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Read Ebook: The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: Section C by Project Gutenberg Webster Noah
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Ebook has 10066 lines and 345748 words, and 202 pages
Begin file 2 of 11: C. of An electronic field-marked version of:
This electronic version was prepared by MICRA, Inc. of Plainfield, NJ. Last edit February 11, 1999.
This version is only a first typing, and has numerous typographic errors, including errors in the field-marks. Assistance in bringing this dictionary to a more accurate and useful state will be greatly appreciated. This electronic dictionary is made available as a potential starting point for development of a modern on-line comprehensive encyclopedic dictionary, by the efforts of all individuals willing to help build a large and freely available knowledge base. Anyone willing to assist in any way in constructing such a knowledge base should contact:
Patrick Cassidy cassidy@micra.com 735 Belvidere Ave. Office: 668-5252 Plainfield, NJ 07062 561-3416
C. 1. C is the third letter of the English alphabet. It is from the Latin letter C, which in old Latin represented the sounds of k, and g ; its original value being the latter. In Anglo-Saxon words, or Old English before the Norman Conquest, it always has the sound of k. The Latin C was the same letter as the Greek Γ, γ, and came from the Greek alphabet. The Greeks got it from the Ph?nicians. The English name of C is from the Latin name ce, and was derived, probably, through the French. Etymologically C is related to g, h, k, q, s . Examples of these relations are in L. acutus, E. acute, ague; E. acrid, eager, vinegar; L. cornu, E. horn; E. cat, kitten; E. coy, quiet; L. circare, OF. cerchier, E. search.
See Guide to Pronunciation, ?? 221-228.
C spring, a spring in the form of the letter C.
&fist; The Caaba is situated in Mecca, a city of Arabia, and contains a famous black stone said to have been brought from heaven. Before the time of Mohammed, the Caaba was an idolatrous temple, but it has since been the chief sanctuary and object of pilgrimage of the Mohammedan world.
Caas , n. sing. & pl. Case. Chaucer.
Cab , n. 1. A kind of close carriage with two or four wheels, usually a public vehicle. "A cab came clattering up." Thackeray.
&fist; A cab may have two seats at right angles to the driver's seat, and a door behind; or one seat parallel to the driver's, with the entrance from the side or front.
Hansom cab. See Hansom.
Cab , n. A Hebrew dry measure, containing a little over two pints. W. H. Ward. 2 Kings vi. 25.
It so happend, by a whimsical coincidence, that in 1671 the cabinet consisted of five persons, the initial letters of whose names made up the word cabal; Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. Macaulay.
Syn. -- Junto; intrigue; plot; combination; conspiracy. -- Cabal, Combination, Faction. An association for some purpose considered to be bad is the idea common to these terms. A combination is an organized union of individuals for mutual support, in urging their demands or resisting the claims of others, and may be good or bad according to circumstances; as, a combiniation of workmen or of employers to effect or to prevent a change in prices. A cabal is a secret association of a few individuals who seek by cunning practices to obtain office and power. A faction is a larger body than a cabal, employed for selfish purposes in agitating the community and working up an excitement with a view to change the existing order of things. "Selfishness, insubordination, and laxity of morals give rise to combinations, which belong particularly to the lower orders of society. Restless, jealous, ambitious, and little minds are ever forming cabals. Factions belong especially to free governments, and are raised by busy and turbulent spirits for selfish purposes". Crabb.
Caballing still against it with the great. Dryden.
a. Of or pertaining to the cabala; containing or conveying an occult meaning; mystic.
The Heptarchus is a cabalistic exposition of the first chapter of Genesis . Hallam.
A close caballer and tongue-valiant lord. Dryden.
Caballine aloes, an inferior and impure kind of aloes formerly used in veterinary practice; -- called also horse aloes. -- Caballine spring, the fountain of Hippocrene, on Mount Helicon; -- fabled to have been formed by a stroke from the foot of the winged horse Pegasus.
Cab"bage , n. 1. An esculent vegetable of many varieties, derived from the wild Brassica oleracea of Europe. The common cabbage has a compact head of leaves. The cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc., are sometimes classed as cabbages.
