Search the Dictionary

A strip of red cloth notched like the comb of a cock, which licensed jesters formerly wore in their caps.

rtain seasons of the year, on either side of the stomach of the European crawfishes, and formerly used in medicine for absorbent and antacid purposes; the gastroliths. -- Crab spider (Zoöl.), one of a group of spiders (Laterigradæ); -- called because they can run backwards or sideways like a crab. -- Crab tree, the t…

Long-toed boots or shoes formerly worn in many parts of Europe; -- so called from Cracow, in Poland, where they were first worn in the fourteenth century. Fairholt.

ers nights, gripeth him in his legs. Sir T. More. Cramp bone, the patella of a sheep; -- formerly used as a charm for the cramp. Halliwell. "He could turn cramp bones into chess men." Dickens. -- Cramp ring, a ring formerly supposed to have virtue in averting or curing cramp, as having been consecrated by one of the k…

he estimation of. You credit the church as much by your government as you did the school formerly by your wit. South.

Indians, including the Muskogees, Seminoles, Uchees, and other subordinate tribes. They formerly inhabited Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.

A superior kind of violin, formerly made at Cremona, in Italy.

To act as a critic; to pass literary or artistic judgment; to play the critic; -- formerly used with on or upon. Several of these ladies, indeed, criticised upon the form of the association. Addison.

An intimate companion; a familiar frend. [Colloq.] He soon found his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time. W. Irving.

over; to traverse; as, to cross a stream. A hunted hare . . . crosses and confounds her former track. I. Watts.

An instrument formerly used at sea for taking the altitudes of celestial bodies.

rganic acid, C3H5.CO2H, of the ethylene, or acrylic acid series. It was so named because formerly supposed to exist in croton oil. Also, any acid metameric with crotonic acid proper.

The exterior portion of the earth, formerly universally supposed to inclose a molten interior.

A kind of chair formerly used for punishing scolds, and also dishonest tradesmen, by fastening them in it, usually in front of their doors, to be pelted and hooted at by the mob, but sometimes to be taken to the water and ducked; -- called also a castigatory, a tumbrel, and a trebuchet; and often, but not so correctly,…

A dog with a docked tail; formerly, the dog of a person not qualified to course, which, by the forest laws, must have its tail cut short, partly as a mark, and partly from a notion that the tail is necessary to a dog in running; hence, a dog not fit for sporting. Hope is a curtail dog in some affairs. Shak.…

A riotous kind of dance, formerly common at weddings; -- called also cushion dance. Halliwell. Cushion capital.(Arch.) A capital so sculptured as to appear like a cushion pressed down by the weight of its entablature. (b) A name given to a form of capital, much used in the Romanesque style, modeled like a bowl, the upp…

An order of fishes, formerly proposed by Agassiz, for those with thin, smooth scales, destitute of marginal spines, as the herring and salmon. The group is now regarded as artificial.

A performer upon cymbals.

m oil of cumin, oil of caraway, carvacrol, camphor, etc.; -- called also paracymene, and formerly camphogen.

A large pistol formerly used. [Obs.] The Spaniards discharged their dags, and hurt some. Foxe. A sort of pistol, called dag, was used about the same time as hand guns and harquebuts. Grose.