Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
CORPUSCLE — COSCINOMANCY
CORPUSCLE, n. [L., body.] A minute particle, or physical atom; corpuscles are the very small bodies which compose large bodies, not the elementary principles of matter, but such small particles simple or compound, as are not dissolved or dissipated by ordinary heat.
It will add much to our satisfaction, if those corpuscles can be discovered by microscopes.
CORPUSCULAR, a. Relating to corpuscles, or small particles, supposed to be the constituent materials of all large bodies. The corpuscular philosophy attempts to account for the phenomena of nature, by the motion, figure, rest, position, etc., of the minute particles of matter.
CORPUSCULARIAN, a. Corpuscular, as above.
CORPUSCULARIAN, n. An advocate for the corpuscular philosophy.
CORRADIATION, n. [L. See Ray.] A conjunction of rays in one point.
CORRECT, a. [L., to set right; right, straight. See Right.] Literally, set right, or made straight. Hence, right; conformable to truth, rectitude or propriety, or conformable to a just standard; not faulty; free from error. A correct edition of a book is exactly according to the original copy. Correct manners correspond with the rules of morality and received notions of decorum. Correct principles coincide with the truth. Correct language is agreeable to established usage.
CORRECT, v.t. [L. See Right.]
1. To make right; to rectify; to bring to the standard of truth, justice, or propriety; as, to correct manners or principles. Hence,
2. To amend; to remove or retrench faults or errors; to set right; as, to correct a book; to correct a copy for the press; or in printing, to correct the press, or errors of the press.
3. To bring back or attempt to bring back to propriety in morals; to punish for faults or deviations from moral rectitude; to chastise; to discipline; as, a child should be corrected for lying.
Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest. Proverbs 29:17.
4. To obviate or remove whatever is wrong or inconvenient; to reduce or change the qualities of any thing by mixture, or other application; to counteract whatever is injurious; as, to correct the acidity of the stomach by alkaline preparations; to correct the relaxing quality of water by boiling it with animal substances.
CORRECTED, pp. Set right; freed from errors; amended; punished.
CORRECTING, ppr. Bringing to the standard of truth, justice or propriety; amending; chastising.
CORRECTION, n. [L.]
1. The act of correcting; the act of bringing back, from error or deviation, to a just standard, as to truth, rectitude, justice or propriety; as the correction of opinions or manners.
All scripture is profitable for correction. 2 Timothy 3:16.
2. Retrenchment of faults or errors; amendment; as the correction of a book, or of the press.
3. That which is substituted in the place of what is wrong; as the corrections of a copy are numerous; set the corrections in the margin of a proof-sheet.
4. That which is intended to rectify, or to cure faults; punishment; discipline; chastisement; that which corrects.
Withhold not correction from the child. Proverbs 23:13.
5. In scriptural language, whatever tends to correct the moral conduct, and bring back from error or sin, as afflictions.
They have refused to receive correction. Jeremiah 5:3.
My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor be weary of his correction. Proverbs 3:11.
6. Critical notice; animadversion.
7. Abatement of noxious qualities; the counteraction of what is inconvenient or hurtful in its effects; as the correction of acidity in the stomach.
House of correction, a house where disorderly persons are confined; a bridewell.
CORRECTIONAL, a. Tending to or intended for correction.
CORRECTIONER, n. One that has been in the house of correction. [Not used.]
CORRECTIVE, a. Having the power to correct; having the quality of removing or obviating what is wrong, or injurious; tending to rectify; as corrective penalties.
Mulberries are pectoral, corrective of bilious alkali.
CORRECTIVE, n.
1. That which has the power of correcting; that which has the quality of altering or obviating what is wrong, or injurious; as, alkalies are correctives of acids; penalties are correctives of immoral conduct.
2. Limitation; restriction. [Little used.]
CORRECTLY, adv. In a correct manner; in conformity with truth, justice, rectitude, or propriety; according to a standard; agreeable to a copy or original; exactly; accurately; without fault, or error; as, to behave correctly; to write, speak or think correctly; to judge correctly.
CORRECTNESS, n.
1. Conformity to truth, justice, or propriety; as the correctness of opinions, of judgment, or of manners.
2. Conformity to settled usages or rules; as correctness in writing or speaking.
3. Conformity to a copy or original; as the correctness of a book.
4. Conformity to established rules of taste or proportion; as the correctness of design in painting, sculpture or architecture.
CORRECTOR, n.
1. One who corrects; one who amends faults, retrenches error, and renders conformable to truth or propriety, or to any standard; as a corrector of the press; a corrector of abuses.
