Courteous, courtesy, &c. are not uncommonly written curt. Court; area circà ædes from Lat. Cohors or cors. (See CoнORT.) Spelman says. As bands or troops of soldiers were called cohorts, ab avium cohorte; so

more modernly, the family ing ye contrary.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 385.

COURTESY V.
COURTESY, n.
Co'URTEZAN.
COURTIER.
COURTIERY.
COURTING, n.
Co'URTLY, adj.
COURTLY, ad.
Co'URTLINESS.
Co'URTLING, n.
COURTSHIP.
In Low Lat. Curtisanus, was one who followed
the court; now courtier; and thus courtman in
Chaucer.

or company of princes was
called cors, and
Gall.
Court; It. and Sp. Corte.

curs;

Court is also applied tothe assembly of judges or ministers of justice, to the place of assembling.

COURT, v.
COURT, n.
COURTEOUS.
COURTEOUSLY.
COURTEOUSNESS.

Courtezan, Fr. Courtisane; It. Cortegiana; q. d. Aulica; more commonly applied to harlots, quia tales urbanæ plerumque et ad aulicos mores compositæ sunt, (Skinner.)

A courtesy, a courteous act of demeanour, as applied to the act of bending the knees; it is usually written curtsey.

To court, is, to practise the art of a courtier, or of attendants upon courts; to endeavour to please, or to gain or win favour; to woo.

Court is much used in composition: as courtday, court-favour.

There was whylom by daies olde
A worthy knight, as men tolde;
He was neuew to the emperour,
And of his court a courteour.-Gower. Con. A. b. i
Wherein I see, a corps of comely shape
(And such as might beseeme the courte full wel)
Is cast at heele by courting al to soone.
Gascoigne. The Steele Glas.
But still the court must not be fild with wordes, and vayne
report

Which in abundance great from thee do flie.

Phaer. Virgill. Eneidos, b. xi. This good emperour was strong in vertue, meke in woordes, attemperate in his exercises, homely with euery man, sad among sad men, hasty among hasty men, mery with mery men, and wise among wise men, as it is couenable for a curtious prince to be.-Golden Boke, c. 15.

Yet fearing that by the castynge out of mo deuils they might afterwards happely lese mo of theire hogges, they prayed hym courteisely to geate hym quickly thense. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 540. It is the parte of godly menne vtterly to endeavour themselues, that they be at debate with no man, whether they be good or euill: they muste moue and allure all menne with courtiousnesse, ientlenesse and beneficialnesse as muche as maye be to loue and to concorde.-Udal. Matthew, c. 5.

Ile wayte my opportunitie.

to meete him in the ways,

To leade him home, to curtsey him,

and cap him when he stayes.-Drant. Horace, b.i. Sat.9.

Yet coortsye him and worshipp him,

and if he would it so,

Thou maist not staye to wayte on him

in place where he shal go.-Ib. Id. b. ii. Sat. 5.

But now let no man require of me that I should (vnto such an abhominable & detestable deuill, as hath brought in this wicked and shamefull learnying and maners) put off my cappe, & make low curtesie, and geue fayre wordes, and say: God geue you good morow, syr deuill, how fare you. Barnes. Workes, p. 193.

And he saith also that hys belief is so necessary to saluacion, yt the contrary beliefe is damnable, for elles he woulde not of hys courtesie cry oute sore vpon the clergye for teach

And being come near to Greenwich (where the court then
lay) presently vpon the newes thereof, the courtiers came
running out, and the common people flockt together, stand-
ing very thicke vpon the shoare.

Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. i. p. 245.
And courtlike life is thought another heauen.
Gascoigne. The Steele Gias.

His youth, his sport, his pleasant chere,
His courtly state and company,

In him so strangely alterd were.

Vncertaine Auctors. A Comparison of his Loue, &c.

Thus left by thee, and by him courted still,
Thy grace with-drawn, his favours mustred faire,
How could poor wretches wrestle with self-will
But soone be catch'd by such a subtle snare.

Stirling. Doomes-Day. The Tenth Houre.

Of court, it seemes, men courtesie do cali

For that it there most vseth to abound;
And well beseemeth, that in princes hall
That vertue should be plentifully found,
Which of all goodly manners is the ground
And root of ciuil conversation.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. vi. c. 1.

