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d 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 du…

used as a weapon. He getteth him a grievous crabtree cudgel and . . . falls to rating of them as if they were dogs. Bunyan. Cudgel play, a fight or sportive contest with cudgels. -- To cross the cudgels, to forbear or give up the contest; -- a phrase borrowed from the practice of cudgel players, who lay one cudgel ov…

A hint or intimation. Give them [the servants] their cue to attend in two lines as he leaves the house. Swift.

Not easily managed; as, a cumbersome contrivance or machine. He holds them in utter contempt, as lumbering, cumbersome, circuitous. I. Taylor. -- Cum"ber*some*ly, adv. -- Cum"ber*some*ness,n.

Pertaining to, or versed in, the ancient wedge-shaped characters, or the inscriptions in them. "A cuneiform scholar." Rawlinson.

rought with, or exibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious; curious; as, cunning work. Over them Arachne high did lift Her cunning web. Spenser.

. To cure this deadly grief. Shak. Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power . . . to cure diseases. Luke ix. 1.

magic. [Obs.] Many . . . which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them. Acts xix. 19.

of electricity. Two such silver currents, when they join, Do glorify the banks that bound them in. Shak. The surface of the ocean is furrowed by currents, whose direction . . . the navigator should know. Nichol.

Any part of a mathematical instrument that moves or slides backward and forward upon another part.

The amount of degree of bending of a mathematical curve, or the tendency at any point to depart from a tangent drawn to the curve at that point. Aberrancy of curvature (Geom.), the deviation of a curve from a curcular form. -Absolute curvature. See under Absolute. -- Angle of curvature (Geom.), one that expresses the…

therer. [Obs.] The customers of the small or petty custom and of the subsidy do demand of them custom for kersey cloths. Hakluyt.

One who cuts purses for the sake of stealing them or their contents (an act common when men wore purses fastened by a string to their girdles); one who steals from the person; a pickpocket To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cutpurse. Shak.

. Some kinds ascend fruit trees and eat off the flower buds. During the day, they conceal themselves in the earth. The common cutworms are the larvæ of various species of Agrotis and related genera of noctuid moths.

exploits of the hero or heroes of some particular period which have severed as a popular theme for poetry, as the legend aof Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, and that of Charlemagne and his paladins.

the scene represented, and in some places only parts of these objects, the completion of them being carried out pictorially.

with a handle at the back; -- used in pairs to produce a sharp ringing sound by clashing them together.

A collective term for the Welsh race; -- so called by themselves . [Written also Cymri, Cwmry, Kymry, etc.]

A kind of madness in which men fancy themselves changed into dogs, and imitate the voice and habits of that animal.

The whiteweed (Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum), the plant commonly called daisy in North America; -- called also oxeye daisy. See Whiteweed.