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ow; esp.,, a blow with the open hand; a box; a slap. Snatcheth his sword, and fiercely to him flies; Who well it wards, and quitten cuff with cuff. Spenser. Many a bitter kick and cuff. Hudibras.

on Lord Keppel as one of the greatest and best men of his age; and I loved and cultivated him accordingly. Burke.

bject, to obstruct or occupy uselessly; to embarrass; to trouble. Why asks he what avails him not in fight, And would but cumber and retard his flight Dryden. Martha was cumbered about much serving. Luke x. 40. Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground Luke xiii. 7. The multiplying variety of arguments, especially frivo…

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

s scarce current. Shak. His current value, which is less or more as men have occasion for him. Grew.

To beat or bruise; to drub; -- said of persons. I have seen him curry a fellow's carcass handsomely. Beau. & FL. To curry favor, to seek to gain favor by flattery or attentions. See Favor, n.

Judicial or penal safe-keeping. Jailer, take him to thy custody. Shak.

s a shop, manufactory, etc., for making purchases or giving orders; business support. Let him have your custom, but not your votes. Addison.

tablished by, custom; established by common usage; conventional; habitual. Even now I met him With customary compliment. Shak. A formal customary attendance upon the offices. South.

rive; to prepare; as, to cut out work for another day. "Every man had cut out a place for himself." Addison. (d) To step in and take the place of; to supplant; as, to cut out a rival. [Colloq.]

ed by the ancients, consisting in the besmearing of the criminal with honey, and exposing him to insects. It is still in use among some Oriental nations.

To strike by a thrust; to hit with a sudden blow or thrust. "To dab him in the neck." Sir T. More.

Dainty. [Obs.] To cherish him with diets daint. Spenser.

nsation, recompense, or satisfaction to one party, for a wrong or injury actually done to him by another.

udge to punishment; to sentence; to censhure. He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him. Shak.

be damned; of a damning nature. A creature unprepared unmeet for dealth, And to transport him in the mind hi is, Were damnable. Shak.

. [Obs.] Chaucer. In one's danger, in one's power; liable to a penalty to be inflicted by him. [Obs.] This sense is retained in the proverb, "Out of debt out of danger." Those rich man in whose debt and danger they be not. Robynson (More's Utopia). -- To do danger, to cause danger. [Obs.] Shak.

foul traits of character; vile; wicked; atrocious; as, a dark villain; a dark deed. Left him at large to his own dark designs. Milton.

Dark; gloomy; obscure; shaded; cheerless. [Poetic] He brought him through a darksome narrow pass To a broad gate, all built of beaten gold. Spenser.

esive matter, as pitch, slime, mud, etc.; to plaster; to bedaub; to besmear. She took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch. Ex. ii. 3.