The court's a school indeed, in whiche some few
Learn vertuous principles but most forget
What ever they brought thither good and honest.
Trifling is there in practice, serious actions
Are obsolete and out of use.

Beaum. & Fletch. Custom of the Country, Act ii. sc. 1.
Vpon her front her lockes were curled new,
Her eies were courteous, full of peace and loue;
In look a saint, an angell bright in shew,
So in her visage grace and vertue stroue.

Fairefax. Godfrey of Bovlogne, b. xiv. s. 4.
Whence softly sallying out as loth the place to leave
She Sence a pretty rill doth courteously receive.
Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 26.
Mal. Toby approaches; curtsies there to me.
To. Shall this fellow liue?

Shakespeare. Twelfth Night, Act ii. sc. 5.
The homely villaine curt'sies to her low.

Id. Rape of Lucrece.
-Old Nestor seeing it,
Rose, and receiv'd him by the hand, and faine would have
him set;

He set that curtesie aside, excusing it with haste.
Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. ii.
That so knowledge may not be a courtezane for pleasure,
or as a bondwoman for gaine; but as a spouse for genera-
tion, fruit, and honest solace.

Bacon. On Learning, by G. Wats, b. i. c. 5.
Lad. Shepherd, I take thy word,
And trust thy honest offer'd courtesy,
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds
With smoaky rafters, than in tap'stry halls
In courts of princes, where it first was nam'd
And yet is most pretended. Milton. Comus, 1. 323.

In that sweet isle where Venus keeps her court
And every Grace and all the Loves resort.

Dryden. Cymon & Iphigenia. We cannot omit to observe this courtly, (shall I call it? or good quality in him; that he was courteous, and did seeri to study to oblige.-Strype. Mem. Hen. VIII. an. 1530.

I endeavoured to clothe virtue, though not in a gaudy, in a fashionable habit, and divesting her not only of her sackcloth, but her blacks, where I saw she appeared in them with disadvantage, I endeavoured to give her as much of the modern ornaments of a fine lady, as I could, without danger of being accused to have dressed her like a courtezan.

Boyle. Occas. Reflections. Last Section, Reflect. 1. Courtesy and condescension is another happy quality, which never fails to make its way into the good opinion, and into the very hearts of those who are under the good magistrate's inspection.-Atterbury, vol. ii. Ser. 3.

Eke Plato sayeth, who so can him rede,
The wordes moste ben cosin to the dede.
Chaucer. Prologue, v. 719.

And for as mochel as this goode man
And eke this monk, of which that I began,
Were both two yborne in o village
The monk him claimeth, as for cosinage.

Id. The Shipmannes Tale, v. 12,966

And he resigned in this cas
Thempire of Rome vnto Louis

His cosin, whiche a Lombarde is.-Gower. Cond. Prol.

But remembrance,
That thei toke of his worthines,
Of knighthode, and of gentilnes,
And how he stode of cosinage

To themperour, made them assuage,
And durst not slaine hym for fear.-Id. Ib. b. i.

For the benefites of God are not giuen for the respecte of kynred, but for the good herte of a man: not to the cousyn age of the fleashe, but to the promptnesse of the spirite: not to the nacion, but to the feyth.-Udal. Luke, c. 4.

And her neighboures & her cosins hearde tel how ye Lord had shewed greate mercy vpon her, and they reloysed with her.-Bible, 1551. Ib. c. 1.

And then his grace did aske how our queenes grace did, calling her cousin, saying that he was glad that wee were come in health into his realme.

Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. i. p. 263.

COW

Egbert his son succeeded, whose quiet government for a len season was afterwards defaced by the cruel murther of Ealbert and Egilbright his cousins Germans.

cow.

the sweet breath of the cow; such a scent as cows
Stow. Kentish Saxons, an. 66. breathe, from their mouth and lips," (Skinner.)

Ther ne was kow ne cowkynde.-Piers Plouhman, p. 223.
The goddesse
Of lo torned the likenesse

In to a cowe to go there oute
The large feldes all aboute.-Gower. Con. A. b. iv.
To work hir will and all his fraud to find,
She craude the cowe in gift at loue his hande,
Who could not well his sister's suite withstande.
Turberville. Against the ielous Heads, &c.
How often woold she flowers twine?

