Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COB'NUT, n.

A boy's play, or a hazel-nut so called, used in play; the conquering nut. – Ash. Barret.

CO-BOOSE', n.

See CABOOSE.

COB'STONE, n.

See COBBLE.

COB'SWAN, n. [cob, head, and swan.]

The head or leading swan. – B. Jonson.

COB'WEB, n. [cob or koppe, a spider; D. spinnekop; Sax. atter-coppa, poison spider. In Ch. ביבי, is a spider's web.]

1. The line, thread, or filament which a spider spins from its abdomen; the net-work spread by a spider to catch its prey. Hence,
2. Any snare, implying insidiousness and weakness. – Johnson. In this sense, it is used adjectively or in composition, for thin, flimsy; as, a cobweb law. – Dryden. Swift. Or slender, feeble; as, the cobweb thread of life. – Buckminster.

COB'WEB-BED, a.

1. In botany, covered with a thick interwoven pubescence. – Martyn.
2. Covered with cobwebs.

COB'WEB-Y, a.

Covered with cobwebs. – Hooker.

CO'CA-LON, n.

A large cocoon, of a weak texture. – Encyc.

COC-CIF'ER-OUS, a. [L. coccus, and fero, to bear; Gr. κοκκος, a berry, grain, or seed, or a red berry used in dyeing; W. côc, red.]

Bearing or producing berries; as, cocciferous trees or plants. – Quincy.

COC'CO-LITE, n. [Gr. κοκκος, a berry and λιθος, a stone.]

A variety of augite or pyroxene; called by Haüy, granuliform pyroxene. Its color is usually some shade of green. It is composed of granular distinct concretions, easily separable, some of which present the appearance of crystals whose angles and edges have been obliterated. – Cleaveland. Dict. of Nat. Hist.

COC'CU-LUS-IN'DI-CUS, n.

The fruit of the Anamirta paniculata, a narcotic, emetic, and cathartic, often added in small quantity to malt liquors.

COC'CYX, n. [Gr. κοκκυξ.]

In anatomy, the lower extremity of the os sacrum.

COCH'I-NEAL, n. [Sp. cochinilla, a wood-louse, and an insect used in dyeing; It. cocciniglia; Fr. cochenille; from the Gr. κοκκος, as the cochineal was formerly supposed to be the grain or seed of a plant, and this word was formerly defined to be the grain of the Ilex glandifera. See Gregoir's Armoric Dictionary.]

An insect, the Coccus cacti, a native of the warmer climates of America, particularly of Oaxaca, in Mexico. It is found on a plant milled Nopal, or Indian fig-tree. The female, which alone is valued for its color, is ill-shaped, tardy, and stupid; the male is small, slender, and active. It is of the size of a tick. At a suitable time, these insects are gathered and put in a pot, where they are confined for some time, and then killed by the application of heat. These insects thus killed form a mass or drug, which is the proper cochineal of the shops. It is used in giving red colors, especially crimson and scarlet, and for making carmine. It has been used in medicine, as a cardiac, sudorific, alexipharmic, and febrifuge; but is now used only to give a color to tinctures, &c. – Encyc.

COCH'LE-A-RY, or COCH'LE-ATE, a. [or COCH'LE-A-TED. L. cochlea, a screw, the shell of a snail; Gr. κοχλος, from κοχλω, to turn or twist.]

Having the form of a screw; spiral; turbinated; as, a cochleate pod. – Martyn.

COCH'LITE, n. [Gr. κοχλιας, a snail.]

A fossil shell, having a mouth like that of a snail. – Morin.

COCK, n. [Sax. coc; Fr. coq; Arm. gocq; Sans. kuka; Slav. kokosch. The sense is, that which shoots out or up; It. cocca, the tip of a spindle, the top or crown; L. cacumen.]

1. The male of birds, particularly of gallinaceous or domestic fowls, which having no appropriate or distinctive name, are called dunghill fowls or barn-door fowls.
2. A weather-cock; a vane in shape of a cock. – Shak. [It is usually called a weather-cock.]
3. A spout; an instrument to draw out or discharge liquor from a cask, vat, or pipe; so named from its projection.
4. The projecting corner of a hat. – Addison.
5. A small conical pile of hay, so shaped for shedding rain; called in England a cop. When hay is dry and rolled together for carting, the heaps are not generally called cocks, at least not in New England. A large conical pile is called a stack.
6. The style or gnomon of a dial. – Chambers.
7. The needle of a balance. – Bailey. Johnson.
8. The piece which covers the balance in a clock or watch. – Bailey.
9. The notch of an arrow. [It. cocca.] – Johnson.
10. The part of a musket or other fire-arm, to which a flint is attached, and which, being impelled by a spring, strikes fire, and opens the pan at the same time.
11. A small boat. [W. cwc, Ir. coca, D. and Dan. kaag, It. cocca.] It is now called a cock-boat, which is tautology, as cock itself is a boat.
12. A leader; a chief man. Sir Andrew is the cock of the club. – Addison.
13. Cock-crowing; the time when cocks crow in the morning. – Shak. Cock a hoop, or cock on the hoop, a phrase denoting triumph; triumphant; exulting. [Qu. Fr. coq à huppe. Bailey.] – Camden. Shak. Hudibras. Cock and a bull, a phrase denoting tedious trifling stories.

COCK, v.i.

1. To hold up the head; to strut; to look big, pert, or menacing. – Dryden. Addison.
2. To train or use fighting cocks. [Little used.] – B. Jonson.
3. To cocker. [Not in use.]

COCK, v.t.

1. To set erect; to turn up; as, to cock the nose or ears. – Addison.
2. To set the brim of a hat so as to make sharp corners or points; or to set up with an air of pertness. – Prior.
3. To make up hay in small conical piles.
4. To set or draw back the cock of a gun, in order to fire. – Dryden.

COCK-ADE', n. [Fr. cocarde; Sp. cocarda; Port. cocar, or cocarda.]

A ribin or knot of ribin, or something similar, worn on the hat, usually by officers of the army and navy, sometimes by others. It most usually designates the military character; sometimes political parties.

COCK-AD'ED, a.

Wearing a cockade. – Young.

COCK'AL, n.

A game called huckle bone. – Kinder.

COCK-A-TOO', n.

A bird of the parrot kind. – Herbert.

COCK'A-TRICE, n. [Fr. cocatrix, from coc. Junius mentions the word as in D. kocketras. The Irish call it rioghnathair, the king-serpent, answering to basilisk.]

A serpent imagined to proceed from a cock's egg. – Bacon. Taylor. Is. xi. 8; lix. 5.

COCK'-BILL, n.

In seamen's language, the anchor is a cock-bill, when it is suspended perpendicularly from the cat-head, ready to be let go in a moment. – Mar. Dict.

COCK'-BOAT, n.

A small boat. [See Cock, No. 11.]