Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

CALLUS — CANCEL

CALLUS, n. Any cutaneous, corneous, or bony hardness, but generally the new growth of osseous matter between the extremities of fractured bones, serving to unite them; also a hardness in the skin; a hard, dense, insensible knob on the hands, feet, etc.

CALM, a.

1. Still; quiet; being at rest; as the air. Hence not stormy or tempestuous; as a calm day.

2. Undisturbed; not agitated; as a calm sea.

3. Undisturbed by passion; not agitated or excited; quiet; tranquil; as the mind, temper, or attention.

CALM, n. Stillness; tranquillity; quiet; freedom from motion, agitation, or disturbance; applied to the elements, or the mind and passions.

CALM, v.t. To still; to quiet; as the wind, or elements; to still, appease, allay or pacify, as the mind, or passions.

CALMER, n. The person or thing that calms, or has the power to till, and make quiet; that which allays or pacifies.

CALMING, ppr. Stilling; appeasing.

CALMLY, adv. In a quiet manner; without disturbance, agitation, tumult, or violence; without passion; quietly.

CALMNESS, n.

1. Quietness; stillness; tranquillity; applied to the elements.

2. Quietness; mildness; unruffled state; applied to the mind, passions or temper.

CALMY, a. Calm; quiet; peaceable.

CALOMEL, n. A preparation of mercury, much used in medicine. It is called the submuriate or protochloride of mercury, and is prepared in various ways, by sublimation or precipitation, and also in the dry way. The following are the directions given in the last London Pharmacopoeia. Take of muriated quicksilver one pound, and of purified quicksilver, nine ounces; rub them together till the globules disappear; then sublime, and repeat the sublimation twice more successively.

CALORIC, n. The principle or matter of heat, or the simple element of heat. Caloric may be defined, the agent to which the phenomena of heat and combustion are ascribed. Caloric expands all bodies.

CALORIC, a. Pertaining to the matter of heat.

CALORIFIC, a. That has the quality of producing heat; causing heat; heating.

CALORIMETER, n. An apparatus for measuring relative quantities of heat, or the specific caloric of bodies; or an instrument for measuring the heat given out by a body in cooling, from the quantity of ice it melts, invented by Lavoisier and Laplace.

CALORIMOTOR, n. A galvanic instrument, in which the calorific influence or effects are attended by scarcely any electrical power.

CALOTTE, CALOTE, n.

1. A cap or coif, of hair, satin or other stuff, worn in popish countries, as an ecclesiastical ornament.

2. In architecture, a round cavity or depression, in form of a cup or cap, lathed and plastered, used to diminish the elevation of a chapel, cabinet, alcove, etc., which would otherwise be too high for other pieces of the apartment.

CALOYERS, CALOGERI, n. Monks of the Greek church, of three orders; archari, or novices; ordinary professed, or microchemi; and the more perfect, called megalochemi. They are also divided into cenobites, who are employed in reciting their offices, from midnight to sunrise; anchorets, who retire and live in hermitages; and recluses, who shut themselves up in grottos and caverns, on the mountains, and live on alms furnished to them by the monasteries.

CALP, n. A subspecies of carbonate of lime, of a bluish black, gray or grayish blue, but its streak is white, called also argillo-fer-ruginous limestone. It is intermediate between compact limestone and marl.

CALTROP, n.

1. A kind of thistle, the Latin tribulus, with a roundish prickly pericarp; on one side, gibbous, often armed with three or four daggers; on the other side, angular, converging with transverse cells. It grows in France, Italy and Spain, among corn, and is very troublesome, as the prickles run into the feet of cattle.

2. In military affairs, an instrument with four iron points, disposed in a triangular form, so that three of them being on the ground, the other points upward. These are scattered on the ground where an enemys cavalry are to pass, to impede their progress by endangering the horses feet.

CALUMET, n. Among the aboriginals of America, a pipe, used for smoking tobacco, whose bowl is usually of soft red marble, and the tube a long reed, ornamented with feathers. The calumet is used as a symbol or instrument of peace and war. To accept the calumet, is to agree to the terms of peace, and to refuse it, is to reject them. The calumet of peace is used to seal or ratify contracts and alliances, to receive strangers kindly, and to travel with safety. The calumet of war, differently made, is used to proclaim war.