How often garlants make

Of cowslips and of columbine
And al for Corin's sake.

Her dolour soone she ceast, and on her dight
Her helmet, to her courser mounting light:
Her former sorrowe into suddaine wrath,
Both coosen passions of distroubled spright,
Converting forth she beates the dusty path.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 4.

To make his character entire,
He weds a cousin of the squire,

Not over weighty in the purse,

But many doctors have done worse:

And tho' she boasts no charm divine,

Yet she can carve, and make birch wine.

Warton. Progress of Discontent.

COUTH, or Past part. of conne; to know,
See
COULD.
Sto understand, to be able.
CAN.

Could is now used merely as a grammatical auxiliary.

This clerk was cleped hendy Nicholas;
Of secret loue he conde and of sulas,

And therto he was slie and ful prive,
And like a maiden meke for to se.

Chaucer. The Milleres Tale, v. 3200.

Vncertaine Auctors. Of the Mutabilitie of the Worlde.
Mirth. I-my gossip Tattle knew what fine slips grew in
Gardiner's Lane; who kist the butcher's wife with the cowes
breath; what matches were made in the Bowling Alley, and

what bettes wonne and lost.

An example of rising from so meane or meaner estate may appeare in Earle Goodwin, who being at the first but the sonne of a cowheard, came to be (as I take it) the greatest subject that England ever had.

Verstegan. Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, c. 10.

Shakespeare. Pericles, Act iv. sc. 4.

I believe it is not in the power of Plowden to dastardize or cow your spirits, until you have overcome him, at leastwise have so much of him as will serve your turn. Howell, b. i. s. 1. Let. 9.

COW

This sleep betokens that which cowardeth a man's heart

Dr. T. H. thinks from their scent, rivalling from ghostly comfort, and to stand in the same through a

deceauable sleepe is this that lets a man of the blisse of heauen.-Fox. Martyrs. Letter of Wm. Swinderby.

I would dye with you, but first I would so torture ye,
And cow you in your end, so despise you;

For a weak and wretched coward, you must end sure;
Still make ye fear, and shake, despised, still laugh at ye.
Beaum. & Fletch. A Wife for a Moneth, Act v. sc. 1.

Low in pocket, cow'd in courage.
Safely glad to sup their porridge.-Swift. Helter Skelter.

The cowheardesse comming in, and seeing him mind more his bow then his bread, in a great fury cast away both his bow and arrowes, and checking him [King Elfred] as her groom, said, Thou fellow, doest thou see the bread burne before thy face, and wilt not turne it? and yet art thou glad to eate it before it be halfe baked? Little suspecting him to be the man that had beene serued with farre more delicate cates. Speed. Elfred, an. 876.

I would have you take notice, I am not only able to vanquish a people already cowed, and accustomed to flight; but I could Almanzor-like drive the British general from the field, were I less a Protestant or had ever been affronted by the confederates.-Spectator, No. 167.

B. Jonson. Staple of Newes, Act iii. sc. 3.

COW, n. (Vacca.) A. S. Ku; Dut. Co/WHEARD. Koe; Ger. Kuhe; Sw. Ko. Co/WHEARDEss. The etymologists incline to Co/WSLIP. the Gr. Kue-ev, KV-EIV, uterum gestare. One reason (Ihre says) is that this name is not given to the animal till it has brought forth. But if our ancestors had resorted to the Greek for a name for this animal, they would most probably have taken the Greek name itself.

66

Cowslip,-A. S. Cuslippe; flowers so called, because cows delight in them, or, as others think, from their similitude or likeness to the lips of a

At midnight the appointed hour,
And for the queen a fitting bow'r,
Quoth he, is that fair cowslip-flower,
On Hipent-hills that groweth.

Whilst from off the waters fleet,
Thus I set my printless feet
O'er the cowslip's velvet head,
That bends not as I tread.-Milton. Comus.

So fine a gown, a band so clean,
As well become St. Patrick's dean,
Such reverential awe express,

That cow-boys know you by your dress.

I canne make no warrauntise of my selfe, seyinge that Sainte Peter so sodaynely faynted at a womannes woorde, and so cowardlye forsooke his maister, for whom he had so boldlye foughte within so fewe houres before.

Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1235. And as, syr, I knowe well that many men and women shoulde be therthrowe greatly troublid and sclaunderid, and as I said syr to you before, for myne vntrewthe and false cowardness many a one sholde be put into full greate reprefe. State Trials. Wm. Thorpe, an. 14.

Swift. A Panegyric on the Dean.
Oh! when my friend and I

In some thick wood have wander'd heedless on,
Hid from the vulgar eye, and sat us down
Upon the sloping cowslip-cover'd bank.-Blair. Grave.
Near some cowslip-painted mead,

There let me doze out the dull hours,
And under me let Flora spread

A sofa of her softest flow'rs.-Smart. Idleness, Ode 1.

Yf he be so good a man, and so valyant in armes as it is sayde, he wyll nat refuse it for his ladyes sake: yf he do, it shall tourne hym to moche blame, for I shall repute whersoeuer I go, that for cowardnesse he hath refused to ryn with me one course with a spere.

Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. i. c. 324. Truly I think, ne vain is my belefe, Of Goddish race some ofspring should be be: Cowardry notes hartes swarued out of kind. Surrey. Virgile. Eneis, b. iv. Therefore he that professed himselfe chiefe prelate of religion, being more wicked than all other, blameth the cowardship of them that with deliberate counsell, did further debate the matter, whether Jesus were to be put to death or nay. Udal. John, c. 11.

And seeing none behold us, there will be much less any one to take notice of our cowardize; the rather, because I Drayton. The Court of Fairy. heard oft-times the curate of our village, whom you know

They went about with impudent words to smother his vertues, rayling at him as a slow-backe and coward, and delicate carpet knight, and one that knew how with trim words to set out deedes that were amiss. Holland. Ammianus, p. 93.

Fr. Couard; Sp. Cobarde;
It. Codardo. "Coward, i. e.
cowred, cowered, cower'd.
One who has cower'd be-
fore an enemy.
It is of
the same import as sup-
plex. Coward is the past
part. of the verb, to coure,
or to cower, a word for-
merly in common use."
See the
CO/WARDNESS. (See Tooke.)
first example from Chaucer; and To Cow, and
TO COWER.

CO/WARD, v.
Co'WARD, n.
CO/WARD, adj.
CO/WARDICE.
CO/WARDIZE.
CO/WARDLIKE.
CO/WARDLY, ad.
Co'WARDLY, adj.
Co'WARDLINESS.
CO/WARDSHIP.

Id. Ib.

Why do I name the lordly creature man?
The weak, the mild, the coward woman can,
When to a crown she cuts her sacred way,
All that oppose with manlike courage slay.

To cower, is to stoop, to submit: and a coward, one who stoops, submits, yields, (sc.) through fear; one who avoids or evades, shuns, risk or hazard or danger; one who dreads or fears harm or injury, excessively, needlessly, with little or no See the quotation from Cogan.

cause.

A nyce herte, fie for shame.

A cowarde herte of loue vnlered,
Wherof arte thou so sore afered.-Gower. Con. A b. iv.
Lo thus vpon the worldes fame
Knighthode hath euer yet beset,
Whiche with no cowardis is let.

437

Cowley. On the Government of Oliver Cromwell.

very well, preach, That he which seeks the danger, perisheth therein.-Shelton. Don Quixote, b. iii. c. 6.

Thou, that in counsels dost abound, O Laertiades,

Why stayst thou? why thus cowardlike, shunst thou the honour'd prease;

Take heed thy backe take not a dart.

Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. viii.

So those men that are prodigal of their lives in base quarrels, peradventure would be cowardly enough; if either public service, or religion did call for their help; I scarcely believe any of them would die martyrs, if the times so required it.-Hales. Rem. Ser. On Duels.

He saw that, by the drowning of the master, (whom he himself treacherously knocked on the head, as he was swimming for his life) by the flight and dispersion of others, and cowardly patience of the remaining company, all was abandoned to his pleasure.

Cowley. On the Government of Oliver Cromwell. One of the souldiers when Harold was slaine did cut him in the legge with a sword, for the which deede Duke William, blaming him for his cowardlinesse and shameful act, put him out of the wars.-Stow. Harold, an. 1016.