2. One who punishes for correction; one who amends or reforms by chastisement, reproof or instruction.
3. That which corrects; that which abates or removes what is noxious or inconvenient; an ingredient in a composition which abates or counteracts the force of another; as, an alkali is a corrector of acids.
Turpentine is a corrector of quicksilver.
CORREGIDOR, n. A Spanish magistrate.
CORRELATE, n. [L. Con and relatus. See Relate.] One who stands in an opposite relation, as father and son.
CORRELATION, n. Reciprocal relation.
CORRELATIVE, a. [L. Con and relativus. See Relate and Relative.] Having a reciprocal relation, so that the existence of one in a certain state depends on the existence of another; as father and son, husband and wife, are correlative terms. The term son is correlative to that of father.
CORRELATIVE, n. That which is opposed to something else in a certain relation. The son is the correlative of his father. Darkness and light are correlatives. Rest is the correlative of motion.
CORRELATIVELY, adv. In a correlative relation.
CORRELATIVENESS, n. The state of being correlative.
CORREPTION, n. [L.] Chiding; reproof; reprimand.
CORRESPOND, v.i. [L., to answer, to promise. See Sponsor.]
1. To suit; to answer; to agree; to fit; to be congruous; to be adapted to. Levity of manners does not correspond with the dignity of the clerical character. The length of a room should correspond with the breadth. Actions should correspond with words.
2. To be equal; to be adequate or proportioned. Let the means of prosecuting a war correspond with the magnitude of the contest.
3. To communicate by letters sent and received; to hold intercourse with a person at a distance by sending and receiving letters. We delight to correspond with those we love and respect.
CORRESPONDENCE, CORRESPONDENCY, n.
1. Relation; fitness; congruity; mutual adaptation of one thing to another. There is no correspondence between a polite education and clownish manners.
2. Intercourse between persons at a distance, by means of letters sent and answers received. The ministers of the two courts have had a correspondence on the subject of commerce. Hence,
3. The letters which pass between correspondents. The correspondence of the ministers is published.
4. Friendly intercourse; reciprocal exchange of offices or civilities; connection.
Let military persons hold good correspondence with the other great men in the state.
CORRESPONDENT, a. Suitable; fit; congruous; agreeable; answerable; adapted. Let behavior be correspondent to profession, and both be correspondent to good morals.
CORRESPONDENT, n. One who corresponds; one with whom an intercourse is carried on by letters or messages. When A is the correspondent of B, B is the correspondent of A.
CORRESPONDENTLY, adv. In a corresponding manner.
CORRESPONDING, ppr.
1. Carrying on intercourse by letters.
2. a. Answering; agreeing; suiting.
CORRESPONSIVE, a. Answerable; adapted.
CORRIDOR, n. The termination dor may perhaps be the L. Tor, as in curator, cursitor. Corridor signifies a runner; hence, a running, flowing, or long line.
1. In architecture, a gallery or long aisle round a building, leading to several chambers at a distance from each other.
2. In fortification, the covered way lying round the whole compass of the fortifications of a place.
CORRIGIBLE, a. [L., to correct.]
1. That may be set right, or amended; as a corrigible defect.
2. That may be reformed; as, the young man may be corrigible.
3. Punishable; that may be chastised for correction. He was adjudged corrigible for abusive words.
CORRIVAL, n. A fellow rival; a competitor. More correctly co-rival, which see.
CORRIVATE, v.t. [L. Con and rivus.] To draw water out of several streams into one. [Little used.]
CORRIVATION, n. The running of different streams into one. [Not much used.]
CORROBORANT, a. [See Corroborate.] Strengthening; having the power or quality of giving strength; as a corroborant medicine.
CORROBORANT, n. A medicine that strengthens the human body when weak.
CORROBORATE, v.t. [L., to strengthen, strength.]
1. To strengthen; to make strong, or to give additional strength to; as, to corroborate the nerves; to corroborate the judgment, authority or habits.
2. To confirm; to make more certain. The news was doubtful, but is corroborated by recent advices.
CORROBORATED, pp. Strengthened; confirmed; rendered more certain.
CORROBORATING, ppr. Strengthening; giving firmness or additional assurance.
CORROBORATION, n. The act of strengthening, or confirming; addition of strength, assurance, or security; confirmation; as the corroboration of an argument, or of intelligence.
CORROBORATIVE, n. A medicine that strengthens; a corroborant.
CORRODE, v.t. [L., to eat or gnaw.]
1. To eat away by degrees; to wear away, or diminish, by gradually separating small particles from a body, in the manner an animal gnaws a substance. Thus, nitric acid corrodes copper.
