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Obscure; difficult; perplexing; trying; as, a crabbed author. "Crabbed eloquence." Chaucer. How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose. Milton.

ke small, sharp, sudden noises, rapidly or frequently repeated; to crepitate; as, burning thorns crackle. The unknown ice that crackles underneath them. Dryden.

The making of small, sharp cracks or reports, frequently repeated. As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. Eccl. vii. 6.

A genus of small, hardy trees, including the hawthorn, much used for ornamental purposes.

Having credit or authority; credible. [Obs.] For my authority bears of a credent bulk. Shak.

A ground of, or title to, belief or confidence; authority derived from character or reputation. The things which we properly believe, be only such as are received on the credit of divine testimony. Hooker.

[Written also crease and kris.] From a Malayan creese to a sailor's jackknife. Julian Hawthorne.

To pilfer or purloin; hence, to steal from an author; to appropriate; to plagiarize; as, to crib a line from Milton. [Colloq.] Child, being fond of toys, cribbed the necklace. Dickens.

attended by an outward manifestation, as by an eruption or sweat. Till some safe crisis authorize their skill. Dryden.

ne who censures or finds fault; a harsh examiner or judge; a caviler; a carper. When an author has many beauties consistent with virtue, piety, and truth, let not little critics exalt themselves, and shower down their ill nature. I. Watts. You know who the critics are the men who have failed in literature and art. Beac…

Characterized by thoroughness and a reference to principles, as becomes a critic; as, a critical analysis of a subject.

and judge as a critic; to pass literary or artistic judgment upon; as, to criticise an author; to criticise a picture.

s of coal. (b) To come to light; to be manifest; to appear; as, the peculiarities of an author crop out. -- To crop up, to sprout; to spring up. "Cares crop up in villas." Beaconsfield.

of death. Crossbones, scythes, hourglasses, and other lugubrios emblems of mortality. Hawthorne.

EAsily crumbled; friable; brittle. "The crumbly soil." Hawthorne.

Having the prothorax elevated so as to form a sort of hood, receiving the head, as in certain insects.

g blame; censuring; reprehensory; inculpating. Adjectives . . . commonly used by Latian authors in a culpatory sense. Walpole.

One accused of, or ar An author is in the condition of a culprit; the public are his judges. Prior.

nished with a cushion. Rows of long, cushionless benches, supplying the place of pews. Hawthorne.

Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law, and resting for authority on long consent; usage. See Usage, and Prescription.