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A small house; a cottage or hut. The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm. Goldsmith.

A cottage or hut. [Obs.]

A buskin anciently used by tragic actors on the stage; hence, tragedy in general. The moment had arrived when it was thought that the mask and the cothurn might be assumed with effect. Motley.

Land appendant to a cot or cottage, or held by a cottager or cotter.

A cottager; a cottier. Burns. Through Sandwich Notch the West Wind sang Good morrow to the cotter. Whittier.

In Great Britain and Ireland, a person who hires a small cottage, with or without a plot of land. Cottiers commonly aid in the work of the landlord's farm. [Written also cottar and cotter.]

One of the side scenes of the stage in a theater, or the space included between the side scenes.

Contrary; opposite; contrasted; opposed; adverse; antagonistic; as, a counter current; a counter revolution; a counter poison; a counter agent; counter fugue. "Innumerable facts attesting the counter principle." I. Taylor. Counter approach (Fort.), a trench or work pushed forward from defensive works to meet the approa…

A stratagem or plot by which another sratagem or project is defeated. Thinking himself contemned, knowing no countermine against contempt but terror. Sir P. Sidney.

To oppose, as another plot, by plotting; to attempt to frustrate, as a stratagem, by stratagem. Every wile had proved abortive, every plot had been counterplotted. De Quinsey.

A sudden stroke; an unexpected device or stratagem; -- a term used in various ways to convey the idea of promptness and force. Coup de grace (ke gr Etym: [F.], the stroke of mercy with which an executioner ends by death the sufferings of the condemned; hence, a decisive, finishing stroke. -- Coup de main (ke m Etym: […

Any position giving the enemy such advantage that the troops occupying it must either surrender or be cut to pieces. Farrow.

Sour; rough; austere. The crab vintage of the neighb'ring coast. Dryden.

Dexterity in devising and effecting a purpose; cunning; artifice; stratagem. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Job. v. 13.

ed in English only in the expression en creux. Thus, engraving en creux is engraving in intaglio, or by sinking or hollowing out the design.

A hovel; a hut; a cottage. Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, . . . Than in the perfumed chambers of the great Shak.

consequences; hence, of doubtful issue; attended with risk; dangerous; as, the critical stage of a fever; a critical situation. Our circumstances are indeed critical. Burke. The small moment, the exact point, the critical minute, on which every good work so much depends. South. Critical angle (Optics), that angle of i…

A croche, or knob, on the top of a stag's antler. The antlers and the crockets. W. Black.

ry cross; Charing Cross in London. Dun-Edin's Cross, a pillared stone, Rose on a turret octagon. Sir W. Scott.

e maid, That ever crowed for kisses. Tennyson. To crow over, to exult over a vanquished antagonist. Sennacherib crowing over poor Jerusalem. Bp. Hall.