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, or indicating, a crisis, turning point, or specially important juncture; 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 mi…

The coloring matter of Chinese yellow pods, the fruit of Gardenia grandiflora. Watts.

he sand, are hatched by the sun's heat. The best known species is that of the Nile (C. vulgaris, or C. Niloticus). The Florida crocodile (C. Americanus) is much less common than the alligator and has longer jaws. The name is also sometimes applied to the species of other related genera, as the gavial and the alligator.…

A white crystalline sugar, metameric with glucose, obtained from the coloring matter of saffron. [Written also crokose.]

Affiction regarded as a test of patience or virtue; trial; disappointment; opposition; misfortune. Heaven prepares a good man with crosses. B. Jonson.

A colorless, volatile, pungent liquid, C4H6, produced artificially, and regarded as an unsaturated hydrocarbon of the acetylene series, and analogous to crotonic acid.

Bread cut in various forms, and fried lightly in butter or oil, to garnish hashes, etc.

The lower orders of people; the populace; the vulgar; the rabble; the mob. To fool the crowd with glorious lies. Tennyson. He went not with the crowd to see a shrine. Dryden.

A wreath or garland, or any ornamental fillet encircling the head, especially as a reward of victory or mark of honorable distinction; hence, anything given on account of, or obtained by, faithful or successful effort; a reward. "An olive branch and laurel crown." Shak. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we…

Having or wearing a crown; surmounted, invested, or 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.

In Austria-Hungary, one of the provinces, or largest administrative divisions of the monarchy; as, the crownland of Lower Austria.

A kind of European carp (Carasius vulgaris), inferior to the common carp; -- called also German carp.

A bottle or vessel; esp., aviai or small glass bottle for holding vinegar, oil, pepper, or the like, for the table; a caster. Swift.

by having scales with a pectinated margin, as in the perch. The group is now generally regarded as artificial.

Any ornamental appendage at the wrist, whether attached to the sleeve of the garment or separate;especially, in modern times, such an appendage of starched linen, or a substitute for it of paper, or the like.

rd he culls, For slaughter, from the fairest of his bulls. Dryden. Whitest honey in fairy gardens culled. Tennyson.

e bluebell squill (Scilla nutans). [Obs.] A girl cropping culverkeys and cowslips to make garlands. Walton.

uilding in which anything is cured; especially, in the West Indies, a building in which sugar is drained and dried.

An avaricious, grasping fellow; a miser; a niggard; a churl. A gray-headed curmudgeon of a negro. W. Irving.

Like a curmudgeon; niggardly; churlish; as, a curmudgeonly fellow.