Now, pusillanimous, deprest with fear,
He checks his virtue in the mid career;
And of his strength distrusted, coward flies
The contest, though impow'rd to gain the prize.

West. Nemean Odes, Ode 11.
Cowardice, considered as distinct from occasional panic,
is that habitual temper and disposition, which disqualifies
from opposing the dangers and difficulties, which it is our
is an indication of culpable and unmanly fear.
duty or interest to combat. Every indication of cowardice

|

But natheles, I say not thou shalt be so coward, that thou doute wher as is no drede.-Chaucer. The Tale of Melibeus. Ther may no man clepen it cowardie.

Cogan. On the Passions, c. 2. s. 3.

Id. The Knightes Tale, v. 2732.
Thine hert full sore thou wolt dispise
And eke repreue of cowardise,
That thou so dull in euery thing
Were domme for drede, without speaking.

Id. Rom. of the Rose.

COX

Vp in an balke
There lurked, and there coured she
For poore thing where so it be
Is shamefast.
Chaucer. The Rom. of the Rose.

They were compelled to lie many together, smothered vp in little tents and cabines, remaining there all day long, cowring downwards, and doing nothing, where before they lived in the country in a fresh open air and at liberty. North. Plutarch, p. 147.

As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold
Approaching two and two, these cowering low
With blandish ment, each bird stoop'd on his wing.
Milton. Paradise Lost, b. viii.
See there with countenance blithe
And with a courtly grin the fawning hound
Salutes thee cow'ring, his wide opening nose
Upward he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes
Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy.

Somervile. The Chase.

Pride rears her giant form aloft and treads
Injurious o'er the cow'ring gazers heads.

Cambridge. The Scribleriad.

<<

COWL, n.
Cagoule, a monk's hood or
Cowl, v.
cowle," (Norman. Cotgrave.)
Co'WLED, adj. It. Cuculla; Sp. Cogulla; Lat.
Cucullus; (Gr. KUKλos, circulus, Vossius.) A. S.
Cugle. Pars vestis a tergo pendentis,—

Part of the vest hanging down the back, with which the bead was covered against the weather. Cowl-staff. See an example from Holland's Pliny, in v. CLUB. Mr. Malone says, that in Essex, cowl is used for tub; and hence, that cowl-staff is a staff to carry tubs or baskets by the handles. Holland renders Fustes,-bastons, clubs, and coul

staves.

And therefore all our monkes, whose profession was neuer to eate fleshe, set vp the Pope & tooke dispensations, both for the fast, and also for their straite rules, & made their straite rules as wide as ye hoodes of their cowles.

Tyndall. Workes, p. 230.

Who coming young to reign protected by the peers
Until his non-age out: and grown to riper years,
Prov'd upright, soft and meek, in nowise loving war;
But fitter for a cowl, than for a crown by far.
Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 17.
For so did two of their kings, Ethelrald and Kenred; the
one cowled in Bradney and the other in Rome.

Speed. The Saxon Kings of Mercia, an. 582.
Our cowle-man's foresay'd actor so
Preuailed that the fryer
In pulpets durst affirme him king,
And aids for him requier.

Warner. Albion's England, b. viii. c. 38. Take vp these cloathes heere, quickly: wher's the cowlestaffe.-Shakespeare. Merry Wives, Act iii. sc. 3.

COY

on the top, and a bell thereon, &c. and thinke
themselves finely fitted and proudly attired there-
with," (Minshew.) See Cock. It is also applied-
To the head or skull alone.

Well geue him cloth and let the foole
goe like a cockescome still.

Drant. Horace. Ep. b. i. To Scoua.
A collier being drunk jostled a knight into the kennel,
and cried, "Twas his humour; the knight broke his cox-
comb, and that was his humour.
Ford. The Sun's Darling, Act iii. sc. 1.
Hir. Nay, who can say any citizen is an ass for loading
his own back with money till his soul cracks again, only to
leave his son like a gilded coxcomb behind him.

Massinger. The Virgin Martyr, Act ii. sc. 3.

Cambinhoy beres him coy, that fendes whelp,
Ther with craft he has tham raft, it may not help.
R. Brunne, p. 281.

Ther was also a Nonne, a Prioresse
Of her smiling she was simple and coy.

