. 76; Richard III, i. 3. 48. Still in use in Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Cog, vb.⁴ 2).

cogge, a kind of ship; chiefly, a ship for transport. Morte Arthur, leaf 82, back, 30; bk. v, c. 3; cogg, a cock-boat, Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, xiv. 58. OF. cogue (Godefroy).

coggle, to coggle in, to flatter continually. Jacob and Esau, ii. 3 (Mido). See cog.

cohobation, a process in alchemy; a repeated distillation. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face). See NED.

coil, coyle, to beat, thrash; ‘I shall coil them’, Jacob and Esau, v. 4 (near the end); Roister Doister, iii. 3, l. 7 from end; ‘I coyle ones kote, I beate hym, je bastonne,’ Palsgrave. Hence coiling, a beating, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 15. ‘Coil’ has still this meaning in Northumberland, see EDD. (s.v. Coil, vb.³).

Cointree, Coventry. Cointree blue, Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. 4; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 63.

†coistered; ‘There were those at that time who, to try the strength of a man’s back and his arm, would be coister’d’, Marston, Malcontent, v. 1. 10. Meaning unknown.

coistril, used as a term of contempt, a low varlet; spelt coystrill Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 43; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2. 137 (Downright). Cp. coistrel, in use in the north country in the sense of a raw, inexperienced lad (EDD.); ‘A coistrel, adolescentulus’, Coles Dict. 1679.

cokes, a simpleton, dupe. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous); Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Pug); spelt cox, Beaumont and Fl., Wit at sev. Weapons, iii. 1 (Oldcraft).

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

colberteen, a kind of open lace, like network. Congreve, Way of the World, v. 1 (Lady Wishfort); Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa, 418. Named from ‘Colbert, Superintendent of the French King’s Manufactures’ (Fop’s Dict. 1690). See NED.

colcarrier, colecarier, a coal-carrier, a low dependant, cringing sycophant; lit. one who will carry coals for another. Golding, tr. of Ovid, The Epistle, p. 2, l. 86. See coals.

Cold-harbour, Cole-arbour, an old building in Dowgate Ward. Westward Ho, iv. 2 (Justinians); B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, ii. 3 (Morose); Middleton, A Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (Lucre). For an account of the great house called Cold Harbrough, see Stow’s Survey, Dowgate Ward (ed. Thoms, 88. 89).

cole, coal, money. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). To post the cole, to pay the money. See NED. (s.v. Cole, sb.³).

coleharth, a coal-hearth, or place where a fire has been made; ‘An Harte passeth by some coleharthes . . . the hote sent of the fire smoothreth the houndes’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 40; pp. 114-15.

coleprophet; see col-prophet.

coles: in phr. precious coles, a kind of minced oath. Gascoigne, Steel Glas (ed. Arber, 80); Return from Parnassus (ed. Arber, 50). See NED. (s.v. Precious).

colestaff; see cowl-staff.

colice, a strong broth, a ‘cullis’. Lyly, Campaspe, iii. 5 (Apelles). F. ‘coulis, a cullis or broth of boyled meat strained’ (Cotgr.).

coll, to embrace. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate); Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 34; an embrace, Middleton, The Witch, i. 2. Still in use in Dorset and Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Coll, vb.¹). OF. coler (La Curne), deriv. of col (F. cou), neck.

colle-pixie, a goblin, mischievous sprite. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 99. For colt-pixy, a sprite in the form of a colt, which neighs and misleads horses in bogs, a word known in Hants. and Dorset, the Dorset form is cole-pexy, see EDD. (s.v. Colt-pixy).

collet, the part of a ring in which the stone is set. C. Tourneur, Revengers’ Tragedy, i. 1 (Duchess); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 18. Cp. F. collet, a collar (Cotgr.).

collocavit, used grotesquely to denote some kitchen utensil. Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 7 (Merygreek). There seems to be an allusion to collock, q.v.

collock, a large pail; ‘Collock, an old word for a Pail’, Phillips, Coles, 1677. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. colok, ‘canterus’ (Voc. 771. 30).

collogue, to deal flatteringly with any one; ‘Trainer sa parole, to collogue, to flatter, fawn on’, Cotgrave; to feign agreement, Marston and Webster, Malcontent, v. 2; to have a private understanding with, ‘They collogued together’, Wood, Life (ed. 1772, p. 172). In prov. use in many parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland in three senses: (1) to talk confidentially, (2) to flatter, to wheedle, (3) to plot together for mischief (EDD.). Cp. L. colloq- in colloquium, with change to collogue under the influence of dialogue, duologue, &c.

