Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
COOT — CORDWAINER
COOT, n. A fowl of the genus Fulica, frequenting lakes and other still waters. The common coot has a bald forehead, a black body, and lobated toes, and is about fifteen inches in length. It makes its nest among rushes, with grass and reeds, floating on the water.
COP, n. [G.] The had or top of a thing, as in cob-castle for cop-castle, a castle on a hill; a tuft on the head of birds. This word is little used in America, unless cob, the spike of maize, may be the same word.
COPAIBA, n. Balsam of copaiba or capivi, is a liquid resinous juice, flowing from incisions made in the stem of a tree called Copaifera officinalis, growing in Spanish America, in the province of Antiochia. This juice is clear, transparent, of a whitish or pale yellowish color, an agreeable smell, and a bitterish pungent taste. It is of the consistence of oil, or a little thicker. As a medicine, it is corroborating and detergent.
COPAL, n. The concrete juice of a tree growing in Mexico or New Spain, hard, shining, transparent, citron-colored, and odoriferous. It is not strictly a gum nor a resin, as it has not the solubility in water common to gums, nor that in spirit of wine common to resins. In these respects it rather resembles amber. It may be dissolved by digestion in lintseed oil, with a heat little less than sufficient to boil or decompose the oil. This solution, diluted with spirit of turpentine, forms a beautiful transparent varnish.
COPARCENARY, n. [See Coparcener.] Partnership in inheritance; joint heirship; joint right of succession or joint succession to an estate of inheritance.
COPARCENER, n. [con and parcener, L., to divide.] A coheir; one who has an equal portion of the inheritance of his or her ancestor with others.
All the coparceners together make but one heir, and have but one estate among them.
Coparceners take by descent; joint-tenants, by purchase.
COPARCENY, n. An equal share of an inheritance.
COPARTMENT, n. The same as compartment. [Not in use.]
COPARTNER, n. [con and partner. See Coparcener.]
1. One who has a share in a common stock for transacting business, or who is jointly concerned with one or more persons, in carrying on trade or other business; a partner; an associate, particularly in trade or manufactures.
2. A sharer; a partaker; as, copartners of our loss.
COPARTNERSHIP, n.
1. Joint concern in business; a state of having joint share in a common stock, or a joint interest and concern in business, particularly in trade and manufactures.
2. The persons who have a joint concern.
COPATAN, n. [See Cop.] High raised; pointed. [Not in use.]
COPE, n.
1. A cover for the head.
2. A sacerdotal ornament or vestment worn in sacred ministrations. An ornament worn by chanters and subchanters, when they officiate in solemnity. It reaches from the shoulders to the feet.
3. Any thing spread or extended over the head; the arch or concave of the sky; the roof or covering of a house; the arch over a door, etc.
4. An ancient tribute due to the king or lord of the soil, out of the lead mines in some part of Derbyshire.
COPE, v.t.
1. To cover as with a cope.
2. To pare the beak or talons of a hawk.
3. To embrace.
COPE, v.i.
1. To strive or contend on equal terms, or with equal strength; to equal in combat; to match; to oppose with success.
The Generals have not been able to cope with the troops of Athens.
Till Luther rose, no power could cope with the pope.
He was too open and direct in his conduct, and possessed too little management-to cope with so cool and skillful an adversary.
2. To contend; to strive or struggle; to combat.
Host copd with host, dire was the din of war.
3. To encounter; to interchange kindness or sentiments.
4. To make return; to reward.
5. To exchange, or barter. [Not in use.]
COPEMAN, n. A chapman. [Not used.]
COPERNICAN, a. Pertaining to Copernicus, a Prussian by birth, who taught the world the solar system now received, called the Copernican system.
COPESMATE, n. [cope and mate.] A companion or friend.
COPIED, pp. [See Copy.] Taken off; written or transcribed from an original or form; imitated.
COPIER, COPYIST, n. One who copies; one who writes or transcribes from an original or form; a transcriber; an imitator; also, a plagiary.
COPING, n. [See Cope, n.] The top or cover of a wall, made sloping to carry off the water. 1 Kings 7:9. A coping over, is a projecting work beveling on its under side.
COPIOUS, a.
1. Abundant; plentiful; in great quantities; full; ample; furnishing full supplies.
The tender heart is peace, and kindly pours its copious treasures forth in various converse.
2. Furnishing abundant matter; not barren; rich in supplies.
The redemption of man is a copious subject of contemplation.
