Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CU'LIC-I-FORM, a. [L. culex, a gnat or flea, and forma, form.]

Of the form or shape of a flea; resembling a flea. Encyc.

CU'LI-NA-RY, a. [L. culinarius, from culina, a kitchen, W. cyl. See Kiln.]

Relating to the kitchen, or to the art of cookery; used in kitchens; as, a culinary fire; a culinary vessel; culinary herbs. – Newton.

CULL, v.t. [Qu. Fr. cueillir, It. cogliere, to gather; Norm. culhir; It. scegliere. To cull, is rather to separate, or to take.]

To pick out; to separate one or more things from others; to select from many; as, to cull flowers; to cull hoops and staves for market. – Pope. Prior. Laws of Conn.

CULL'ED, pp.

Picked out; selected from many.

CULL'ER, n.

1. 1. One who picks or chooses from many.
2. An inspector who selects merchantable hoops and staves for market. – Laws of Mass. and Conn.

CUL-LI-BIL'I-TY, n. [from cully.]

Credulity; easiness of belief. [Not elegant.] – Swift.

CULL'ING, ppr.

Selecting; choosing from many.

CULL'ION, n. [cul'yon; It. coglione.]

1. A mean wretch. If from cully, one easily deceived; a dupe. – Dryden.
2. A round or bulbous root; Orchis. L. coleus.

CULL'ION-LY, a.

Mean; base. [A bad word, and not used.] – Shak.

CUL'LIS, n. [Fr. coulis, from couler, to strain.]

1. Broth of boiled meat strained. – Beaum.
2. A kind of jelly. – Marston.

CUL'LY, n. [See the Verb.]

A person who is meanly deceived, tricked or imposed on, as by a sharper, jilt, or strumpet; a mean dupe. – Hudibras.

CUL'LY, v.t. [D. kullen, to cheat, to gull.]

To deceive; to trick, cheat or impose on; to jilt.

CUL'LY-ING, ppr.

Deceiving; tricking.

CUL'LY-ISM, n.

The state of a cully. [Cully and its derivatives are not elegant words.]

CULM, n. [L. culmus; Ir. colbh; W. colov, a stalk or stem; L. caulis; D. kool. See Quill and Haulm.]

1. In botany, the stalk or stem of corn and grasses, usually jointed and hollow, and supporting the leaves and fructification. – Martyn.
2. The straw or dry stalks of corn and grasses.
3. A species of fossil coal, found in small masses, not adhering when heated, difficult to be ignited, and burning with little flame, but yielding a disagreeable smell. Nicholson. Journ. of Science.

CUL'MEN, n. [L.]

Top; summit.

CUL-MIF'ER-OUS, a. [L. culmus, a stalk, and fero, to bear.]

1. Bearing culms. Culmiferous plants have a smooth jointed stalk, usually hollow, and wrapped about at each joint with single, narrow, sharp-pointed leaves, and their seeds contained in chaffy husks, as wheat, rye, oats and barley. – Milne. Quincy.
2. Abounding in culm or slaty coal. – Sedgwick.

CUL'MIN-ATE, v.i. [L. culmen, a top or ridge.]

To be vertical; to come or be in the meridian; to be in the highest point of altitude; as a planet. – Milton.

CUL-MIN-A'TION, n.

1. The transit of a planet over the meridian, or highest point of altitude for the day. – Encyc.
2. Top; crown.

CUL-PA-BIL'I-TY, n. [See Culpable.]

Blamableness; culpableness.

CUL'PA-BLE, a. [Low. L. culpabilis; Fr. coupable; It. colpabile; from L. culpa, a fault; W. cwl, a fault, a flagging, a drooping, like fault, from fail.]

1. Blamable; deserving censure; as the person who has done wrong, or the act, conduct or negligence of the person. We say, the man is culpable, or voluntary ignorance is culpable.
2. Sinful; criminal; immoral; faulty. But generally, culpable is applied to acts less atrocious than crimes.
3. Guilty of; as, culpable of a crime. [Not used.] – Spenser.

CUL'PA-BLE-NESS, n.

Blamableness; guilt; the quality of deserving blame.

CUL'PA-BLY, adv.

Blamably; in a faulty manner; in a manner to merit censure.

CUL'PRIT, n. [supposed to be formed from cul, for culpable, and prit, ready; certain abbreviations used by the clerks in noting the arraignment of criminals; the prisoner is guilty, and the king is ready to prove him so. Blackstone.]

1. A person arraigned in court for a crime. – Dryden.
2. Any person convicted of a crime; a criminal.

CUL'TER, n. [L.]

A colter, – which see.