collow, to make black or dirty with coal-dust or soot; Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 3. 2; ‘Poisler, to collow, smut, begryme’, Cotgrave; ‘I colowe, I make blake with a cole’, Palsgrave. A Cheshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Colley, vb. 6). ME. colwen, cp. colwyd, ‘carbonatus’ (Prompt. EETS. 91). Cp. colly.

colly, to blacken. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 3; Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 145; ‘to colly, denigro’, Coles, Dict. 1679. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Colley, vb. 6). See collow.

colon, the largest human intestine. To satisfy colon, to satisfy one’s hunger, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1 (Belgarde); to pacify colon, id., Picture, ii. 1 (Hilario).

colour, a pretence, appearance of right. Two Gent. iv. 2. 3; Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 566; colours, ensigns, standards, 1 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 31; to fear no colours, to fear no flags, no enemy, Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 6.

colour de roy, bright tawny. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Balurdo). F. ‘couleur de roy, was in old time, Purple; but now is the bright Tawny, which we also tearm Colour de Roy’ (Cotgr.).

colpheg, to buffet or cuff, Edwards, Damon and Pithias, Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 85, col. 1; in Dodsley (ed. 1780, i. 209). See NED. (s.v. Colaphize).

colprophet, a sorcerer, fortune-teller. Mirror for Magistrates, Glendour, st. 31 and st. 34; spelt coleprophet, J. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (ed. 1867, p. 17).

colstaff, colestaff; see cowl-staff.

colt, to befool, to ‘take in’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 39; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 2. From colt (a young horse), used humorously for a young or inexperienced person, one easily taken in. Cp. the prov. use of ‘to colt’, meaning to make a newcomer pay his footing, see EDD. (s.v. Colt, vb.¹ 12).

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

come off, to pay money, pay a debt. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (1 Court.); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (end); Merry Wives, iv. 3. 12.

com’esta, how is it? how goes it with you? Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 3 (Spungius). Span. cómo está?, how is it?

commandador, a lieutenant; compared to a common sergeant. B. Jonson, Volpone, iv. 1 (Sir Pol.). Span. comendador, ‘a commander, lieutenant’ (Minsheu). The Span. vb. comendar orig. meant ‘to commend’.

commandments, ten, ten fingers, or two fists; jocularly. 2 Hen. VI, i. 3. 145; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 63. [‘Be busy with the ten commandments’, Longfellow, Span. Student, iii. 2 (Cruzado).] Cp. Span. los diez mandamiéntos, the ten commandments; ironically, the ten fingers (Stevens).

commedle, to commix, mingle. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 25.

commence, to take the full degree of Master or Doctor in any faculty at a University; to commence doctor, to take a doctor’s degree, Massinger, Emp. of the East, ii. 1 (Chrysapius); Duke of Milan, iv. 1 (Graccho).

commencement, the great public ceremony, esp. at Cambridge, when degrees are conferred at the end of the academical year. Brewer, Lingua, iv. 2 (Common Sense); ‘In Oxford this solemnitie is called an Act, but in Cambridge they use the French word Commensement’, Harrison, Descr. England, bk. ii, ch. 3 (ed. Furnivall, 75).

commodity, wares, merchandise; esp. a parcel of goods sold on credit by a usurer to a needy person, who immediately raised some cash by reselling them at a lower price, often to the usurer himself; ‘He’s in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger’, Measure for M. iv. 3. 5; advantage, profit, ‘I will turn diseases to commodity’, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2 (end); Bacon, Essay 41, § 1.

communicate, to share in, partake of; ‘Thousands that communicate our loss’, B. Jonson, Sejanus, iii. 1 (Tib.).

communication, conversation, talk. Bible, Luke xxiv. 17; Eph. iv. 29; this rendering of the Gk. λόγος is due to Tyndal, ‘communicacion’; ‘(Cardinal Morton), gentill in communication’, More, Utopia (ed. Arber, 36).

companiable, sociable, companionable. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 217. ME. companyable, ‘socialis’ (Prompt.). A deriv. of OF. compain, orig. nom. of compagnon; Anglo-F. cumpainz (Ch. Rol. 285).