Hail, Son of God, Savior of men! Thy name shall be the copious matter of my song.
COPPIOUSLY, adv.
1. Abundantly; plentifully; in large quantities.
2. Largely; fully; amply; diffusely.
The remains of antiquity have been copiously described by travelers.
COPIOUSNESS, n.
1. Abundance; plenty; great quantity; full supply.
2. Diffusiveness of style or manner of treating a subject; as the copiousness of Homer.
COPIST, n. A copier; an ill formed word.
COPLAND, n. A piece of ground terminating in a cop or acute angle. [Not used in America.]
CO-PLANT, v.i. To plant together. [Not in use.]
CO-PORTION, n. Equal share. [Not used.]
COPPED, COPPLED, a. [See Cop.] Rising to a point, or head.
Copped like a sugar loaf.
COPPEL. [See Cupel.]
COPPER, n. [L., G., supposed to be so called from Cyprus, an isle in the Mediterranean. This opinion is probable, as the Greeks called it Cyprian brass, brass of Cyprus. In this case copper was originally an adjective.] A metal, of a pale red color, tinged with yellow. Next to gold, silver and platina, it is the most ductile and malleable of the metals, and it is more elastic than any metal, except steel, and the most sonorous of all the metals. It is found native in lamins or fibers, in a gangue almost always quartzous; it is also found crystalized, and in grains or superficial lamins on stones or iron. It is not altered by water, but is tarnished by exposure to the air, and is at last covered with a green carbonated oxyd. Copper in sheets is much used for covering the bottoms of ships, for boilers and other utensils; mixed with tin and zink, it is used in enamel-painting, dyeing, etc. : mixed with tin, it forms bell-metal; with a smaller proportion, bronze; and with zink, it forms brass, pinchbeck, etc. When taken into the body ti operates as a violent emetic, and all its preparations are violent poisons.
COPPER, a. Consisting of copper.
COPPER, n.
1. A vessel made of copper, particularly a large boiler.
2. Formerly, a small copper coin.
My friend filled my pocket with coppers.
COPPER, v.t. To cover or sheathe with sheets of copper; as, to copper a ship.
COPPERAS, n. Sulphate of iron, or green vitriol; a salt of a peculiar astringent taste, and of various colors, green, gray, yellowish, or whitish, but more usually green. It is much used in dyeing black and in making ink, and in medicine, as a tonic. The copperas of commerce is usually made by the decomposition of iron pyrites. The term copperas was formerly synonymous with vitriol, and included the green, blue and white vitriols, or the sulphates of iron, copper and zink.
COPPER-BOTTOMED, a. Having a bottom sheathed with copper.
COPPERED, pp. Covered with sheets of copper; sheathed.
COPPER-FASTENED, a. Fastened with copper bolts.
COPPERISH, a. Containing copper; like copper or partaking of it.
COPPER-NOSE, n. A red nose.
COPPER-PLATE, n. A plate of copper on which concave lines are engraved or corroded, according to some delineated figure or design. This plate, when charged with any colored fluid, imparts an impression of the figure or design to paper or parchment.
COPPER-SMITH, n. One whose occupation is to manufacture copper utensils.
COPPER-WORK, n. A place where copper is wrought or manufactured.
COPPER-WORM, n. A little worm in ships; a worm that frets garments; a worm that breeds in ones hand.
COPPERY, a. Mixed with copper; containing copper, or made of copper; like copper in taste or smell.
COPPICE, COPSE, n. A wood of small growth, or consisting of underwood or brushwood; a wood cut at certain times for fuel.
The rate of coppice lands will fall on the discovery of coal-mines.
COPPLED, a. [from cop.] Rising to a point; conical.
COPPLE-DUST, n. Powder used in purifying metals.
COPPLE-STONES, n. Lumps and fragments of stone broke from the adjacent cliffs, rounded by being bowled and tumbled to and again by the action of water. In New England, we pronounce this word cobble, cobble-stones, and if the word is a diminutive of cob, cop, a head, or cub, a heap, we follow the Welsh cob, as the English do the same word, cop, in the Saxon dialect. We apply the word to small round stones, from the size of an inch or two, to five or six inches or more, in diameter, wherever they may be found.
COPSE, n. [See Coppice.]
COPSE, v.t. To preserve underwoods.
COPSY, a. Having copses.