CALUMNIATE, v.t. [See Calumny.] To accuse or charge one falsely, and knowingly, with some crime, offense, or something, disreputable; to slander.

CALUMNIATE, v.i. To charge falsely and knowingly with a crime or offense; to propagate evil reports with a design to injure the reputation of another.

CALUMNIATED, pp. Slandered; falsely and maliciously accused of what is criminal, immoral, or disgraceful.

CALUMNIATING, ppr. Slandering.

CALUMNIATION, n. False accusation of a crime or offense, or a malicious and false representation of the words or actions of another, with a view to injure his good name.

CALUMNIATOR, n. One who slanders; one who falsely and knowingly accuses another of a crime or offense, or maliciously propagates false accusations or reports.

CALUMNIATORY, a. Slanderous.

CALUMNIOUS, a. Slanderous; bearing or implying calumny; injurious to reputation.

CALUMNIOUSLY, n. Slanderously.

CALUMNIOUSNESS, n. Slanderousness.

CALUMNY, n. Slander; false accusation of a crime or offense, knowingly or maliciously made or reported, to the injury of another; false representation of facts reproachful to another, made by design, and with knowledge of its falsehood; sometimes followed by on. Neglected calumny soon expires.

CALVARY, n.

1. A place of skulls; particularly, the place where Christ was crucified, on a small hill west of Jerusalem. In catholic countries, a kind of chapel raised on a hillock near a city, as a place of devotion, in memory of the place where our Savior suffered.

2. In heraldry, a cross so called, set upon steps, resembling the cross on which our Savior was crucified.

CALVE, v.i.

1. To bring forth young, as a cow.

2. In a metaphorical sense, and sometimes by way of reproach, as when applied to the human race, to bring forth; to produce.

CALVES-SNOUT, n. A plant, snap-dragon, antirrhinum.

CALVER, v.t. To cut in slices.

CALVER, v.i. To shrink by cutting, and not fall to pieces.

CALVILLE, n. A sort of apple.

CALVINISH, n. The theological tenets or doctrines of Calvin, who was born in Picardy in France, and in 1536, chosen professor of divinity, and minister of a church in Geneva. The distinguishing doctrines of this system are, original sin, particular election and reprobation, particular redemption, effectual grace in regeneration, or a change of heart by the spirit of God, justification by free grace, perseverance of the saints, and the trinity.

CALVINIST, n. A follower of Calvin; one who embraces the theological doctrines of Calvin.

CALVINISTIC, CALVINISTICAL, a. Pertaining to Calvin, or to his opinions in theology.

CALVISH, a. Like a calf.

CALX, n. Properly lime or chalk; but more appropriately, the substance of a metal or mineral which remains after being subjected to violent heat, burning, or calcination, solution by acids, or detonation by niter, and which is or may be reduced to a fine powder. Metallic calxes are now called oxyds. They are heavier than the metal from which they are produced, being combined with oxygen.

Calx nativa, native calx, a kind of marly earth, of a dead whitish color, which, in water, bubbles or hisses, and without burning, will make a cement, like lime or gypsum.

Calx viva, quick-lime, is lime not slaked.

CALYCINAL, CALYCINE, a. Pertaining to a calyx; situated on a calyx.

CALYCLE, n. In botany, a row of small leaflets, at the base of the calyx, on the outside. The calycle of the seed is the outer proper covering or crown of the seed, adhering to it, to facilitate its dispersion.

CALYCULATE, CALYCLED, a. Having a calycle at the base on the outside; used of the calyx.

CALYPTER, n. The calyx of mosses, according to Linne; but not properly a calyx. It is a kind of vail, or cowl, which cove or is suspended over the tops of the stamens, like an extinguisher.

The calyptra of mosses is an appendage of the capsule or female flower. It at first closely invests the capsule, and its summit is the stigma. As the capsule approaches maturity, the calyptra is detached below, and appended to the stigma like a hood.

CALYX, n. plu. calyxes. The outer covering of a flower, being the termination of the cortical epidermis or outer bark of the plant, which, in most plants, incloses and supports the bottom of the corol. In Linnes system, it comprehends the perianth, the involucrum, the ament, the spath, the glume, the calyptra, and the volva. But in general it signifies the perianth, and the leaves are generally green.

The opinion of Linne that the calyx is the continuation of the epidermis is now considered erroneous.

CALZOONS, n. Drawers.