companion, used as term of contempt, a fellow. Com. of Errors, iv. 4. 64; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 102. Cp. the use of kumpân (OF. compain) in the MLG. poem Reinke de Vos, 1984 (ed. Bartsch, p. 293).

compass, to obtain, win (an object). Two Gent. ii. 4. 214; Pericles, i. 2. 24; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 28.

compass, range, arc described by an arrow. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 2 (Somerton); Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 145).

complement, that which goes to ‘complete’ the character of a gentleman in regard to external appearance or demeanour. Hen. V, ii. 2. 134; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1 (Carlo).

complimentary, a master of defence, who published works upon the compliments and ceremonies of duelling. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites).

compromit, to submit, esp. to submit to a compromise. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § 2. F. compromettre, to put unto compromise (Cotgr.).

compter, a ‘counter’, for children to play with. Conflict of Conscience, iv. 5 (Conscience); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 108.

comptible, liable to give an ‘account’ of, sensitive to. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 186.

comrogue, a fellow-rogue. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 1. 10; B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Groom). A jocular word; for comrade. Also comrague, Webster, Appius, iv. 2 (1 Soldier); Heywood and Brome, Lancashire Witches, 1634 (sig. K., Dyce).

con: phr. to con thanks, to acknowledge thanks, to be grateful. All’s Well, iv. 3. 174; Timon, iv. 3. 428. See NED. (s.v. Con, vb.¹ 4).

con., short for contra, against; ‘Now for the con’, Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 2 (Lapet). Cp. the phrase pro and con.

concavite, concave or hollow sphere of the sky; ‘Where is become that azure concavite?’ (riming with infinite), Mirror for Mag., Robert of Normandy, st. 113.

conceit, what is conceived in the mind, conception, idea. Othello, iii. 3. 115; Merch. Venice, iii. 4. 2; faculty of conceiving, mental capacity, As You Like It, v. 2. 60; imagination, fancy, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 263; used of articles of fanciful design, Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 33.

conceited, full of imagination or fancy; ‘The conceited painter’, Lucrece, 1371; disposed to playful fancy, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 3 (Ariosto); B. Jonson, Every Man in Humour, iii. 2. 29; curiously designed, Chapman, Homer, Iliad ix, 85; conceitedly, ingeniously, Middleton, Mayor of Queenboro’, iii. 3 (Vortigern).

conceive, to understand, to take the meaning of (a person); ‘Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet Coz’, Merry Wives, i. 1. 250; Spenser, State Ireland (Works, Globe ed. 666).

concent, harmony, concord. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 5; (consent), Hen. V, i. 2. 181. L. concentus, a singing together.

concinnitie, harmony, congruity, propriety. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § last but one. L. concinnitas.

conclusions, to try, to try experiments, or an experiment. Hamlet, iii. 4. 195; Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 1 (near end).

concrew, to grow together. Only in Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 40. Cp. F. concrû, pp. of concroítre.

cond, taught. Only in Drayton, Pol. xii. 206. See NED. (s.v. Con, vb.¹ 5).

condiscend, for condescent, acquiescence, agreement, consent; lit. condescension. Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 14. 17.

condition, provision, stipulation; = on condition that, Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 78; Massinger, Old Law, ii. 1 (Simonides); Shirley, Young Admiral, iii. 2 (Fabio); mental disposition, temper, character, Merch. Ven. i. 2. 143; Hen. V, v. 1. 83.

condog, to concur, ‘Concurre? condogge?’, Lyly, Gallathea, i. 1 (Raffe); ‘To agree, concurre, cohere, condog’; Cockeram’s Dict. (1642), second part. A whimsical alteration of concur, made by substituting dog for cur. The usual tale about this word is wholly without foundation; see NED.

conduct, conductor. Richard II, iv. 157; Romeo, iii. 1. 129; v. 3. 116.

conduction, guidance, leadership. North, tr. of Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 21 (in Shak. Plut., p. 40, n. 7); Robinson, tr. of Utopia, bk. ii; ed. Arber, p. 138. L. conductio; from conducere, to conduct.

coney, a rabbit. In compounds: Cony-burrow, a rabbit-warren, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Orlando), spelt coney borough, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Medlay); coney-catch, to cheat, dupe, Merry Wives, i. 1. 128; Humour out of Breath, iv. 3 (Hortensio); conie-catcher, a cheat, Sir Thos. More, i. 4. 205; coney-garth, a rabbit-warren, Palsgrave; spelt cony gat, Peele, Works (ed. Dyce, p. 579); conyger, Horman, Vulgaria (NED.); conygree, Turbervile, Venerie, 184. For etymology of these ‘coney’ words see NED.

