Search the Dictionary

A vain, showy fellow; a conceited, silly man, fond of display; a superficial pretender to knowledge or accomplishments; a fop. Fond to be seen, she kept a bevy Of powdered coxcombs at her levee. Goldsmith. Some are bewildered in the maze of schools, And some made coxcombs, nature meant but fools. Pope.…

A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.

rly in filling, or in thrustung one thing into another; to stuff; to crowd; to fill to superfluity; as, to cram anything into a basket; to cram a room with people. Their storehouses crammed with grain. Shak. He will cram his brass down our throats. Swift.

A sick person; an invalid. [Obs.] Thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater. Burton. Crank axle (Mach.), a driving axle formed with a crank or cranks, as in some kinds of locomotives. -- Crank pin (Mach.), the cylindrical piece which forms the handle, or to which the connecting rod is attached, at the end of a crank, or…

A subterfuge; an excuse.

Pertaining to twilight; glimmering; hence, imperfectly clear or luminous. This semihistorical and crepuscular period. Sir G. C. Lewis.

f voice; with gradually increasing strength and fullness of tone; -- a direction for the performance of music, indicated by the mark, or by writing the word on the score.

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

A peculiar perforated organ of certain spiders (Ciniflonidæ), used for spinning a special kind of silk.

ls (Bot.), those which have here and there oblique or transverse sieve plates, or places perforated with many holes.

Perforated like a sieve; cribriform.

Brisk; crackling; cheerful; lively. The snug, small room, and the crisp fire. Dickens.

the art of judging with knowledge and propriety of the beauties and faults of a literary performance, or of a production in the fine arts; as, dramatic criticism. The elements ofcriticism depend on the two principles of Beauty and Truth, one of which is the final end or object of study in every one of its pursuits: Bea…

l consisting principally of silicate of iron, and crystallizing in hexagonal prisms with perfect basal cleavage; -- so named from the Swedish mineralogist Cronstedt.

An artifice; trick; tricky device; subterfuge. For all yuor brags, hooks, and crooks. Cranmer.

To run counter to; to thwart; to obstruct; to hinder; to clash or interfere with. In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing. Shak. An oyster may be crossed onlove. Sheridan.

grain or fibers run diagonally, or more or less transversely an irregularly, so as to interfere with splitting or planing. If the stuff proves crossgrained, . . . then you must turn your stuff to plane it the contrary way. Moxon.

tained from the seeds of Croton Tiglium, a small tree of the East Indies. It is a most powerful drastic cathartic, and is used externally as a pustulant.

Highest state; acme; consummation; perfection. Mutual love, the crown of all our bliss. Milton.

adorned, with a crown, wreath, garland, etc.; honored; rewarded; completed; consummated; perfected. "Crowned with one crest." Shak. "Crowned with conquest." Milton. With surpassing glory crowned. Milton.