CAMBER, n. Among builders, camber or camber-beam is a piece of timber cut archwise, or with an obtuse angle in the middle, used in platforms, where long and strong beams are required. As a verb, this word signifies to bend, but I know not that it is used.

A cambered-deck, is one which is higher in the middle, or arched, but drooping or declining towards the stem and stern; also, when it is irregular.

CAMBERING, ppr. or a. Bending; arched; as, a deck lies cambering.

CAMBIST, n. A banker; one who deals in notes, and bills of exchange.

CAMBRIC, n. A species of fine white linen, made of flax, said to be named from Cambray in Flanders, where it was first manufactured.

CAME, pret. of come, which see.

CAME, n. A slender rod of cast lead, of which glaziers make their turned lead.

CAMEL, n.

1. A large quadruped used in Asia and Africa for carrying burdens, and for riders. As genus, the camel belongs to the order of Pecora. The characteristics are; it has no horns; it has six fore teeth in the under jaw; the canine teeth are wide set, three in the upper and two in the lower jaw; and there is a fissure in the upper lip. The dromedary of Arabian camel, has one bunch on the back, four callous protuberances on the fore legs and two on the hind legs. The Bactrian camel has two bunches on the back. The Llama of South America is a smaller animal, with a smooth back, small head, fine black eyes, and very long neck. The Pacos or sheep of Chili his no bunch. Camels constitute the riches of an Arabian, without which he could neither subsist, carry on trade nor travel over sandy desarts. Their milk is his common food. By the camels power of sustaining abstinence rom drink, for many days, and of subsisting on a few coarse shrubs, he is peculiarly fitted for the parched and barren lands of Asia and Africa.

2. In Holland, Camel, [or Kameel, as Coxe writes it,] is a machine for lifting ships, and bearing them over the Pampus, at the mouth of the river Y, or over other bars. It is also used in other places, and particularly at the dock in Petersburg, to bear vessels over a bar to Cronstadt.

CAMEL-BACKED, a. Having a back like a camel.

Cameleon mineral. [See Chameleon.] A compound of pure potash and black oxyd of manganese, fused together, whose solution in water, at first green, passes spontaneously through the whole series of colored rays to the red; and by the addition of potash, it returns to its original green.

CAMELOPARD, n. [camelus and pardalis.] The giraff, a species constituting the genus Camelopardalis. This animal has two straight horns, without branches, six inches long, covered with hair, truncated at the end and tufted. On the forehead, is a tubercle, two inches high, resembling another horn. The fore legs are not much longer than the hind ones, but the shoulders are of such a vast length, as to render the fore part of the animal much higher than the hind part. The head is like that of a stag; the neck is slender and elegant, furnished with a short mane. The color of the whole animal is a dirty white marked with large broad rusty spots. This animal is found in the central and eastern parts of Africa. It is timid and not fleet.

CAMEO, CAMAIEU, CAMAYEU, n. A peculiar sort of onyx; also, a stone on which are found various figures and representations of landscapes, a kind of lusus naturae, exhibiting pictures without painting. The word is said to be the oriental camehuia, a name given to the onyx, when they find, in preparing it, another color; as who should say, another color.

The word is applied by others to those precious stones, onyxes, carnelians and agates, on which lapidaries employ their art, to aid nature and perfect the figures.

The word is also applied to any gem on which figures may be engraved.

The word signifies also a painting in which there is only one color, and where the lights and shadows are of gold, wrought on a golden or azure ground. When the ground is yellow, the French call it cirage; when gray, grisaille. This work is chiefly used to represent bassorelievos.

Camera obscura, or dark chamber, in optics, an apparatus representing an artificial eye, in which the images of external objects, received through a double convex glass, are exhibited distinctly, and in their native colors, on a white matter, placed within the machine, in the focus of the glass.

CAMERADE, n. One who lodges or resides in the same apartment; now comrade, which see.

CAMERALISTIC, a. Pertaining to finance and public revenue.

CAMERALISTICS, n. The science of finance or public revenue, comprehending the means of raising and disposing of it.

CAMERATE, v.t. To vault; to ceil.

CAMERATED, a. Arched; vaulted.

CAMERATION, n. An arching or vaulting.

CAMIS, n. A thin dress.