confine, to send beyond the confines, to banish. Webster, Appius, v. 3 (Virginius). Dyce gives five more examples, all from Heywood. And see Dyce’s Webster, p. 375.

confins, inhabitants of adjacent regions. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § 12. L. confines, pl., neighbours.

confluent, affluent, abounding in. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad ix, 157. In this sense found only here.

congee, a bow; orig. at taking one’s leave. Dryden, Prol. to The Loyal Brother, 25; Marlowe, Edward II, v. 4; to take ceremonious leave, ‘I have congied with the Duke’, All’s Well, iv. 3. 103. OF. congie, leave of absence, dismission. See Dict.

conglobate, gathered as into a globe, compressed. Dryden, Death of Lord Hastings, 35.

congrue, fitting, suitable; ‘Congrue Latine’, Latin that can be parsed, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 15, § 1. F. congru (Littré); L. congruus, agreeing, suitable.

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

conjure, to call upon solemnly, to adjure. Two Gent. ii. 7. 2; Hamlet, iv. 3. 67; to influence by incantation, or the adjuring of spirits, Timon, i. 1. 7; to swear together, to conspire, Milton, P. L. ii. 693; Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 26.

consilliadory, pl. councillors. City Nightcap, i. 1 (Abstemia); iii. 1 (Lorenzo). Ital. consigliatori, pl.; from consiglio, council.

consort, a ‘concert’ of musical instruments. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, 1. 23 from the end; Northward Ho, ii. 1; Beaumont and Fl., King and No King, v. 2 (Lygones).

conster, to construe; a common spelling in old editions of Shakespeare, &c.

consumedly, excessively; ‘I believe they talked of me; for they laughed consumedly’, Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem, iii. 1 (Scrub); consumedly in love’, id., iii. 2 (Scrub).

conteck, strife, discord. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 64; Shep. Kal., May, 163; Sept., 86. ME. contek, strife (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2003, B. 4122). Anglo-F. contec, ‘débat, querelle’ (Moisy); contention (Gower, Mirour, 4647). See Dict. M. and S.

continent, one of the concentric ‘spheres’ in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy; each hollow crystal sphere carried with it one of the seven planets that revolved round the earth, each planet being attached to the concave surface of its own sphere. ‘As true . . . as doth that orbed continent [that spherical solar shell retain] the fire That severs day from night’ [i.e. the sun], Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 278; ‘Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale From her moist continent to higher orbs’ (i.e. from her own sphere to the spheres beyond), Milton, P. L. v. 422; ‘All subject under Luna’s continent’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 2 (1148); scene 9. 62 (W.); p. 167, col. 2 (D); ‘Luna, . . . trembling upon her concave continent’, iv. 1 (1543); scene 11. 15 (W.); p. 172, col. 1 (D.). Cp. ‘Judging the concave circle of the sun To hold the rest in his circumference’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1122); scene 9. 36 (W.); p. 167, col. 1 (D.).

contrive, to wear out, to spend; ‘Three ages, such as mortall men contrive’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 48; Tam. Shrew, i. 2. L. contrivi, pt. t. of conterere, to wear away; cp. ‘totum hunc contrivi diem’, Terence, Hec. 5. 3. 17. Not the same word as mod. E. contrive. See Nares.

conundrum, a whim, crotchet, conceit. B. Jonson, The Fox, v. 7 (Volpone).

convent, to convene, summon together, summon. Coriolanus, ii. 2. 59; Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 17.

convert, to cause to return, to bring back; ‘Or if I stray he doth convert, And bring my minde in frame’, Herbert, Temple, Ps. xxiii; to turn aside from (intrans.), ‘When thou from youth convertest’, Sh. Sonn. xi.

convertite, a professed convert to a religious faith, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 2 (Barabas); a person converted to a better course of action, King John, v. 1. 19.

convey, a cant term for to steal. Merry Wives, i. 3. 52; Richard II, v. 317. Hence conveyance, trickery, artifice, 3 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 160.

