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lly supposed to have been first used by a crocodile. Crocodile bird (Zoöl.), an African plover (Pluvianus ægypticus) which alights upon the crocodile and devours its insect parasites, even entering its open mouth (according to reliable writers) in pursuit of files, etc.; -- called also Nile bird. It is the trochilos of…

A crusader. [Obs.] The conquesta of the croises extending over Palestine. Burke.

To hum or sing in a low tone; to murmur softly. Here an old grandmother was crooning over a sick child, and rocking it to and fro. Dickens.

To pass from one side to the other of; to pass or move over; to traverse; as, to cross a stream. A hunted hare . . . crosses and confounds her former track. I. Watts.

his opponent, places his left leg across both legs of his opponent, and pulls him forward over his hip; hence, an unexpected defeat or repulse.

joy or pleasure. The sweetest little maid, That ever crowed for kisses. Tennyson. To crow over, to exult over a vanquished antagonist. Sennacherib crowing over poor Jerusalem. Bp. Hall.

A royal headdress or cap of sovereignty, worn by emperors, kings, princes, etc.

A piece or part which passes over the head, as in a bridle.

To overwhelm by pressure or weight; to beat or force down, as by an incumbent weight. To crush the pillars which the pile sustain. Dryden. Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again. Bryant.

That crushes; overwhelming. "The blow must be quick and crushing." Macualay.

The hard external coat or covering of anything; the hard exterior surface or outer shell; an incrustation; as, a crust of snow. I have known the statute of an emperor quite hid under a crust of dross. Addison. Below this icy crust of conformity, the waters of infidelity lay dark and deep as ever. Prescott.…

The glass over the dial of a watch case.

the contest; -- a phrase borrowed from the practice of cudgel players, who lay one cudgel over another when the contest is ended. -- To take up cudgels for, to engage in a contest in behalf of (some one or something).

reach its highest point of altitude; to come to the meridian; to be vertical or directly overhead. As when his beams at noon Culminate from the equator. Milton.

Wrought with, or exibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious; curious; as, cunning work. Over them Arachne high did lift Her cunning web. Spenser.

eration of drawing blood to or from the surface of the person by forming a partial vacuum over the spot. Also, sometimes, a similar operation for drawing pus from an abscess. Cupping glass, a glass cup in which a partial vacuum is produced by heat, in the process of cupping. -- Dry cupping, the application of a cuppin…

A scottish game in which heavy weights of stone or iron are propelled by hand over the ice towards a mark. Curling . . . is an amusement of the winter, and played on the ice, by sliding from one mark to another great stones of 40 to 70 pounds weight, of a hemispherical form, with an iron or wooden handle at top. The ob…

oses. -- The curtain rises, the performance begins. -- To draw the curtain, to close ot over an object, or to remove it; hence: (a) To hide or to disclose an object. (b) To commence or close a performance. -- To drop the curtain, to end the tale, or close the performance.

stoms by which affairs of commerce are regulated. -- General customs, those which extend over a state or kingdom. -- Particular customs, those which are limited to a city or district; as, the customs of London.

ound; as, to cut up a book or its author by severe criticism. "This doctrine cuts up all government by the roots." Locke. (c) To afflict; to discourage; to demoralize; as, the death of his friend cut him up terribly. [Colloq.] Thackeray.