CAMISADE, n. An attack by surprise, at night, or at break of day, when the enemy is supposed to be in bed. This word is said to have taken its rise from an attack of this kind, in which the soldiers, as a badge to distinguish each other by, bore a shirt over their arms.

CAMISATED, a. Dressed with a shirt outwards.

CAMLET, n. A stuff originally made of camels hair. It is now made, sometimes of wool, sometimes of silk, sometimes of hair, especially that of goats, with wool or silk. In some, the warp is silk and wool twisted together, and the woof is hair. The pure oriental camlet is made solely from the hair of a sort of goat, about Angora. Camlets are now make in Europe.

CAMLETED, a. Colored or veined.

CAMMOC, n. A plant, petty whin or rest-harrow, Ononis.

CAMOMILE, n. A genus of plants, Anthemis, of many species. It has a chaffy receptacle; the calyx is hemispheric and subequal, and the florets of the ray are more than five. The common sort is a trailing perennial plant, has a strong aromatic smell, and a bitter nauseous taste. It is accounted carminative, aperient, and emollient.

CAMOUS, CAMOYS, n. Flat; depressed; applied only to the nose, and little used.

CAMOUSED, a. Depressed; crooked.

CAMOUSLY, adv. Awry.

CAMP, n.

1. The ground on which an army pitch their tents, whether for a night or a longer time.

2. The order or arrangement of tents, or disposition of an army, for rest; as, to pitch a camp. Also, the troops encamped on the same field.

3. An army.

CAMP, v.t. or i. To rest or lodge, as an army, usually in tents; to pitch a camp; to fix tents; but seldom used. [See Encamp.]

CAMP-FIGHT, n. In law writers, a trial by duel, or the legal combat of two champions, for the decision of a controversy. [Camp in W. Is a game, and campiaw is to contend.]

CAMPAIGN, CAMPAIN, n.

1. An open field; a large open plain; an extensive tract of ground without considerable hills. [See Champaign.]

2. The time that an army keeps the filed, either in action, marches, or in camp, without entering into winter quarters. A campaign is usually from spring to autumn or winter; but in some instances, armies make a winter campaign.

CAMPAIGN, v.i. To serve in a campaign.

CAMPAIGNER, n. One who has served in an army several campaigns; an old soldier; a veteran.

CAMPANA, n. The pasque-flower.

CAMPANIFORM, a. In the shape of a bell; applied to flowers.

CAMPANULA, n. The bell-flower.

CAMPANULATE, a. In the form of a bell.

CAMPEACHY-WOOD, from Campeachy in Mexico.

CAMPESTRAL, CAMPESTRIAN, a. Pertaining to an open field; growing in a field or open ground.

CAMPHOR, n. Properly cafor. A solid concrete juice or exudation, from the laurus camphora, or Indian laurel-tree, a large tree growing wild in Borneo, Sumatra, etc. It is a whitish translucent substance, of granular or foliated fracture, and somewhat unctuous to the feel. It has a bitterish aromatic taste, and a very fragrant smell, and is a powerful diaphoretic.

CAMPHOR, v.t. To impregnate or wash with camphor.

CAMPHORATE, n. In chimistry, a compound of the acid of camphor, with different bases.

CAMPHORATE, a. Pertaining to camphor, or impregnated with it.

CAMPHORATED, a. Impregnated with camphor.

CAMPHORIC, a. Pertaining to camphor, or partaking of its qualities.

CAMPHOR-OIL. [See Camphor-tree.]

CAMPHOR-TREE, n. The tree from which camphor is obtained. According to Miller, there are two sorts of trees that produce camphor; one, a native of Borneo, which produces the best species; the other, a native of Japan, which resembles the bay-tree, bearing black or purple berries. But the tree grows also in Sumatra. The stem is thick, the bark of a brownish color, and the ramification strong, close and extended. The, wood is soft, easily worked, and useful for domestic purposes. To obtain camphor, the tree is cut down, and divided into pieces, and the camphor taken out; it being found in small whitish flakes, situated perpendicularly, in irregular veins, in and near the center of the tree. It is then repeatedly soaked and washed in soapy water, to separate from it all extraneous matter. It is then passed through three sieves of different texture, to divide it into three sorts, head, belly and foot camphor. Camphor oil is camphor, before the operations of nature have reduced it to a concrete form; and concrete camphor may be reduced to oil, by the nitric acid.

CAMPILLA, n. A plant of a new genus, used by dyers.