convince, to overcome, overpower; ‘I will with wine and wassal so convince’, Macbeth, i. 7. 64; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 21; to prove a person to be guilty, ‘Which of you convinceth mee of sinne?’ Bible, John viii. 46; Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 129; Webster, Appius and Virg. v. 3; Mirror for Mag., Glocester. st. 43; to refute in argument, ‘It sufficeth to convince atheism, but not to inform religion’, Bacon, Adv. Learning, ii. 681.

convive, one who feasts with others, a table-companion. Beaumont, Psyche, x. 211; to feast together, Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 272. F. convive, a guest; L. conviva, one who lives or feasts with others.

cony; see coney.

cooling card, a winning card in a card-game, that dashes the hopes of the adversary. 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 84; Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, ii. 2 (Flavia).

copartiment, a compartment, panel. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (last line). Ital. compartimento, a partition.

copatain hat, a high-crowned hat (?). Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 69; ‘A copetain hatte made on a Flemmishe blocke’, Gascoigne, Works, i. 375. Prob. the same as copintank, copentank, a high-crowned hat in the form of a sugar-loaf; ‘A high cop-tank hat,’ North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 30. See NED. (s.v. Copintank).

cope, a purchase, bargain. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 3 (351); scene 3. 5 (W.); p. 157, col. 1 (D.). Cp. ‘cope’, a prov. word meaning to exchange, barter, heard in the north country and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Cope, vb.² 1). Dutch koop, a sale, a buying. See Dict. (s.v. Cope, 3).

copel, a small pot made of bone-ash, used for melting gold or silver. Sir T. Browne, Urn-burial, ch. iii, § 18. Spelt coppell, Bacon, Sylva, § 799. F. coupelle, ‘a Coppell, the little Ashen pot or vessel wherein Goldsmiths melt or fine their Metals’ (Cotgr.); see Estienne, Précellence, 142 (Lexique-Index, 400). Coupelle is a deriv. of coupe, a cup. Med. L. cuppa (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. Cupel).

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

copemate, copesmate, a person with whom one ‘copes’ or contends, an adversary. Golding, Metam. xii (ed. 1593, 279); Chapman, All Fools, ii (Valerio); a companion, comrade, Greene, Upstart Courtier (ed. 1871, 4), used fig. Lucrece, 925; female copesmate, mistress, paramour, B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 10 (Knowell).

coppe, the top, summit. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 202. 18; lf. 232, back, 26. Hence copped, peaked, Pericles, i. 1. 101; ‘High-copt hats’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1163. ME. cop: ‘the cop of the hill’ (Wyclif, Luke iv. 29). OE copp.

copy, abundance, copiousness. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 1 Carlo); Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Placentia). L. copia.

copy, copyhold, tenure of land ‘by copy’, i.e. according to the ‘copy’ of the manorial court-roll, used fig. Macbeth, iii. 2. 38.

coracine, a kind of fish like a perch, found in the Nile. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 10. L. coracinus, Gk. κορακῖνος, from κόραξ, a raven, from its black colour.

corant; see courant.

coranto, a quick dance. Hen. V, iii. 5. 33; Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iii. 2 (Kickshaw). Ital. coranto, ‘a kinde of French dance’ (Florio); cp. F. courante, ‘a curranto’ (Cotgr.). See courant.

corasive, a sharp remedy, severe reproach. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 154). See corsive.

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

corbe, courbe, bent, crooked. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 56. ME. courbe (Gower, C. A. i. 1687). F. courbe, L. curvus.

corbed up, (prob.) controlled, as by a curb, curbed. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, ii. 1 (Pandulfo).

cordwain, Spanish leather, orig. made at Cordova. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 2. 6; Drayton, Eclogues, iv. 177. Spelt cordevan, Fletcher, Faith. Shepherdess, i. 1. 21. Span. cordován, Spanish leather (Stevens).

coresie, vexation, a corroding, gnawing annoyance. Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 24. In prov. use in Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Corrosy). F. corrosif (Cotgr.); for the change of suffix, cp. hasty, the E. representative of F. hastif. See corsive.

corned, horned, peaked, pointed; said of shoes. Skelton, Maner of the World, 26; Greene, Description of Chaucer, 13; ed. Dyce, p. 320. Cp. F. corné, horned (Cotgr.).

cornel, a little grain, granule; ‘Bread is of many cornels compounded’, Conflict of Conscience, iv. 1 (Philologus); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 83.

cornel, a javelin made of cornel-wood. Used to translate L. cornus, Dryden, tr. Aeneid, xii. 406.