COPTIC, a. Pertaining to the descendants of the ancient Egyptians, called Copts, or cophti, as distinct from the Arabians and other inhabitants of modern Egypt. The name is supposed to be taken from Coptos, the metropolis of the Thebaid; as Egypt, is probably from that name; inclosed, fortified. To inclose, to bind, to fortify. Whatever may be the origin of Copt, the adjective Coptic now refers to the people called Copts, who are Christians, and to their language.
COPTIC, n. The language of the Copts.
COPULA, n. [L. See Copulation and Couple.] In logic, the word which unties the subject and predicate of a proposition. Religion is indispensable to happiness. Here is is the copula joining religion, the subject, with indispensable to happiness, the predicate.
COPULATE, a. Joined. [Little used.]
COPULATE, v.t. [L.] To unite; to join in pairs. [Little used.]
COPULATE, v.i. To unite in sexual embrace; applied to animals in general.
COPULATION, n. [L.] The act of coupling; the embrace of the sexes in the act of generation; coition.
COPULATIVE, a. That unites or couples. In grammar, the copulative conjunction connects two or more subjects or predicates, in an affirmative or negative proposition; as, riches and honors are temptations to pride; the Romans conquered Spain and gaul and Britain; neither wealth nor honors will purchase immortal happiness.
COPULATIVE, n.
1. A copulative conjunction.
2. Connection. [Not in use.]
COPY, n. [See Cope and Cuff.] Literally, a likeness, or resemblance of any kind. Hence,
1. A writing like another writing; a transcript from an original; or a book printed according to the original; hence, any single book, or set of books, containing a composition resembling the original work; as the copy of a deed, or of a bond; a copy of Addisons works; a copy of the laws; a copy of the scriptures.
2. The form of a picture or statue according to the original; the imitation or likeness of any figure, draught, or almost any object.
3. An original work; the autograph; the archetype. Hence, that which is to be imitated in writing or printing. Let the child write according to the copy. The copy is in the hands of the printer. Hence, a pattern or example for imitation. His virtues are an excellent copy for imitation.
4. Abundance. [L.]
COPY, v.t.
1. To write, print or engrave, according to an original; to form a like work or composition by writing, printing or engraving; to transcribe; often followed by out, but the use is not elegant.
The men of Hezekiah copied certain proverbs of Solomon.
2. To paint or draw according to an original.
3. To form according to a model, as in architecture.
4. To imitate or attempt to resemble; to follow an original or pattern, in manners or course of life. Copy the Savior in his humility and obedience.
COPY, v.i. To imitate or endeavor to be like; to do any thing in imitation of something else. A painter copies from the life. An obedient child copies after his parent.
They never fail, when they copy, to follow the bad as well as the good.
COPYBOOK, n. A book in which copies are written or printed for learners to imitate.
COPYED, pp. Transcribed; imitated; usually written copied.
COPYER, n. One who copies or transcribes; usually written copier.
COPYHOLD, n. In England, a tenure of estate by copy of court roll; or a tenure for which the tenant hath nothing to show, except the rolls made by the steward of the lords court.
COPYHOLDER, n. One who is possessed of land in copyhold.
COPYIST, n. A copier; a transcriber.
COPYRIGHT, n. The sole right which an author has in his own original literary compositions; the exclusive right of an author to print, publish and vend his own literary works, for his own benefit; the like right in the hands of an assignee.
COQUALLIN, n. A small quadruped of the squirrel kind, but incapable of climbing trees.
COQUELICOT, COQUELICO, n. Wild poppy; corn rose; hence, the color of wild poppy.
COQUET, COQUETTE, n. A vain, airy, trifling girl, who endeavors to attract admiration and advances in love, from a desire to gratify vanity, and then rejects her lover; a jilt.
The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair, and sport and flutter in the fields of air.
Note. In French, coquet is masculine and coquette feminine; but as our language has no such termination for gender, it may be better to write coquet for both sexes, and for distinction prefix male to the word when applied to a man.
COQUET, v.t. To attempt to attract notice, admiration or love, from vanity; to entertain with compliments and amorous tattle; to treat with an appearance of amorous tenderness.
You are coquetting a maid of honor.
COQUET, v.i. To trifle in love; to act the lover from vanity; to endeavor to gain admirers.
COQUETISH, a. Practicing coquetry.
COQUETRY, n. Attempts to attract admiration, notice or love, from vanity; affectation of amorous advances; trifling in love.
