Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Lexicon: custom – cypherless
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custom (-s), n. [OFr.] (webplay: buying, common, due, habitual, limited, little, manner, way).
- Instinct; natural pattern; regular way of doing things; repetitious action not requiring thought; act completed in an established manner; [fig.] migration.
- Habit; usual practice; [word play] business; commerce; trade; enterprise; merchandise.
customary, adj. [med. L. custumārius.]
Usual; regular; expected; common practice; according to tradition.
cut, v. [uncertain origin.] (webplay: down).
- Slice; carve; sever; tear; pull; take; separate; detach; violently excise; divide with a sharp-edged instrument.
- Harvest; reap; glean; chop down; separate by a sharp instrument; chop from the root to collect the edible part.
- Fashion; sew; tailor; shape by cutting for a specific person.
- Phrase. “cut … down”: trim; prune; shear; reduce; repress; fell; eliminate; cause to fall; destroy by slashing to pieces.
cuticle, n. [L. cutīula < L. cutis, skin.]
Skin; covering; membrane; film; thin layer spread over a large area.
cutlery, n. [OFr coutelerie, cutler's art, cutlery.]
- Utensil; domestic implement; sharp kitchen instrument; [fig.] flash of electricity.
- Cutting tool; means of eating; [fig.] teeth.
cycle (-s), n. [Fr. < Gk. κύκλος, circle.]
Pattern; series; round; relentless repetition; recurrent period of time; set of ongoing occurrences; perpetual course of successive events.
cynic, n. [L. cynic-us < Gk. κυνικός, dog-like, currish.]
Skeptic; unbeliever; atheist; misanthrope; sneerer; jaded person; distrustful person; one disposed to criticize; one who shows a disposition to doubt the sincerity of human motives.
cypher (-s), n. [see cipher, n.]
cypherer, n. [see cipher, n.] (webplay: numbers, ten).
Figurer; calculator; mathematician; one who computes; one who works with numbers; [fig.] scribe; writer; scrivener; [metaphor] noone; nobody; nonentity; one with seemingly little importance; person who seems to amount to nothing; (see Matthew 25:40).
cypherless, adj. [see cipher, n.] (webplay: numbers, ten).
Incalculable; undeterminable; without a sign; without an exact meaning; unable to be expressed.