Search the Dictionary

To depress with fear; to daunt the spirits or courage of; to overawe. To vanquish a people already cowed. Shak. THe French king was cowed. J. R. Green.

Destitute of courage; timid; cowardly. Fie, coward woman, and soft-hearted wretch. Shak.

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.

Wanting courage; basely or weakly timid or fearful; pusillanimous; spiritless. The cowardly rascals that ran from the battle. Shak.

To utter vain, pompous words; to brag; to boast; -- with of. [Archaic.] Ethoipes of their sweet complexion crack. Shak.

One who boasts; a braggart. [Obs.] Old Play.

A hook or drag; a grapnel.

To furnish with, or as with, cream. Creaming the fragrant cups. Mrs. Whitney. To cream butter (Cooking), to rub, stir, or beat, butter till it is of a light creamy consistency.

To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.

An instrument with iron hooks or claws for dragging at the bottom of a well, or any other body of water, and bringing up what may lie there.

A grating or crackling sensation or sound, as that produced by rubbing two fragments of a broken bone together, or by pressing upon cellular tissue containing air.

The helm or head, as typical of a high spirit; pride; courage. Now the time is come That France must vail her lofty plumed crest. Shak.

fense. Hence, also, any aggravated offense against morality or the public welfare; any outrage or great wrong. "To part error from crime." Tennyson.

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

To soothe by singing softly. The fragment of the childish hymn with which he sung and crooned himself asleep. Dickens.

To shout in exultation or defiance; to brag.

e trial; as, the crucible of affliction. Hessian crucible (Chem.), a cheap, brittle, and fragile, but very refractory crucible, composed of the finest fire clay and sand, and commonly used for a single heating; -- named from the place of manufacture.

A small fragment or piece; especially, a small piece of bread or other food, broken or cut off. Desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Luke xvi. 21.

A cloth to be laid under a dining table to receive falling fragments, and keep the carpet or floor clean. [Written also crumcloth.]

To fall into small pieces; to break or part into small fragments; hence, to fall to decay or ruin; to become disintegrated; to perish. If the stone is brittle, it will crumble and pass into the form of gravel. Arbuthnot. The league deprived of its principal supports must soon crumble to pieces. Prescott.…