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Want of courage to face danger; extreme timidity; pusillanimity; base fear of danger or hurt; lack of spirit. The cowardice of doing wrong. Milton. Moderation was despised as cowardice. Macualay.

Proceeding from fear of danger or other consequences; befitting a coward; dastardly; base; as, cowardly malignity. Macualay. The cowardly rashness of those who dare not look danger in the face. Burke.

An umbelliferous plant (Peucedanum Cous) with edible tuberous roots, found in Oregon. [Written also cous.]

A lively Polish dance, in 2-4 time.

A white, crystalline, nitrogenous substance found abundantly in muscle tissue. [Written also kreatine.]

To make like a creature; to degrade [Obs.] Degrade and creaturize that mundane soul. Cudworth.

One who credits, believes, or trusts. The easy creditors of novelties. Daniel.

han a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river. Each creek and cavern of the dangerous shore. Cowper. They discovered a certain creek, with a shore. Acts xxvii. 39.

A hole or retreat onto which an animal may creep, to escape notice or danger.

oat of arms; -- often used as a mark of cadency to distinguish a second son and his descendants.

Weak; inconsistent; contradictory. [R.] The evidance is crimp; the witnesses swear backward and forward, and contradict themselves. Arbuthnot.

uncture; important as regards 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 an…

Not accordant with what is wished or expected; interrupting; adverse; contrary; thwarting; perverse. "A cross fortune." Jer. Taylor. The cross and unlucky issue of my design. Glanvill. The article of the resurrection seems to lie marvelously cross to the common experience of mankind. South. We are both love's captives,…

A bill brought by a defendant, in an equity or chancery suit, against the plaintiff, respecting the matter in question in that suit. Bouvier.

, a silver coin of the value of five shillings sterling, or a little more than $1.20; the Danish or Norwegian crown, a money of account, etc., worth nearly twenty-seven cents.

in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Mohammedans.

Anything that is very puzzling or difficult to explain. Dr. Sheridan. The perpetual crux of New Testament chronologists. Strauss.

as of rank, size, power, numbers, etc. The reptile race culminated in the secondary era. Dana. The house of Burgundy was rapidly culminating. Motley.

One of the attendants of a prince or noble, permanently charged with the performance of this office for his master. "I was the king's cupbearer." Neh. i. 11.

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…