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

cornes, pl. kinds of corn; corn. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 8, back, 4; lf. 88. 14.

cornet, a troop of horse; so called from its standard, which was a long horn-shapen pennon. 1 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 25; Kyd, Span. Tragedy, i. 2. 41. F. cornette, ‘a Cornet of Horse; the Ensign of a horse-company’ (Cotgr.).

cornet, a head-dress formerly worn by ladies; ‘Her cornet blacke’, Surrey, Complaint that his Ladie kept her face hidden, 2; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 12. F. cornette, a horned head-dress; dim. of corne, a horn.

cornet, some kind of ornament (?); ‘With cornets at their footmen’s breeches’, Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 872.

cornuto, a cuckold. Merry Wives, iii. 5. 71. Ital. cornuto, a cuckold; lit. ‘furnished with horns’ (Florio).

coronal, a wreath of flowers, a garland. Fletcher, Faith. Shepherdess, i. 1. 11; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 53.

coronel, a ‘colonel’. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 656, l. 9; lieutenant-coronel, B. Jonson, Every Man, iii. 5 (Knowell). Span. coronel, Ital. colonello, ‘a Colonel of a Regiment’ (Florio); a deriv. of colonna, cp. F. colonne de troupes, a column, a formation of troops narrow laterally and deep from front to rear; see Hatzfeld.

correption, reproof, rebuke. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 30: Augustus, § 12. L. correptio; deriv. of corripere, to reprove.

corrigidor, corregidor, a Spanish magistrate. Machin, Dumb Knight, v. 1 (Cyprus); Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 13. 58. See Stanford.

corrol, to crimson, to make like ‘coral’; ‘The . . . sunne corrols his cheeke’, Herrick, A Nuptial Verse to Mistress E. Lee, 4.

corser, a dealer, esp. a horse-dealer. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 119. 15; spelt courser, Beaumont and Fl., The Captain, v. 1 (Father). ME. corser, Wyclif, Works (ed. 1880, p. 172); corsowre of horse, ‘mange’ (Prompt. 94), Anglo-F. cossour, A.D. 1310, see Riley’s Memorials of London, Pref., p. xxii, Med. L. cociatorem, a broker, factor, dealer, cp. cocio (Ducange). The Ital. cozzone, a horse-courser (Florio), is from coctionem, a later form of cocionem, see Diez, 112.

corsive, for corrosive; anything that corrodes, grief, distress. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1. 7; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 14; Drayton, Barons’ Wars, iv. 14. See coresie.

cortine, a curtain (military term); a plain wall in a fortification; the wall between two bastions, &c. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Can.). F. courtine (cortine), a curtain; and (in fortification) the plainness of the wall between bulwark and bulwark (Cotgr.); in the same sense Ital. cortina (Florio).

coscinomancy, divination by means of a sieve. From Gk. κόσκινον, a sieve; and suffix -mancy, as in necro-mancy, &c. Hence the compound necro-puro-geo-hydro-cheiro-coscino-mancy. Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 3 (Alb.), where puro- should be pyro-. Sometimes the sieve was suspended by a thread; otherwise, it was used in conjunction with a pair of shears, as described in Brand, Popular Antiq. iii. 351; cp. Butler, Hudibras, ii, 3. 569.

coshering, the right claimed by Irish chiefs of quartering themselves upon their dependants. Davies, Why Ireland (ed. 1747, 169); feasting, Shirley, St. Patrick, v. 1 (2 Soldier); also, coshery, feasting, Stanyhurst tr. Virgil, Aeneid i, 707. Spenser in his State of Ireland mentions cosshirh as one of the customary services claimed by the Irish Lord (ed. Morris. 623). Ir. cóisir, feasting, entertainment (Dinneen). ‘In modern times coshering means simply a friendly visit to a neighbour’s house to have a quiet talk’, Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, 240.

cosier; see cozier.

cosset, a pet lamb. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 42; also fig. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Mrs. Litt.). In prov. use in Glouc., E. Anglia, and Kent, meaning a lamb or colt brought up by hand, also, an indulged child, a pet animal (EDD.).

cost, the rib of a ship. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Cymbal). L. costa (navium) (Pliny).

cost; see coast.

costard, the head. Applied jocularly to the head, as being like a very large apple. ME. costard, an apple; lit. a ‘ribbed’ apple; from OF. coste, L. costa, a rib. Hence costard-monger or coster-monger, orig. a seller of apples. See EDD.