Chaucer. Prologue, v. 119.
Ye ride as still and coye, as doth a maide
That were new spoused, sitting at the borde.
Id. Clerk of Oxenford's Prologue.
Jason is as coye as is a maide,
He loketh pitously, but naught he saied.

He kept him coye and eke prive,
Lest that in him she hadde se
Any lite foly continuance,
For she knew all the olde daunce.-Id. Rom. of the Rose.
In worde nor dede nedeth him not to coie.

Id. Prologue, v. 71.
He nist how best her hart for to acoie.-1d. Troil. b. v.
How busie (if I loue) eke must I be

hem that they say no harme of me.-Id. Ib. b.ii.

To pleasen hem, that iangle of loue, & demen
And
coyen
And oft eke him, that doth the heauens gide,
Hath loue transformed to shapes for him to base:
Transmuted thus, sometime a swan is he,
Leda to coy and eft Europe to please.
Vncertaine Auctors. Power of Loue ouer Gods themselves.
Some other when a bull,

some other time a showre

Of golden drops: as when he coyde
the closed nunne in towre.

Turberville. To a late acquainted Friend.
But Phillida was al to coye,

For Harpalus to winne
For Corin was her only joye
Who forst her not a pinne.

Vncertaine Auctors. Harpalus. Comp. of Phylida.

COZ

Who shall now lead ye fortunate? whose valor
Preserve ye to the glory of your country?
Who shall march out before ye, coy'd and courted
By all the mistresses of war.

So fares it, with oure fondlyng (lo)
though he desyres to go
And wolde this coyishe paramour,
vnbodden wende vnto.-Drant. Horace, b. ii. Sat. 3.

Beaum. & Fletch. Bonduca, Act iv. sc. 3.

Pleasure is like a dog which being coyed and stroaked, follows us at the heels, but if rated and beaten off is driven away from us with ease.-Bp. Hall. Of Contentation, s. 23.

I argue not of her estate,

But set my rest on this,
That opportunitie can win

The coyest she that is.-Warner. Albion's Eng. b. ii.

The mother's o'erjoying
Makes by much coying

The child so untoward.-Drayton. Ode to Cupid.

A yeare was past, and I past hope
Through coyish chaste denyall,
And yeat I could but not persist
In quest of further tryall.

Warner. Albion's England, b. vi. c. 31.

Then while ye coyley stand
To hide me from those eyes,
Sweet, I would you advise

To choose some other fan than that white hand.
Drummond. Love suffers no Parasol.

By differing means both sexes grace their state,
I scorne men's coynesse, women's stoutnesse hate.
Stirling. Doomes-day. The Sixth Houre.
As Eske her farth'st, so first, a coy-bred Cumbrian lass,
Who cometh to her road, renowned Ravenglass.
Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 30.
That smooth deceiving tongue of his can charm,
The coyest ear, the roughest pride disarm.

Fenton. Sappho to Phaon.

How long must Peneus chide in vain
His daughter's coyness and disdain?

Jago. Labour & Genius COʻZEN, v. Minshew derives this verb from Co'ZENAGE. the noun cousin, (q.d.) to deceive Co'ZENER. any one per speciem affinitatis. Co'ZENING. Junius notices this etymology, but prefers the Dut. Koosen, lief koosen, blandiri, adulari, to fawn upon, soothe, or flatter. Id. Legend of Hypsipyle. tive probably is the A. S. Costnian, to try, to The primitempt; costning, trial, temptation. "And ne gelædde thu us on costnung ;"-And lead us not into temptation.

To entice, to allure, delude, deceive, defraud, cheat, (to chouse, qv.)

Hughes. Apollo & Daphne.
Though, various as the flowers which paint the year,
In rainbow charms the changeful Nine appear,
The different beauties coyly they admit,
And to one standard would confine our wit.
Whitehead. A Charge to the Poets.

Though my opinion of your grace's integrity, was but very little affected by the coyness with which you received Mr. Vaughan's proposals, I confess I gave you some credit for your discretion.-Junius, Let. 33.

COZ. A contraction of Cousin, (qv.)

Go now and seek the crowner, and lett him sitte o' my coz; for he's in the third degree of drink; hees drown'd: go looke after him.-Shakes. Twelfth Night, Act î. sc. 5.

