Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COY,

for Decoy, to allure. [Not in use.] – Shak.

COY, a. [Fr. coi, or coy, quiet, still; contracted probably from the L. quietus, or its root, or from cautus.]

Modest; silent; reserved; not accessible; shy; not easily condescending to familiarity. Like Daphne she, as lovely and as coy. – Waller.

COY, v.i.

1. To behave with reserve; to be silent or distant; to refrain from speech or free intercourse. – Dryden.
2. To make difficulty; to be backward or unwilling; not freely to condescend. – Shak.
3. To smooth or stroke. – Shak.

COY'ISH, a.

Somewhat coy, or reserved.

COY'LY, adv.

With reserve; with disinclination to familiarity. – Chapman.

COY'NESS, n.

Reserve; unwillingness to become familiar; disposition to avoid free intercourse, by silence or retirement. When the kind nymph would coyness feign, / And hides but to be found again. – Dryden.

COYS'TREL, n.

A species of degenerate hawk. – Dryden.

COZ, n.

A contraction of Cousin. – Shak.

COZ'EN, v.t. [cuz'n; Qu. Arm. couçzyein, couchiein, concheza, to cheat, or to waste and fritter away. In Russ. kosnodei is a cheat. Qu. chouse and cheat.]

1. To cheat; to defraud. He that suffers a government to be abused by carelessness and neglect, does the same thing with him that corruptly sets himself to cozen it. – L'Estrange.
2. To deceive; to beguile. Children may be cozened into a knowledge of the letters. – Locke.

COZ'EN-AGE, n.

Cheat; trick; fraud; deceit; artifice; the practice of cheating. – Dryden. Swift.

COZ'EN-ED, pp.

Cheated; defrauded; beguiled.

COZ'EN-ER, n.

One who cheats or defrauds.

COZ'EN-ING, ppr.

Cheating; defrauding; beguiling.

CO'ZY, a.

Snugly seated.

CRAB, a.

Sour; rough; austere. [Qu. crab, supra, or L. acerbus.]

CRAB, n. [Sax. crabba and hrefen; Sw. krabba; Dan. krabbe, kræbs; D. krab, kreeft; G. krabbe, krebs; Fr. cerevisse; W. crav, claws; cravanc, a crab; cravu, to scratch; Gr. καραβος; L. carabus. It may be allied to the Ch. כרב kerabh, to plow, Eng. to grave, engrave, L. scribo, Gr. γραφω, literally, to scrape or scratch. See Class Rb, No. 30, 18, &c.]

1. A crustaceous fish, the crayfish, Cancer, a genus containing numerous species. They have usually ten feet, two of which are furnished with claws; two eyes, pedunculated, elongated and movable. To this genus belong the lobster, the shrimp, &c.
2. A wild apple, or the tree producing it; so named from its rough taste.
3. A peevish morose person. – Johnson.
4. A wooden engine with three claws for lanching ships and heaving them into the dock. – Philips.
5. A pillar used sometimes for the same purpose as a capstand. – Mar. Dict.
6. Cancer, a sign in the zodiac. Crab's claws, in the materia medica, the tips of the claws of the common crab; used as absorbents. – Encyc. Crab's eyes, in pharmacy, concretions formed in the stomach of the cray-fish. They are rounded on one side, and depressed and sinuated on the other, considerably heavy, moderately hard, and without smell. They are absorbent, dismissive and diuretic. – Encyc. Crab-lice, small insects that stick fast to the skin.

CRAB'-AP-PLE, n.

A wild apple. [See Crab, No. 2.]

CRAB'BED, a. [from crab.]

1. Rough; harsh; austere; sour; peevish; morose; cynical; applied to the temper. – Shak.
2. Rough; harsh; applied to things.
3. Difficult; perplexing; as, a crabbed author or subject. – Dryden.

CRAB'BED-LY, adv.

Peevishly; roughly; morosely, with perplexity. – Johnson.

CRAB'BED-NESS, n.

1. Roughness; harshness.
2. Sourness; peevishness; asperity.
3. Difficulty; perplexity.

CRAB'BY, a.

Difficult. – Moxon.

CRAB'ER, n.

The water-rat. – Walton.

CRAB'-GRASS, n.

A genus of plants, the Digitaria. – Muhlenberg.

CRAB'ITE, n.

A name sometimes given to a petrified crab or crawfish.

CRAB'-TREE, n.

The tree that bears crabs. – Shak.