Cabbage aphis , a green plant-louse which lives upon the leaves of the cabbage. -- Cabbage beetle , a small, striped flea- beetle which lives, in the larval state, on the roots, and when adult, on the leaves, of cabbage and other cruciferous plants. -- Cabbage butterfly , a white butterfly which, in the larval state, devours the leaves of the cabbage and the turnip. See Cabbage worm, below. -- Cabbage fly , a small two-winged fly , which feeds, in the larval or maggot state, on the roots of the cabbage, often doing much damage to the crop. -- Cabbage head, the compact head formed by the leaves of a cabbage; -- contemptuously or humorously, and colloquially, a very stupid and silly person; a numskull. -- Cabbage palmetto, a species of palm tree found along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. -- Cabbage rose , a species of rose having large and heavy blossoms. -- Cabbage tree, Cabbage palm, a name given to palms having a terminal bud called a cabbage, as the Sabal Palmetto of the United States, and the Euterpe oleracea and Oreodoxa oleracea of the West Indies. -- Cabbage worm , the larva of several species of moths and butterflies, which attacks cabbages. The most common is usually the larva of a white butterfly. See Cabbage butterfly, above. The cabbage cutworms, which eat off the stalks of young plants during the night, are the larv? of several species of moths, of the genus Agrotis. See Cutworm. -- Sea cabbage. Sea kale . The original Plant , from which the cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc., have been derived by cultivation. -- Thousand-headed cabbage. See Brussels sprouts.
Cab"bage, v. i. To form a head like that the cabbage; as, to make lettuce cabbage. Johnson.
Cab"bage, v. i. To purloin or embezzle, as the pieces of cloth remaining after cutting out a garment; to pilfer.
Your tailor . . . cabbages whole yards of cloth. Arbuthnot.
Cab"bage, n. Cloth or clippings cabbaged or purloined by one who cuts out garments.
Cab"bler , n. One who works at cabbling.
Cab"bling , n. The process of breaking up the flat masses into which wrought iron is first hammered, in order that the pieces may be reheated and wrought into bar iron.
n. The finest kind of silk received from India.
||Ca"ber , n. A pole or beam used in Scottish games for tossing as a trial of strength.
Cab"in , n. 1. A cottage or small house; a hut. Swift.
A hunting cabin in the west. E. Everett.
So long in secret cabin there he held Her captive. Spenser.
Cabin boy, a boy whose duty is to wait on the officers and passengers in the cabin of a ship.
Cab"in v. i. To live in, or as in, a cabin; to lodge.
I'll make you . . . cabin in a cave. Shak.
Cab"in, v. t. To confine in, or as in, a cabin.
I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears. Shak.
Hearken a while from thy green cabinet, The rural song of careful Colinet. Spenser.
Philip passed some hours every day in his father's cabinet. Prescott.
&fist; In England, the cabinet or cabinet council consists of those privy councilors who actually transact the immediate business of the government. Mozley & W. -- In the United States, the cabinet is composed of the heads of the executive departments of the government, namely, the Secretary of State, of the Treasury, of War, of the Navy, of the Interior, and of Agiculture, the Postmaster-general, and the Attorney-general.
Cabinet council. Same as Cabinet, n., 4 . A meeting of the cabinet. -- Cabinet councilor, a member of a cabinet council. -- Cabinet photograph, a photograph of a size smaller than an imperial, though larger than a carte de visite. -- Cabinet picture, a small and generally highly finished picture, suitable for a small room and for close inspection.
He is a walking cabinet edition of Goethe. For. Quar. Rev.
Ca"ble , n. 1. A large, strong rope or chain, of considerable length, used to retain a vessel at anchor, and for other purposes. It is made of hemp, of steel wire, or of iron links.
Bower cable, the cable belonging to the bower anchor. -- Cable road, a railway on which the cars are moved by a continuously running endless rope operated by a stationary motor. -- Cable's length, the length of a ship's cable. Cables in the merchant service vary in length from 100 to 140 fathoms or more; but as a maritime measure, a cable's length is either 120 fathoms , or about 100 fathoms . -- Cable tier. That part of a vessel where the cables are stowed. A coil of a cable. -- Sheet cable, the cable belonging to the sheet anchor. -- Stream cable, a hawser or rope, smaller than the bower cables, to moor a ship in a place sheltered from wind and heavy seas. -- Submarine cable. See Telegraph. -- To pay out the cable, To veer out the cable, to slacken it, that it may run out of the ship; to let more cable run out of the hawse hole. -- To serve the cable, to bind it round with ropes, canvas, etc., to prevent its being, worn or galled in the hawse, et. -- To slip the cable, to let go the end on board and let it all run out and go overboard, as when there is not time to weigh anchor. Hence, in sailor's use, to die.
Ca"ble , v. t. 1. To fasten with a cable.
Ca"ble, v. t. & i. To telegraph by a submarine cable
Ca"bled , a. 1. Fastened with, or attached to, a cable or rope. "The cabled stone." Dyer.
Ca"blet , n. A little cable less than ten inches in circumference.
Ca"bling , n. The decoration of a fluted shaft of a column or of a pilaster with reeds, or rounded moldings, which seem to be laid in the hollows of the fluting. These are limited in length to about one third of the height of the shaft.
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