And though, dear coz, no folks of taste
Their idle hours with you will waste,
Yet many a grist comes to your mill
Which helps your master's bags to fill.

CRAB, v.
CRAB, R.
CRA'BBED, adj.
CRA'BBEDLY.

Glover. Athenaid, b. iv.

A. S. Crabba; Dut. Krabbe; Ger. Krabbe, krebs; Fr. Ecrevisse. Wachter thinks, from the Ger. Krupen; A. S. CreopCRA'BBEDNESS. an, reptare, to creep. Other CRA'BBY. etymologists, from the Gr. Kapasos; Lat. Carabus, cancri genus. Junius thinks, that from this unpleasant little animal (animal-course culo inamceno, horrente, minaei,) various things bitter, difficult, rough, grim or gloomy, are in English called crabbes or crabbed, e. g. a kind of bitter and unpleasant apple; a crabbed look, a grim or gloomy look. Skinner derives the apple, pomum sylvestre, from the Dut. Schrabben, schrappen, to scrape, to bite; from its biting, sharp and rough taste; and crabbed, (met.) either from the hardness of the wood, or harsh taste of the fruit. See the quotations from Holland. To crab, isTo embitter or cause to be bitter; to be or cause to be difficult, harsh, sour, morose.

And 'tis easie to observe how age or sicknesse sowers and crabbes our natures.-Glanvill. Pre-existence of Souls, c. 4.

Crabs delight in soft and delicate places: in winter they seeke after the warme or sun shine shore: but when summer is come, they retire into the coole and deepe holes in the shade.-Holland. Plinie, b. ix. c. 31.

As for wildings and crabs, little they be all the sort of them in comparison: their tast is well enough liked, and they carie with them a quick and sharp smell howbeit this gift they haue for their harsh sournesse, that they haue many a foule word and shrewd curse given them.

Id. Ib. b. xv. c. 14. Methinks there is a kind of moral influence from faith on any wise and prudent heart, enough to enliven, and animate, and give it spirit against the force and threatnings of any the strongest temptation, and to encourage him in the most crabbed, uncouth, disconsolate undertakings of goodly obedience.-Hammond. Works, vol. iv. p. 564.

But in our daies they haue so acquainted themselves with the Irish, as they haue made a mingle mangle or gallimaufreie of both the languages, and have in such medleie or checkerwise so crabbedlie iumbled them both togither, as commonlie the inhabitants of the meaner sort speak neither good English nor good Irish.-Holinshed. Ireland, c. 1.

Your crabbed rogues, that read Lucretius,
Are against Gods, you know; and teach us,
The Gods make not the poet; but
The thesis, vice versa put,
Should Hebrew-wise be understood;
And means, the poet makes the God.

Prior. Epis. to Fleetwood Shepherd, Esq.
As when the hungry crab in India's main,
Whose body two unequal legs sustain,
Intent some oyster's op'ning shell to spoil,
Moves to the gaping prey with awkward toil.
Cambridge. The Scribleriad, b. iv.
What might have been well enough, and have been re-
ceived with a veneration mixed with awe and terrour, from
an old, severe, crabbed Cato, would have wanted something

of propriety in the young Scipios, the ornament of the
Roman nobility, in the flower of their life.

Burke. To a Noble Lord.

He [Appius Claudius] kept the same sower countenance still, the very same forwardnesse and crabbedness of visage, the same spirit of boldnesse in his appologie and defence. Holland. Livius, p. 85.

This storm, which no soul can endure,
Requires a very different cure;
For such sour verjuice dispositions,
Your crabsticks are the best physicians.

The mathematics with their crabbedness and intricacy, could not deter you, but that you waded through the very midst of them, and arriv'd to so excellent a perfection. Howell, b. i. s. 1. Let. 9. Persius is crabby, because antient; and his jerks, being particularly giuen to private customs of his time, dusky. Marston. Scourge of Villainy.

Smart. Madam and the Magpie, Fab. 10.

