Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CRAB'-YAWS, n.

The name of a disease in the West Indies, being a kind of ulcer on the soles of the feet, with hard callous lips. – Encyc.

CRACK, n. [Gr. ῥαγας.]

1. A disruption; a chink or fissure; a narrow breach; a crevice; a partial separation of the parts of a substance, with or without an opening; as, a crack in timber, in a wall, or in glass.
2. A burst of sound; a sharp or loud sound, uttered suddenly or with vehemence; the sound of any thing suddenly rent; a violent report; as, the crack of a falling house; the crack of a whip.
3. Change of voice in puberty. – Shak.
4. Craziness of intellect; or a crazy person. – Addison.
5. A boast, or boaster. [Low.]
6. Breach of chastity; and a prostitute. [Low.]
7. A lad; an instant. [Not used.]

CRACK, v.i.

1. To burst; to open in chinks; as, the earth cracks by frost; or to be marred without an opening; as, glass cracks by a sudden application of heat.
2. To fall to ruin, or to be impaired. The credit of the exchequer cracks, when little comes in and much goes out. [Not elegant.] – Dryden.
3. To utter a loud or sharp sudden sound; as, the clouds crack; the whip cracks. – Shak.
4. To boast; to brag; that is; to utter vain, pompous, blustering words; with of. The Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack. [Not elegant.] – Shak.

CRACK, v.t. [Fr. craquer; D. kraaken; G. krachen; Dan. krakker; It. croccare; W. rhecain; Sp. rajar; Port. rachar; probably from the root of break, wreck, and coinciding with the Gr. ερεικω, ῥηγνυω; also with Eng. creak, croak. The W. has also crig, a crack, from rhig, a notch. Owen. See Class Rg, No. 34.]

1. To rend, break, or burst into chinks; to break partially; to divide the parts a little from each other; as, to crack a board or a rock; or to break without an entire severance of the parts; as, to crack glass, or ice.
2. To break in pieces; as, to crack nuts.
3. To break with grief; to affect deeply; to pain; to torture; as, to crack the heart. We now use break or rend. – Shak.
4. To open and drink; as, to crock a bottle of wine. [Low.]
5. To thrust out, or cast with smartness; as, to crack a joke.
6. To snap; to make a sharp sudden noise; as, to crack a whip.
7. To break or destroy.
8. To impair the regular exercise of the intellectual faculties; to disorder; to make crazy; as, to crack the brain.

CRACK'-BRAIN-ED, a.

Having intellects impaired; crazy.

CRACK'ED, pp.

1. Burst or split; rent; broken; partially severed.
2. Impaired; crazy.

CRACK'ER, n.

1. A noisy boasting fellow. – Shak.
2. A rocket; a quantity of gunpowder confined so as to explode with noise.
3. A hard biscuit. – America.
4. That which cracks any thing.

CRACK'-HEMP, or CRACK'-ROPE, n.

A wretch fated to the gallows; one who deserves to be hanged. – Shak.

CRACK'ING, ppr.

Breaking or dividing partially; opening; impairing; snapping; uttering a sudden sharp or loud sound; boasting; casting jokes.

CRACK'LE, v.i. [dim. of crack.]

To make slight cracks; to make small abrupt noises, rapidly or frequently repeated; to decrepitate; as, burning thorns crackle.

CRACK'LING, n.

The making of small abrupt cracks or reports, frequently repeated. The crackling of thorns under a pot. Eccles. vii. *CRACK'NEL, n. A hard brittle cake or biscuit. – 1 Kings xiv, 3.

CRACK'LING, ppr.

Making slight cracks, or abrupt noises.

