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To recover health and strength gradually, after sickness or weakness; as, a patient begins to convalesce.

Somewhat cool. The nights began to grow a little coolish. Goldsmith.

. After having been long in indirect communication with the exiled family, he [Atterbury] began to correspond directly with the Pretender. Macualay.

as is appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described. I began last night to read Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel . . . .I was extremely delighted with the poetical beauty of some parts . . . .The costume, too, is admirable. Sir J. Mackintosh.

cotton with another. Swift. Didst see, Frank, how the old goldsmith cottoned in with his beggarly companion Sir W. Scott.

To join in wedlock; to marry. [Colloq.] A parson who couples all our beggars. Swift.

To cheat; to defrand; to beguile; to deceive, usually by small arts, or in a pitiful way. He had cozened the world by fine phrases. Macualay. Children may be cozened into a knowledge of the letters. Locke. Goring loved no man so well but that he would cozen him, and expose him to public mirth for having been cozened. C…

n in infancy. He that hath been cradled in majesty will not leave the throne to play with beggars. Glanvill.

A manger or open frame for hay; a crib; a rack. [Obs.] Begin from first where He encradled was, In simple cratch, wrapt in a wad of hay. Spenser. Cratch cradle, a representation of the figure of the cratch, made upon the fingers with a string; cat's cradle; -- called also scratch cradle.

To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. I crave your honor's pardon. Shak. Joseph . . . went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. Mark xv. 43.

One who craves or begs.

Created; composed; begotte. [Obs.] Hearts create of duty and zeal. Shak.

tence. From the creation to the general doom. Shak. As when a new particle of matter dotn begin to exist, in rerum natura, which had before no being; and this we call creation. Locke.

To become crimson; to blush. Ancient towers . . . beginning to crimson with the radiant luster of a cloudless July morning. De Quincey.

To criticise; to play the critic. [Obs.] Nay, if you begin to critic once, we shall never have done. A. Brewer.

e raven himself is hoarse, That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan. Shak. Two ravens now began to croak Their nuptial song. Wordsworth.

abuses." Shak. -- To cry to, to call on in prayer; to implore. -- To cry you mercy, to beg your pardon. "I cry you mercy, madam; was it you" Shak.

To bend; to crouch; to cringe. [Obs.] Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. Shak.

ts, and retire to rest, -- instituted by William the Conqueror; also, the bell itself. He begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock. Shak. The village curfew, as it tolled profound. Campbell.

To utter imprecations or curses; to affirm or deny with imprecations; to swear. Then began he to curse and to swear. Matt. xxi. 74. His spirits hear me, And yet I need must curse. Shak.