2. To wear away by degrees; to prey upon; to impair; to consume, or diminish by slow degrees. Jealousy and envy corrode the constitution. Substances are corroded by time. The anxious man is a victim to corroding care.
CORRODED, pp. Eaten away gradually; worn, diminished, impaired, by slow degrees.
CORRODENT, a. Having the power of corroding, or wasting by degrees.
CORRODENT, n. Any substance or medicine that corrodes.
CORRODIBILITY, n. The quality of being corrodible.
CORRODIBLE, a. That may be corroded.
CORRODING, ppr. Eating away gradually; impairing; wasting.
CORRODY, [See Corody.] But corrody is the most correct orthography.
CORROSIBLE, a. [See Corrodible.]
CORROSIBILITY, n. [See Corrodibility.]
CORROSION, n. s as z. From corrode. The action of eating or wearing away by slow degrees, as by the action of acids on metals, by which the substance is gradually changed. This is effected by the affinity of the menstruum with the component parts of the substance, in consequence of which the two substances unite and form new combinations.
CORROSIVE, a.
1. Eating; wearing away; having the power of gradually wearing, consuming or impairing; as corrosive sublimate; corrosive care; a corrosive ulcer.
2. Having the quality of fretting or vexing.
Corrosive sublimate, the corrosive muriate or perchloride of mercury.
CORROSIVE, n.
1. That which has the quality of eating or wearing gradually.
2. That which has the power of fretting.
CORROSIVELY, adv. Like a corrosive; with the power of corrosion; in a corrosive manner.
CORROSIVENESS, n. The quality of corroding, eating away or wearing; acrimony.
CORRUGANT, a. [See Corrugate.] Having the power of contracting into wrinkles.
CORRUGATE, v.t. [L., to wrinkle, in our vulgar language, to ruck, to furrow.] To wrinkle; to draw or contract into folds; as, to corrugate the skin.
CORRUGATE, a. Wrinkled.
CORRUGATED, pp. Wrinkled.
CORRUGATING, ppr. Contracting into wrinkles.
CORRUGATION, n. A wrinkling; contraction into wrinkles.
CORRUGATOR, n. A muscle which contracts the skin of the forehead into wrinkles.
CORRUPT, v.t. [L., to break.] Literally, to break, separate or dissolve. Hence,
1. To change from a sound to a putrid or putrescent state; to separate the component parts of a body, as by a natural process, which accompanied by a fetid smell.
2. To vitiate or deprave; to change from good to bad.
Evil communications corrupt good manners. 1 Corinthians 15:33.
3. To waste, spoil or consume.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt. Matthew 6:19.
4. To defile or pollute. Exodus 32:7.
5. To entice from good and allure to evil. 2 Corinthians 11:3.
6. To pervert; to break, disobey or make void. Malachi 2:8.
7. To pervert or vitiate integrity; to bribe; as, to corrupt a judge.
8. To debase or render impure, by alterations or innovations; as, to corrupt language.
9. To pervert; to falsify; to infect with errors; as, to corrupt the sacred text.
CORRUPT, v.i.
1. To become putrid; to putrefy; to rot. Animal and vegetable substances speedily corrupt in a warm and moist air.
2. To become vitiated; to lose purity.
CORRUPT, a. [L.]
1. Changed from a sound to a putrid state, as by natural decomposition.
2. Spoiled; tainted; vitiated; unsound; as corrupt air, or bread.
3. Depraved; vitiated; tainted with wickedness.
They are corrupt; they have done abominable works. Psalm 14:1.
The earth was corrupt before God. Genesis 6:11.
4. Debased; rendered impure; changed to a worse state; as corrupt language.
5. Not genuine; infected with errors or mistakes. The text is corrupt.
CORRUPTED, pp. Putrefied; vitiated; depraved; spoiled; marred; bribed; infected with errors.
CORRUPTER, n.
1. One who corrupts; one who vitiates, or taints; as a corrupter of morals, or of Christianity.
2. One who bribes; that which depraves or destroys integrity.
3. One who introduces errors.
CORRUPTIBILITY, n. The possibility of being corrupted.
CORRUPTIBLE, a.
1. That may be corrupted; that may become putrid; subject to decay and destruction. Our bodies are corruptible.
2. That may be vitiated in qualities or principles; susceptible of depravation. Manners are corruptible by evil example.
CORRUPTIBLE, n. That which may decay and perish; the human body.
This corruptible must put on incorruption. 1 Corinthians 15:53.
CORRUPTIBLENESS, n. Susceptibility of corruption; corruptibility.
CORRUPTIBLY, adv. In such a manner as to be corrupted or vitiated.