CAMPING, ppr. Encamping.

CAMPING, n. A playing at football.

CAMPION, n. A plant, the popular name of the lychnis.

CAMUS, CAMIS, n. A thin dress.

CAN, n. A cup or vessel for liquors, in modern times made of metal; as a can of ale.

CAN, v.i. pret. could, which is from another root. [See Could.]

1. To be able; to have sufficient strength or physical power. One man can lift a weight which another can not. A horse can run a certain distance in a given time.

2. To have means, or instruments, which supply power or ability. A man can build a house, or fit out a ship, if he has the requisite property. A nation cannot prosecute a war, without money or credit. I will lend you a thousand dollars, if I can.

3. To be possible.

Nicodemus said, How can these thing be? John 3:9.

4. To have adequate moral power. A man can indulge in pleasure, or he can refrain. He can restrain his appetites, if he will.

5. To have just or legal competent power, that is, right; to be free from any restraint of moral, civil or political obligation, or from any positive prohibition. We can use a highway for travel, for this is permitted by law. A man can or cannot hold an office. The Jews could not eat certain kinds of animals which were declared to be unclean. The House of Commons in England can impeach, but the House of Lords only can try impeachments. In general, we can do whatever neither the laws of God nor of man forbid.

How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God. Genesis 39:9.

I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord, my God, to do less or more. Numbers 22:18.

6. To have natural strength, or capacity; to be susceptible of; to be able or free to undergo any change, or produce any effect, by the laws and constitution of nature, or by divine appointment. Silver can be melted, but cannot be changed into gold.

Can the rush grow without mire? Job 8:11.

Can the fig tree bear olive berries? James 3:12.

Can faith save him? James 2:14.

7. To have competent strength, ability, fortitude, patience, etc., in a passive sense. He cannot bear reproof. I cannot endure this impertinence.

This is a hard saying; who can hear it? John 6:60.

8. To have the requisite knowledge, experience or skill. Young men are not admitted members of college, till they can translate Latin and Greek. An astronomer can calculate an eclipse, though he can not make a coat.

9. To have strength of inclination or motives sufficient to overcome obstacles, impediments, inconvenience or other objection.

I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. Luke 14:20.

I cannot rise and give thee - yet because of him importunity, he will rise and give him. Luke 11:7, 8.

10. To have sufficient capacity; as, a vessel can not hold or contain the whole quantity.

CAN, v.t. To know.

CAN-BUOY, n. In seamanship, a buoy in form of a cone, made large, and sometimes painted, as a mark to designate shoals, etc.

CAN-HOOK, n. An instrument to sling a cask by the ends of its staves, formed by reeving a piece of rope through two flat hooks, and splicing its ends together.

CANADIAN, a. Pertaining to Canada, an extensive country on the north of the United States.

CANADIAN, n. An inhabitant or native of Canada.

CANAIL, n. The coarser part of meal; hence, the lowest people; less; dregs; offscouring.

CANAKIN, n. A little can or cup.

CANAL, n.

1. A passage for water; a water course; properly, a long trench or excavation in the earth for conducting water, and confining it to narrow limits; but the term may be applied to other water courses. It is chiefly applied to artificial cuts or passages for water, used for transportation; whereas channel is applicable to a natural water course.

The canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie is one of the noblest works of art.

2. In anatomy, a duct or passage in the body of an animal, through which any of the juices flow, or other substances pass; as the neck of the bladder, and the alimentary canal.

3. A surgical instrument; a splint.

CANAL-COAL. [See Cannel-coal.]

CANALICULATE, CANALICULATED, a. Channelled; furrowed. In botany, having a deep longitudinal groove above, and convex underneath; applied to the stem, leaf, or petiole of plants.

CANARY, n.

1. Wine made in the Canary isles.

2. An old dance. Shakespeare has used the word as a verb in a kind of cant phrase.

CANARY-BIRD, n. A singing bird from the Canary isles, a species of Fringilla. The bill is conical and straight; the body is yellowish white; the prime feathers of the wings and tail are greenish. These birds are now bred in other countries.

CANARY-GRASS, n. A plant, the Phalaris, whose seed are collected for canary-birds.

CANCEL, v.t.

1. To cross the lines of a writing, and deface them; to blot out or obliterate.

2. To annul, or destroy; as, to cancel an obligation or a debt.