Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CO-LUM'BO, n.

See Calumba.

COL'U-MEL, or COL-U-MEL'LA, n.

1. In botany, the central column in a capsule, taking its rise from the receptacle, and having the seeds fixed to it all round. – Martyn.
2. The axis of fruit. – Lindley.

COL'UMN, n.¹ [col'um; L. columna, columen; W. colov, a stalk or stem, a prop; colovyn, a column; Ir. colbh, a stalk, a column; Arm. coulouenn; Fr. colonne; It. colonna; Sp. columna; Port. columna, or coluna. This word is from the Celtic, signifying the stem of a tree, such stems being the first columns used. The primary sense is a shoot, or that which is set.]

1. In architecture, a long round body of wood or stone, used to support or adorn a building, composed of a base, a shaft and a capital. The shaft tapers from the base, in imitation of the stem of a tree. There are five kinds or orders of columns. 1. The Tuscan, rude, simple and massy; the highth of which is fourteen semidiameters or modules, and the diminution at the top from one sixth to one eighth of the inferior diameter. 2. The Doric, which is next in strength to the Tuscan, has a robust, masculine aspect; its highth is sixteen modules. 3. The Ionic is more slender than the Tuscan and Doric; its highth is eighteen modules. 4. The Corinthian is more delicate in its form and proportions, and enriched with ornaments; its highth should be twenty modules. 5. The Composite is a species of the Corinthian, and of the same highth. – Encyc. In strictness, the shaft of a column consists of one entire piece; but it is often composed of different pieces, so united, as to have the appearance of one entire piece. It differs in this respect from a pillar, which primarily signifies a pile, composed of small pieces. But the two things are unfortunately confounded; and a column consisting of a single piece of timber is absurdly called a pillar or pile.
2. An erect or elevated structure resembling a column in architecture; as the astronomical column at Paris, a kind of hollow tower with a spiral ascent to the top; gnomonic column, a cylinder on which the hour of the day is indicated by the shadow of a style; military column, among the Romans; triumphal column, &c.
3. Any body pressing perpendicularly on its base, and of the same diameter as its base; as, a column of water, air or mercury.
4. In the military art, a large body of troops drawn up in order; as, a solid column.
5. Among printers, a division of a page; a perpendicular set of lines separated from another set by a line or blank space. In manuscript books and papers, any separate perpendicular line or row of words or figures. A page may contain two or more columns; and in arithmetic, many columns of figures may be added.

COL'UMN, n.²

In botany, the aggregate stamen of a plant when the filaments are united into a tube around the styles, as in the Malvaceous plants, which have been called Columniferæ, i. e. column-bearers. The united stamens and styles of the plants of which the genus Orchis is the type, is called a column.

CO-LUM'NAR, a.

Formed in columns; having the form of columns; like the shaft of a column; as, columnar spar.

CO-LUM'NAR-ISH, a.

Somewhat resembling a column. [A bad word.] – Fam. of Plants, vol. ii. 454.

CO-LURE', n. [Gr. κολουρος; κολος, mutilated, and ουρα, a tail; so named because a part is always beneath the horizon.]

In astronomy and geography, the colures are two great circles supposed to intersect each other at right angles, in the poles of the world, one of them passing through the solstitial and the other through the equinoctial points of the ecliptic, viz. Cancer and Capricorn, Aries and Libra, dividing the ecliptic into four equal parts. The points where these lines intersect the ecliptic are called cardinal points. – Encyc. Harris.

COL'ZA, n.

A variety of cabbage whose seeds afford an oil used in lamps. – Ure.

COM, prep. [COM-.]

In composition as a prefix, Ir. comh, or coimh, W. cym or cyv, L. com or cum, denotes with, to, or against.

CO'MA, n.¹ [Gr. κωμα, lethargy.]

Lethargy; dozing; a preternatural propensity to sleep; a kind of stupor of diseased persons. – Coxe.

CO'MA, n.² [L. from Gr. κομη, a head of hair.]

1. In botany, a species of bract, terminating the stem of a plant, in a tuft or bush; as in Crown-imperial. – Martyn.
2. In astronomy, hairiness; the hairy appearance that surrounds a comet, when the earth or the spectator is between the comet and the sun.

CO'MART, n. [con and mart.]

A treaty; article; agreement. [Obs.] – Shak.

CO'MATE, a. [L. comatus, from coma; Ir. ciamh, ciabh.]

Hairy; encompassed with a coma, or bushy appearance, like hair. – Shak.

CO-MATE', n. [co and mate.]

A fellow mate or companion. – Shak.

CO'MA-TOSE, or CO'MA-TOUS, a. [See Coma.]

Preternaturally disposed to sleep; drowsy; dozing, without natural sleep; lethargic. – Coxe. Grew.

COMB, n.¹ [Sax.]

A valley between hills or mountains. [Not in use.] – Brown.

COMB, n.² [b silent; Sax. camb, a comb; cemban, to comb; G. kamm; D. kam; Sw. kamm; Dan. kam, a comb; Ir. ciomaim, to comb or card. Qu. L. como, to dress, trim or comb, which seems to be allied to the Gr. κομψος. But the noun may be the radical word in our language, and from scratching, scraping; Eth. ገምዐ gamea; to shave or scrape.]

1. An instrument, with teeth, for separating, cleansing and adjusting hair, wool, or flax. Also, an instrument of horn or shell, for keeping the hair in its place when dressed.
2. The crest, caruncle or red fleshy tuft, growing on a cock's head; so called from its indentures which resemble the teeth of a comb.
3. The substance in which bees lodge their honey, in small hexagonal cells.
4. A dry measure of four bushels. [Not used in the United States.]

COMB, v.i.

In the language of seamen, to roll over, as the top of a wave; or to break with a white foam. [Qu. Sp. combar, to bend, or from the English comb.]

COMB, v.t.

To separate, disentangle, cleanse, and adjust with a comb, as to comb hair; or to separate, cleanse and lay smooth and straight, as to comb wool.

COM'BAT, n.

1. A fighting; a struggling to resist, overthrow or conquer; contest by force; engagement; battle; as, the combat of armies.
2. A duel; a fighting between two men; formerly, a formal trial of a doubtful cause, or decision of a controversy between two persons by swords or batons.

COM'BAT, v.i. [Fr. combattre, com and battre, to beat with or against; It. combattere; Sp. combatir; Port. combater; Arm. combadti or combatein. See Beat.]

1. To fight; to struggle or contend with an opposing force. Pardon me; I will not combat in my shirt. – Shak. This word is particularly used to denote private contest, or the fighting of two persons in a duel; but it is used in a general sense for the contention of bodies of men, nations, armies, or any species of animals. After the fall of the republic, the Romans combated only for the choice of masters. – Gibbon.
2. To act in opposition. – Milton. It is followed by with before the person, and for before the thing sought; as, A. combats with B. for his right.

COM'BAT, v.t.

1. To fight with; to oppose by force; as, to combat an antagonist.
2. To contend against; to oppose; to resist; as, to combat arguments or opinions.

COM'BAT-ANT, a.

Contending; disposed to contend. – B. Jonson.

COM'BAT-ANT, n.

1. A person who combats; any person who fights with another, or in an army, or fleet.
2. A duelist; one who fights or contends in battle, for the decision of a private quarrel or difference; a champion.
3. A person who contends with another in argument, or controversy.

COM'BAT-ED, pp.

Opposed; resisted. – Locke.