Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CRAFTS'MAS-TER, n.

One skilled in his craft or trade.

CRAFT'Y, a.

1. Cunning; artful; skillful in devising and pursuing a scheme, by deceiving others, or by taking advantage of their ignorance; wily; sly; fraudulent. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. – Job v.
2. Artful; cunning; in a good sense, or in a laudable pursuit. Being crafty, I caught you with guile. – 2 Cor. xii.

CRAG, n. [Sax. hracca, the neck; Scot. crag, or craig; Gr. ῥαχις. The same word probably as the preceding, from its roughness, or break. We now call it rack.]

The neck, formerly applied to the neck of a human being, as in Spenser. We now apply it to the neck or neck-piece of mutton, and call it a rack of mutton.

CRAG, n. [W. Scot. and Ir. craig; Gaelic, creag; Corn. karak; Arm. garrecq; probably Gr. ῥαχια, ῥαχις, from the root of ῥηγνυω, to break, like rupes, in Latin, from the root of rumpo, rupi, and crepido, from crepo. See Crack. The name is taken from breaking, L. frango, for frago; and fragosus, and craggy, are the same word with different prefixes; Eng. ragged. The Κραγος in Cilicia, mentioned by Strabo and Pliny, retains the Celtic orthography.]

1. A steep rugged rock; a rough broken rock, or point of a rock.
2. In minerology, a tertiary deposit of gravel. – Mantell.

CRAG'-BUILT, a.

Built with crags. – Irving.

CRAG'GED, a.

Full of crags or broken rocks; rough; rugged; abounding with prominences, points and inequalities.

CRAG'GED-NESS, n.

The state of abounding with crags, or broken, pointed rocks.

CRAG'GI-NESS, n.

The state of being craggy.

CRAG'GY, a.

Full of crags; abounding with broken rocks; rugged with projecting points of rocks; as, the craggy side of a mountain; a craggy cliff.

CRAKE, n.¹

A boast. [See Crack.] – Spenser.

CRAKE, n.² [Qu. Gr. κρεξ, from κρεκω.]

The corn-crake, a migratory fowl, is a species of the rail, Rallus, found among grass, corn, broom or furze. Its cry is very singular, crek, crek, and is imitated by rubbing the blade of a knife on an indented bone, by which it may be decoyed into a net. – Encyc.

CRAKE'-BER-RY, n.

A species of Empetrum or berry-bearing heath.

CRAM, v.i.

To eat greedily or beyond satiety; to muff. – Pope.

CRAM, v.t. [Sax. crammian; Sw. krama; coinciding in sense and probably in origin with ram.]

1. To press or drive, particularly in filling or thrusting one thing into another; to stuff; to crowd; to fill to superfluity; as, to cram any thing into a basket or bag; to cram a room with people; to cram victuals down the throat.
2. To fill with food beyond satiety; to stuff. Children would be more free from diseases, if they were not crammed so much by fond mothers. Locke.
3. To thrust in by force; to crowd. Fate has crammed us all into one lease. – Dryden.

CRAM'BO, n.

A rhyme; a play in which one person gives a word to which another finds a rhyme. – Swift.

CRAM'MED, pp.

Stuffed; crowded; thrust in; filled with food.

CRAM'MING, ppr.

Driving in; stuffing; crowding; eating beyond satiety or sufficiency.

CRAMP, a.

Difficult; knotty. [Little used.] – Goodman.

CRAMP, n. [Sax. hramma; D. kramp; G. Dan. and Sw. krampe; It. rampone, a cramp-iron. Qu. Ir. crampa, a knot. If m is radical, this word may accord with the Celtic crom, G. krumm, crooked, from shrinking, contracting. But if p is radical, this word accords with the W. craf, a clasp, a cramp-iron, crafu, to secure hold of, to comprehend, Ir. crapadh, to shrink or contract. The sense is to strain or stretch.]

1. Spasm; the contraction of a limb, or some muscle of the body, attended with pain, and sometimes with convulsions, or numbness.
2. Restraint; confinement; that which hinders from motion or expansion. A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind. – L'Estrange.
3. A piece of iron bent at the ends, serving to hold together pieces of timber, stones, &c.; a cramp-iron. [Fr. crampon; It. rampone.]

CRAMP, v.t.

1. To pain or affect with spasms.
2. To confine; to restrain; to hinder from action or expansion; as, to cramp the exertions of a nation; to cramp the genius.
3. To fasten, confine or hold with a cramp or cramp-iron.

CRAMP'ED, pp.

Affected with spasm; convulsed; confined; retrained.

CRAMP'-FISH, n.

The torpedo, or electric ray, the touch of which affects a person like electricity, causing a slight shock and producing numbness, tremor, and sickness of the stomach.

CRAMP'ING, ppr.

Affecting with cramp; confining.

CRAMP'-IR-ON, n.

An iron used for fastening things together; a cramp, – which see.

CRA'NAGE, n. [from crane. Low L. cranagium.]

The liberty of using a crane at a wharf for raising wares from a vessel; also, the money or price paid for the use of a crane. – Cowel. Encyc.