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To do something suddenly with an unexpected motion; to catch or attempt to seize. Out of greediness to get both, he chops at the shadow, and loses the substance. L'Estrange.

A citizen; an inhabitant of a city; a pert townsman; -- used contemptuously. "Insulted as a cit". Johnson Which past endurance sting the tender cit. Emerson.

; esp., a body of persons united by some common interest or pursuit; -- sometimes used contemptuously. Partidge and the rest of his clan may hoot me. Smolett. The whole clan of the enlightened among us. Burke.

To express contempt or derision. [Obs.] Lam. ii. 15. To clap hold of, to seize roughly or quickly. -- To clap up. (a) To imprison hastily or without due formality. (b) To make or contrive hastily. [Obs.] "Was ever match clapped up so suddenly" Shak.

nd), and by cutting the cable as soon as she pays off on the other tack. Clubhauling is attempted only in an exigency.

A native or resident of the city of London; -- used contemptuosly. A cockney in a rural village was stared at as much as if he had entered a kraal of Hottentots. Macaulay.

me conclusion or result as something else; additional; as, collateral evidence. Yet the attempt may give Collateral interest to this homely tale. Wordsworth.

olutionary government, modeled on the commune of 1792, which the communists, so called, attempted to establish in 1871.

A fellow; -- in contempt. [Obs.] Shak.

One who attempts to bring persons or parties to terms of agreement, or to accomplish, ends by compromises. "Compounder in politics." Burke.

A natural tendency inherent in a body to develop itself; an attempt; an effort. What conatus could give prickles to the porcupine or hedgehog, or to the sheep its fleece Paley.

to the government of the eleven Southern States of the United States which (1860-1865) attempted to establish an independent nation styled the Confederate States of America; as, the Confederate congress; Confederate money.

To subdue or overcome by mental or moral power; to surmount; as, to conquer difficulties, temptatin, etc. By winning words to conquer hearts, And make persuasion do the work of fear. Milton.

Pertaining to a Presbyterian consistory; -- a contemptuous term of 17th century controversy. You fall next on the consistorian schismatics; for so you call Presbyterians. Milton.

erprise; stability; fidelity. A fellow of plain unoined constancy. Shak. Constancy and contempt of danger. Prescott.

To view or treat with contempt, as mean and despicable; to reject with disdain; to despise; to scorn. Thy pompous delicacies I contemn. Milton. One who contemned divine and human laws. Dryden.

Contemptuously. [R.]

A willful contempt of, and disobedience to, any lawful summons, or to the rules and orders of court, as a refusal to appear in court when legally summoned.

Exhibiting contumely; rudely contemptuous; insolent; disdainful. Scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious taunts. Shak. Curving a contumelious lip. Tennyson.

Rudeness compounded of haughtiness and contempt; scornful insolence; despiteful treatment; disdain; contemptuousness in act or speech; disgrace. The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely. Shak. Nothing aggravates tyranny so much as contumely. Burke.