CRACK, or Dut. Kracken; Ger. Krachen;
CRAKE, v.
Fr. Craquer; It. Crocchiare;
CRACK, n.
Sp. Cruxir; all formed from the
CRACKER. sound, (Skinner.) A source of
CRA'CKLE. etymology, Wachter observes,
CRACKLING,n. not to be resorted to without
CRACKNEL. necessity and in this instance
perhaps it is so. The A. S. Hrac-od, with the
prefix ge, would give ge-hracod, and by a common
of corruption, grac, or crac, crack-from
the verb Wrac-an, affligere, to dash against. See
RACK.

Crack is applied to the noise made, when any thing brittle partially bursts or breaks asunder; also, to the breach or separation itself; also, (met.) to bragging, i. e. breaking or bursting out, (sc.) in noisy threats or boastings, in clamorous pretensions. (See To BRAG.) And thus to crack,

For which the wardein chidde and made fare,
But thereof set the miller not a tare;
He cracked bost, and swore it n'as not so.
Chaucer. The Reves Tale, v. 3999.

It thinketh me, I sing as wel as thou,

For my song is both true and plaine,
And though I cannot crakel so in vaine
As thou doest in thy throte, I wat neuer how
Id. The Cuckow & Nightingale.
Mynos hath assignde
Prometheus to the rack,
With hand and foote ystrecht awide
till all his limmes doe crack.

Turberville. Of the Torments of Hell.
Then cease for shame to vaunt,

and crowe in craking wise
Of her that least deserues to haue
her beauties fame arise.

Id. The Louer against one that compared, &c.
These proud crakes can not there excuse you, nor yet
help you.-Barnes. Workes, p. 307.

If this be so, (as it is) then answere thou me, which art a Jewe, where be thy crakes become? They are vndoubtedly taken from the, and dispatched arte thou of them, synce the tyme that it hath pleased God, in the gospel of Christ to make all nacions equal.-Udal. Romaines, c. 3.

is

To break or burst asunder partially; and, consequentially, (met.) to weaken, to injure, to destroy.

Ne drede hem not, doth hem no reverence,

To send forth, utter or emit a sharp and sudden
sound.
To brag or boast; in older authors written

For though thin husbond armed be in maille,

The arwes of crabbed

I in after having read over a poem

Thou nedest not to wrest good woorkes out of hym, as a man would wryng veriuce out of crabbes. Nay they flowe naturally out of hym, as springes out of rockes.

Shal perce his brest.—Chaucer. The Clerkes Tale, v. 979. crake. Bale uses the expression brag boasting; of an eminent author, on a victory, I met with several fragand Chaucer, He cracked bost. See BRAG. ments of it upon the next rejoicing-day, which had been Crackle is a dim. and freq. of crack. employed in squibs and crackers, and by that means celeCracknel, a kind of cake, which, when broken, brated its subject in a double capacity.-Spectator, No. 85. Tyndall. Workes, p. 10. edit crepitum, sends forth a crack. For whyles the hope of mine vnyolden herte In endlesse toyles did labor for reliefe, Came crabbed Chance and marrde my merry marte. Gascoigne. Weedes. The Fruite of Fetters.

When cutlers leaue, to sel old rustie blades,
And hide no crackes, with soder nor deceit.
Gascoigne. The Steele Glas.

And whan the plate is hote, they caste of the thyn paste thereon, and so make a lytle cake in maner of a crakenell, or bysket, and that they eate to comfort with all theyr stomakis.-Berners. Froissart. Cronycie, vol. i. c. 17.

He says we are but crakers
He calleth vs England men
Strong harted lyke an hen.

Skelton. Why come ye not to Court?
If crackling cartes, if tauernes noyse,
if stifling dust disease the :
Auoyde the towne, and goe abrode.

Drunt. Horace. Epistle to Scoua.
And fast some water fetch, some cracklinge fier brynge in
their hand.-Phaer. Virgill. Æneidos, b. xii.

Such short composures as are these at best, are but as fire-works at They crackle, shine and offer at heaven itself, but in a moment they fall and are extinct unprofitably.—Feltham, pt. ii. Let. 9.

I do not meane that mysterious, extraordinary (and of late so much studied) book, called the Revelation, and which, perhaps, the more it is studied the less 'tis understood, as generally either finding a man crack'd, or making him so; but I mean those other writings of the prophets and apostles, which exhibit to us a plain, sure, perfect, and intelligible rule.-South, vol. ii. Ser. 11.