| coscinomancy | n. | divination by use of scissors and sieve | ||
| cosher | v. | to feast; to pamper | ||
| cosset | v. | to fondle, pamper | ||
| cosset | n. | pet lamb | ||
| costa | n. | rib | biology | |
| costard | n. | large apple | ||
| costermonger | n. | person who sells fruit and vegetables from a street cart; (fig.) hawker of any wares | ||
| costive | adj. | constipated; slow or unenthusiastic in action | ||
| cotehardie | n. | long-sleeved outer garment buttoned or laced up the front | ||
| cothon | n. | protected artificial harbor used in ancient Phoenicia | ||
| cothurnus | n. | tragedy, tragic style, grave style of acting; buskin, thick-soled boot worn by ancient actors | ||
| cotta | n. | surplice, often with box pleats | ||
| cottar | n. | peasant living in a cottage in exchange for service | Scots | |
| cough drop | n. | obnoxious person; fellow, ‘character’ or ‘card’ | slang | |
| coulee | n. | deep gulch; small sometimes intermittent stream | ||
| coulter | n. | blade fixed before the plowshare, cutting soil vertically | ||
| counterscarp | n. | outer wall or slope of a protective ditch of a fortification | ||
| coup de grâce | n. | death blow | ||
| covert | n. | hiding place, shelter; bushes or other wooded places serving to shelter game | ||
| coverture | n. | legal doctrine under which a married woman’s rights and obligations (to property, to enter contracts, etc.) were subsumed under those of her husband | ||
| coxcomb | n. | conceited fool | ||
| cozenage | n. | scam, fraud; practice of cheating | ||
| crab | v. | [falconry] (of a hunting hawk) to claw or to fight with another hawk, rather than the intended prey | ||
| cracknel | n. | crisp savory biscuit; fried pork fat bits | ||
| craic | n. | fun, good time, esp. in pleasant company and conversation | ||
| crambo | n. | guessing game involving rhyming words; word that rhymes with another | ||
| crannequin | n. | hand-crank used for cocking a crossbow | ||
| crannog | n. | artificial island used as fortification or dwelling in ancient Ireland and Scotland | ||
| crapulent | adj. | sick from gross excess in eating or drinking | ||
| crapulous | adj. | given to intemperate eating or drinking | ||
| craquelure | n. | tiny network of cracks on surface of old varnish or paint | ||
| crassities | n. | materiality, density | obsolete | |
| craton | n. | area of the earth’s crust and mantle which has remained unchanged by tectonic activity | ||
| crawfish | v. | to back out from a commitment or position | idiom | |
| credenza | n. | dining room sideboard or table, used for buffets or for setting dishes to be served (also credence) | ||
| crenellate | v. | to furnish with battlements, embrasures, or loopholes | ||
| crenulate | adj. | minutely notched or scalloped | biology | |
| crepitus | n. | grating noise produced by friction between bone and cartilage or pieces of broken bone; rale | ||
| crepuscular | adj. | like twilight; dim | ||
| cresset | n. | metal vessel containing oil, grease, rope in pitch, or other flammable material, used for lighting and usually mounted upon a pole | ||
| cretonne | n. | heavy printed cloth often used in upholstery | ||
| criminator | n. | accuser, calumniator | archaic | |
| criminogenic | adj. | causing crime, of the bases of criminal behavior | ||
| crise de foi | n. | internal religious tumult, “crisis of faith” | ||
| crise de foie | n. | indigestion, “upset liver” | ||
| criterion | n. | standard of judgment | ||
| crocket | n. | hook-shaped medieval ornament suggesting a leaf | ||
| crocodile | n. | line of walking persons, esp. when composed of children | ||
| cromlech | n. | dolmen, megalithic tomb | ||
| croodle | v. | to crouch down; to draw oneself together, as for warmth; to cling closely to a person |