CORRUPTING, ppr. Putrefying; depraving; vitiating.
CORRUPTION, n. [L.]
1. The act of corrupting, or state of being corrupt or putrid; the destruction of the natural form of bodies, by the separation of the component parts, or by disorganization, in the process of putrefaction.
Thou wilt not suffer thy holy One to see corruption. Psalm 16:10.
2. Putrid matter; pus.
3. Putrescence; a foul state occasioned by putrefaction.
4. Depravity; wickedness; perversion or deterioration of moral principles; loss of purity or integrity.
Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
Corruption in elections is the great enemy of freedom.
5. Debasement; taint; or tendency to a worse state.
Keep my honor from corruption.
6. Impurity; depravation; debasement; as a corruption of language.
7. Bribery. He obtained his suit by corruption.
8. In law, taint; impurity of blood, in consequence of an act of attainder of treason or felony, by which a person is disabled to inherit lands from an ancestor, nor can retain those in his possession, nor transmit them by descent to his heirs.
Corruption of blood can be removed only by act of parliament.
CORRUPTIVE, a. Having the quality of corrupting, tainting or vitiating.
It should be endued with some corruptive quality.
CORRUPTLESS, a. Not susceptible of corruption, or decay.
CORRUPTLY, adv.
1. In a corrupt manner; with corruption; viciously; wickedly; without integrity.
We have dealt very corruptly against thee. Nehemiah 1:7.
2. By bribery. A judgment was obtained corruptly.
CORRUPTNESS, n.
1. The state of being corrupt; putrid state or putrescence.
2. A state of moral impurity; as the corruptness of a judge.
3. A vicious state; debasement; impurity; as the corruptness of language.
CORRUPTRESS, n. A female that corrupts others.
CORSAIR, n. A pirate; one who cruises or scours the ocean, with an armed vessel, without a commission from any prince or state, to seize and plunder merchantmen.
CORSAK, n. A species of fox.
CORSE, n. [L.] A corpse; the dead body of a human being; a poetical word.
CORSE-ENCUMBERED, a. Loaded with dead bodies; as the corse-encumbered plains.
CORSE-PRESENT, n. A mortuary or present paid at the interment of a dead body.
CORSELET, n.
1. A little cuirass, or an armor to cover the body for protection, worn formerly by pike-men.
2. [See Corcelet.]
CORSELET, v.t. To encircle with a corselet.
CORSET, n. A boddice; jumps; something worn to give shape to the body; used by ladies and dandies.
CORSNED, n. The morsel of execration, or curse; a piece of bread consecrated by exorcism, and to be swallowed by a suspected person, as a trial of his innocence. If guilty, it was supposed the bread would produce convulsions and paleness, and find no passage. If innocent, it was believed it would turn to nourishment.
CORTEGE, n. A train of attendants.
CORTES, n. plu. [from corte, court.] The Spanish name of the States of the kingdom, composed of nobility, clergy and representatives of cities; the assembly of the States, answering, in some measure, to the parliament of Great Britain.
CORTICAL, a. [from L., bark. See Chart.] Belonging to bark; consisting of bark or rind; resembling bark or rind; external; belonging to the external covering; as the cortical part of the brain.
A cortical bud in plants proceeds from the scales of the bark.
CORTICATE, CORTICATED, a. [L., bark.] Resembling the bark or rind of a tree.
CORTICIFEROUS, a. [cortex and fero, to produce.] Producing bark, or that which resembles it.
CORTICIFORM, a. [cortex and form.] Resembling bark.
CORTICOSE, CORTICOUS, a. Barky; full of bark.
CORUNDUM, n. The corindon-harmophane of nauy, corindon adamantin of Brongniart, the korund of Werner, and the adamantine spar of Kirwan. It is octahedral, rhomboidal or prismatic.
CORUSCANT, a. [see Coruscate.] Flashing; glittering by flashes.
CORUSCATE, v.i. [L., to flash.] To flash; to lighten; to glitter.
CORUSCATION, n. [L.]
1. A flash; a sudden burst of light in the clouds or atmosphere.
2. The light produced by the combustion of imflammable gas in the earth.
Artificial coruscations are produced by phosporus and sulphuric acid, or by sulphuric acid and iron filings.
CORVET, n. A sloop of war; an advice boat.
CORVUS, n. [L., a raven.]
1. In astronomy, a constellation of the southern hemisphere, containing nine stars.
2. A military engine or gallery used by the Romans for boarding ships in war. It was a strong platform of boards at the prow, movable as on a spindle, and thrown over the side of the enemys vessel, when grappled.