CORACLE, n. [Gr., a crow, and form.] A small sharp process of the scapula, shaped like a crows beak.
CORACOID, a. Shaped like a beak.
CORAL, n. [L. Gr.]
1. In zoology, a genus belonging to the order of vermes zoophyta. The trunk is radicated, jointed and calcarious. The species are distinguished by the form of their branches, and are found in the ocean adhering to stones, bones, shells, etc. Coral was formerly supposed to be a vegetable substance, but is now known to be composed of a congeries of animals. Coral is red, white and black. It is properly the shells of marine animals of the polype kind, consisting of calcarious earth combined with gelatine and other animal matter. In the South Sea, the isles are mostly coral rocks covered with earth. Corals seem to consist of carbonate of lime and animal matter, in equal proportions.
2. A piece of coral worn by children about their necks.
CORAL, a. Made of coral; resembling coral.
CORAL-TREE, n. A genus of plants, Erythrina, of several species, natives of Africa and America. They are all shrubby flowering plants, adorned chiefly with trifoliate or three-lobed leaves, and scarlet spikes of papilionaceous flowers.
CORAL-WORT, n. A genus of plants, Dentaria, called also tooth-wort or tooth-violet.
CORALLACEOUS, a. Like coral, or partaking of its qualities.
CORALLIFORM, a. [coral and form.] Resembling coral; forked and crooked.
CORALLINE, a. Consisting of coral; like coral; containing coral.
CORALLINE, n. A submarine plant-like body, consisting of many slender, jointed branches, resembling some species of moss; or animals growing in the form of plants, having their stems fixed to other bodies. These stems are composed of capillary tubes, which pass through a calcarious crust and open on the surface. In the Linnean system, corallines are classed with the zoophytes. They have been distributed by Ellis into vesiculated, furnished with small bodies like bladders; tubular, composed of simple tubes; celliferous, which, when magnified, appear to be fine thin cells, the habitations of small animals; and articulated, consisting of short pieces of stony or cretaceous brittle matter, covered with pores or cells, joined by a tough, membranous, flexible substance, composed of many small tubes. Butin this arrangement of Ellis, the term coralline is synonymous with the more ancient term lithophyta, including all the polypebearing animals, and nearly coinciding with the zoophyta of Linne, and the polypiers of the French naturalists.
CORALLINITE, n. A fossil polypier or coralline.
CORALLITE, n. A mineral substance or petrifaction, in the form of coral; or a fossil polypier, larger than a corallinite.
CORALLOID, CORALLOIDAL, a. Having the form of coral; branching like coral.
CORALLOID, n. Eschara or hornwrack, a species of coralline, resembling woven cloth in texture, consisting of arrangements of very small cells. One species is called narrow-leaved hornwrack; another, the broad-leaved hornwrack. This name is given also to the keratophyta, horn-plant, or sea-shrub, a species of Gorgonia.
CORANT, n. [L.] A lofty sprightly dance.
CORB, n. [L. See the next word.]
1. A basket used in coaleries.
2. An ornament in a building.
CORBAN, n. [L. G., a wicker basket.]
1. In Jewish antiquity, an offering which had life; an animal offered to God; in opposition to the mincha, which was an offering without life.
It is a gift, corban, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; that is, I have devoted that to God which you ask of me, and it is no longer mine to give.
2. An alms-basket; a vessel to receive gifts of charity; a gift; an alms; a treasury of the church, where offerings are deposited.
3. Among Mohammedans, a ceremony performed at the foot of mount Arrarat in Arabia, near Mecca. It consists in killing the number of sheep, and distributing them among the poor.
CORBE, a. Crooked. [Not in use.]
CORBEIL, n. In fortification, a little basket, to be filled with earth, and set upon a parapet, to shelter men from the fire of besiegers.
CORBEL, n. [See the preceding words.]
1. In architecture, the representation of a basket, sometimes set on the heads of caryatides.
2. The vase or tambour of the Corinthian column; so called from its resemblance to a basket.
CORBEL, n.
1. A short piece of timber in a wall, jutting six or eight inches, as occasion requires, in the manner of a shoulderpiece; sometimes placed for strength under the semigirder of a platform. The under part is sometimes cut into the form of a boultin; sometimes of an ogee, or of a face, etc.
2. A niche or hollow left in walls for images, figures or statues.
CORBY, n. A raven. [Not in use.]
CORCELET, CORSELET, n. In natural history, that part of winged insects, which answers to the breast of other animals.