CRA'DLE, n. [Sax. cradel; W. cryd, a rocking or shaking, a cradle; crydu, to shake, or tremble; crydian, crydiaw, id.; from rhyd, a moving; Ir. creatham, to shake; Gr. κραδαω, id., and to swing; Heb. חרד, to tremble or shake, to palpitate; Syr. in Ethp., to rub or scrape. Without the first letter, W. rhyd, Heb. Ch. Eth. רעד, to tremble, to shake. In Ar. رَعَدَ raada, to thunder, to impress terror, to tremble; and رَادَ rada, to run hither and thither, to move one way and the other, to tremble or shake. The Arabic رَعَدَ to thunder, coincides with the Latin rudo, to roar, and the W. grydiaiw, to utter a rough sound, to shout, whoop or scream, grydwst, a murmur, from gryd, a shout or whoop, and this from rhyd; so that crydiaw and grydiaw are from the same root, and from this we have cry, and cry implies roughness, coinciding with the Syriac, supra, to scrape, whence grate, gride, &c. See Owen's Welsh Dictionary, and Castle's Heptaglot.]

1. A movable machine of various constructions, placed on circular pieces of board, for rocking children or infirm persons to sleep, for alleviating pain, or giving moderate exercise. Me let the tender office long engage, / To rock the cradle of reposing age. – Pope.
2. Infancy. From the cradle, is from the state of infancy; in the cradle, in a state of infancy.
3. That part of the stock of a cross-bow, where the bullet is put. – Encyc.
4. In surgery, a case in which a broken leg is laid, after being set. – Encyc.
5. In ship-building, a frame placed under the bottom of a ship for launching. It supports the ship and slides down the timbers or passage called the ways. – Encyc.
6. A standing bedstead for wounded seamen. – Mar. Dict.
7. In engraving, an instrument formed of steel, and resembling a chisel, with one sloping side, used in scraping mezzotintos, and preparing the plate. – Encyc.
8. In husbandry, a frame of wood, with long bending teeth, to which is fastened a sythe, for cutting and laying oats and other grain in a swath.

CRA'DLE, v.i.

To lie or lodge in a cradle. – Shak.

CRA'DLE, v.t.

1. To lay in a cradle; to rock in a cradle; to compose, or quiet. It cradles their fears to sleep. – D. A. Clark.
2. To nurse in infancy. – D. Webster.
3. To cut and lay with a cradle, as grain.

CRA'DLE-CLOTHES, n.

The clothes used for covering one in a cradle.

CRA'DLED, pp.

Laid or rocked in a cradle; cut and laid with a cradle, as grain.

CRA'DLE-SYTHE, n.

A sythe used in a cradle for cutting grain.

CRA'DLING, n.

In architecture, the timber ribs, in arched ceilings and coves, to which the laths are nailed.

CRA'DLING, ppr.

Laying or rocking in a cradle; cutting and laying with a cradle, as grain.

CRAFT, n. [Sax. cræft, art, cunning, power, force; G. Sw. and Dan. kraft, power, faculty; W. crev, cryv, strong; crevu, to cry, to scream; to crave; cryvau, to strengthen, to wax strong; craf, a clasp; crafu, to hold, to comprehend, to perceive; crafus, of quick perception. The primary sense is to strain or stretch. Hence strength, skill, a crying out, holding, &c.]

1. Art; ability; dexterity; skill. Poesy is the poet's skill or craft of making. – B. Jonson.
2. Cunning, art or skill, in a bad sense, or applied to bad purposes; artifice; guile; skill or dexterity employed to effect purposes by deceit. The chief priests and scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. – Mark xiv.
3. Art; skill; dexterity in a particular manual occupation; hence, the occupation or employment itself; manual art; trade. Ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. – Acts xix.
4. All sorts of vessels employed in loading or unloading ships, as lighters, hoys, barges, scows, &c. Small craft is a term given to small vessels of all kinds, as sloops, schooners, cutters, &c.

CRAFT, v.i.

To play tricks. [Not in use.] – Shak.

CRAFT'I-LY, adv. [See Crafty.]

With craft, cunning or guile; artfully; cunningly; with more art than honesty.

CRAFT'I-NESS, n.

Artfulness; dexterity in devising and effecting a purpose; cunning; artifice; stratagem. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. – Job v. Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully. – 2 Cor. iv.

CRAFTS'MAN, n.

An artificer; a mechanic; one skilled in a manual occupation.