CORCULE, CORCLE, n. [L. It is a diminutive, from cor, the heart.] In botany, the heart of the seed, or rudiment of a future plant, attached to and involved in the cotyledons. It consists of the plume or ascending part, and the rostel, or radicel, the simple descending part.
CORD, n. [L. Gr. According to the Welsh, this word signifies a twist, from cor, the root of chorus.]
1. A string, or small rope, composed of several strands twisted together. Rahab let down the spies by a cord through the window. Joshua 2:15.
2. A quantity of wood, or other material, originally measured with a cord or line. The cord is a pile containing 128 cubic feet; or a pile eight feet long, four feet high, and four feet broad.
3. In scripture, the cords of the wicked are the snares with which they catch the unwary. Psalm 129:4.
The cords of sin are bad habits, or the consequences of sin. Proverbs 5:22.
The cords of a man are the fair, gentle or natural means of alluring men to obedience. Hosea 11:4.
The cords of vanity are worldly vanities and pleasures, profit or preferment; or vain and deceitful arguments and pretenses, which draw men to sin. Isaiah 5:18.
To stretch a line or cord about a city, is to level it, or utterly to destroy it. Lamentations 2:8.
The cords of a tent denote stability. To loosen or break the cords, is to weaken or destroy; to lengthen the cords, is to enlarge. Job 30:11; Isaiah 54:2; Jeremiah 10:20.
CORD, v.t.
1. To bind with a cord or rope; to fasten with cords.
2. To pile wood or other material for measurement and sale by the cord.
CORDWOOD, n. Wood cut and piled for sale by the cord, in distinction from long wood; properly, wood cut to the length of four feet; bu in this respect, the practice is not uniform. In Scotland, cord-wood is wood conveyed to market on board of vessels, in opposition to that which is floated.
CORDAGE, n. All sorts of cords or ropes, used in the running rigging of a ship, or kept in reserve to supply the place of that which may be rendered unserviceable. In a more general sense, the word includes all ropes and lines used on board of ships.
CORDATE, CORDATED, a. [L., with a different signification, from cor, the heart.] Having the form of a heart; heart-shaped; a term used by naturalists; as a cordate leaf in botany, resembling the longitudinal section of the heart. Hence, cordate-oblong, heart-shaped lengthened; cordate-lanceolate, heart-shaped, gradually tapering towards each extremity, like the head of a lance; cordate-sagittate, heart-shaped, but resembling the head of an arrow.
CORDATELY, adv. In a cordate form.
CORDED, pp.
1. Bound or fastened with cords.
2. Piled in a form for measurement by the cord.
3. Made of cords; furnished with cords.
4. In heraldry, a cross corded is one wound with cords, or made of two pieces of wood.
CORDELIER, n. A Franciscan friar; one of the order of religious founded by St. Francis; a gray friar. The cordeliers wear a thick gray cloth, a little cowl, a chaperon, and a cloke, with a girdle of rope or cord, tied with three knots.
CORDIAL, a. [L., the heart.]
1. Proceeding from the heart; hearty; sincere; not hypocritical; warm; affectionate.
With looks of cordial love.
We give our friends a cordial reception.
2. Reviving the spirits; cheering; invigorating; giving strength or spirits; as cordial waters.
CORDIAL, n.
1. In medicine, that which suddenly excites the system, and increases the action of the heart or circulation when languid; any medicine which increases strength, raises the spirits, and gives life and cheerfulness to a person when weak and depressed.
2. Any thing that comforts, gladdens and exhilarates; as, good news is a cordial to the mind.
CORDIALITY, n.
1. Relation to the heart. [Not used.]
2. Sincerity; freedom from hypocrisy; sincere affection and kindness.
Our friends were received with cordiality.
CORDIALLY, adv. Heartily; sincerely; without hypocrisy; with real affection.
The Christian cordially receives the doctrines of grace.
CORDIERITE, n. The mineral called otherwise iolite and dichroite.
CORDIFORM, a. [L., the heart, and form.] Heart-shaped; having the form of the human heart.
CORDINER, n. [Not used. See Cordwainer.]
CORDON, n. [See Cord.]
1. In fortification, a row of stones jutting before the rampart, and the basis of the parapet; or a row of stones between the wall of a fortress which lies aslope, and the parapet which is perpendicular; serving as an ornament, and used only in fortifications of stone-work.
2. In military language, a line or series of military posts; as a cordon of troops.