Cage - Calash

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2. A place of confinement for malefactors Shak.
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Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage. Lovelace.
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3. (Carp.) An outer framework of timber, inclosing something within it; as, the cage of a staircase. Gwilt.
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4. (Mach.) (a) A skeleton frame to limit the motion of a loose piece, as a ball valve. (b) A wirework strainer, used in connection with pumps and pipes.
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5. The box, bucket, or inclosed platform of a lift or elevator; a cagelike structure moving in a shaft.
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6. (Mining) The drum on which the rope is wound in a hoisting whim.
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7. (Baseball) The catcher's wire mask.
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Cage (kāj), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Caged (kājd); p. pr. & vb. n. Caging.] To confine in, or as in, a cage; to shut up or confine. “Caged and starved to death.” Cowper.
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Caged (kājd), a. Confined in, or as in, a cage; like a cage or prison. “The caged cloister.” Shak.
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Cageling (kājlĭng), n. [Cage + -ling] A bird confined in a cage; esp. a young bird. [Poetic] Tennyson.
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Cagit (kājĭt), n. (Zoöl) A kind of parrot, of a beautiful green color, found in the Philippine Islands.
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Cagmag (kăgmăg), n. A tough old goose; hence, coarse, bad food of any kind. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
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Cagot (kȧg�), n. [F.] One of a race inhabiting the valleys of the Pyrenees, who until 1793 were political and social outcasts (Christian Pariahs). They are supposed to be a remnant of the Visigoths.
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Cahenslyism (?), n. (R. C. Ch.) A plan proposed to the Pope in 1891 by P. P. Cahensly, a member of the German parliament, to divide the foreign-born population of the United States, for ecclesiastical purposes, according to European nationalities, and to appoint bishops and priests of like race and speaking the same language as the majority of the members of a diocese or congregation. This plan was successfully opposed by the American party in the Church.
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Cahier (kȧy� or kȧhēr), n. [F., fr. OF. cayer, fr. LL. quaternum. See of paper. The sheets of manuscript were folded into parts.] 1. A number of sheets of paper put loosely together; esp. one of the successive portions of a work printed in numbers.
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2. A memorial of a body; a report of legislative proceedings, etc.
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Cahinca root (?). [Written also cainca root.] [See .] (Bot.) The root of an American shrub (Chiococca racemosa), found as far north as Florida Keys, from which cahincic acid is obtained; also, the root of the South American Chiococca anguifuga, a celebrated antidote for snake poison.
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Cahincic (?), a. Pertaining to, or derived from, cahinca, the native name of a species of Brazilian Chiococca, perhaps Chiococca racemosa; as, cahincic acid.
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Cahoot (?), n. [Perhaps fr. f. cohorte a company or band.] Partnership; league; as, to go in cahoot (or in cahoots) with a person. Usually used in the plural, and in modern usage often used to imply that the joint effort is unethical, shady, questionable, or illegal; as, a shill in cahoots with a pickpocket, to serve as a distraction. [Slang, southwestern U. S.] Bartlett.
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Caimacam (?), n. [Turk.] The governor of a sanjak or district in Turkey.
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Caiman (?), n. (Zoöl.) See .
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Cainozoic (?), a. (Geol.) See .
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Caïque (?), n. [F., fr. Turk. qāīq boat.] (Naut.) A light skiff or rowboat used on the Bosporus; also, a Levantine vessel of larger size.
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Ça ira (?). [F. ça ira, ça ira, les aristocrates à la lanterne, it shall go on, it shall go on, [hang]the arictocrats to the lantern (lamp-post).] The refrain of a famous song of the French Revolution.
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Caird (?), n. [Ir. ceard a tinker.] A traveling tinker; also a tramp or sturdy beggar. [Prov. Eng.]
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Cairn (?), n. [Gael. carn, gen. cairn, a heap: cf. Ir. & W. carn.] 1. A rounded or conical heap of stones erected by early inhabitants of the British Isles, apparently as a sepulchral monument.
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Now here let us place the gray stone of her cairn. Campbell.
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2. A pile of stones heaped up as a landmark, or to arrest attention, as in surveying, or in leaving traces of an exploring party, etc. C. Kingsley. Kane.
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cairned adj. piled up, like a cairn.
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Cairo prop. n. (Geography) The capital city of Egypt. It is the largest city in Africa. Population (2000) = 7,010,000.
Syn. -- El Qahira, Egyptian capital, capital of Egypt.
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cairngorm, Cairngormstone (?). [Gael. carn a cairn + gorm azure.] (Min.) A smoky yellow or brown variety of rock crystal, or crystallized quartz, found especially, in the mountain of Cairngorm, in Scotland.
Syn. -- smoky quartz.
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Caisson (?), n. [F., fr. caisse, case, chest. See 1st .] 1. (Mil.) (a) A chest to hold ammunition. (b) A four-wheeled carriage for conveying ammunition, consisting of two parts, a body and a limber. In light field batteries there is one caisson to each piece, having two ammunition boxes on the body, and one on the limber. Farrow. (c) A chest filled with explosive materials, to be laid in the way of an enemy and exploded on his approach.
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2. (a) A water-tight box, of timber or iron within which work is carried on in building foundations or structures below the water level. (b) A hollow floating box, usually of iron, which serves to close the entrances of docks and basins. (c) A structure, usually with an air chamber, placed beneath a vessel to lift or float it.
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3. (Arch.) A sunk panel of ceilings or soffits.
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Coloq. Pneumatic caisson (Engin.), a caisson, closed at the top but open at the bottom, and resting upon the ground under water. The pressure of air forced into the caisson keeps the water out. Men and materials are admitted to the interior through an air lock. See .
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Caisson disease. (Med.) A disease frequently induced by remaining for some time in an atmosphere of high pressure, as in caissons, diving bells, etc. It is characterized by neuralgic pains and paralytic symptoms. It is caused by the release of bubbles of gas, usually nitrogen, from bodily fluids into the blood and tissues, when a person, having been in an environment with high air pressure, moves to a lower pressure environment too rapidly for the excess dissolved gases to be released through normal breathing. It may be fatal, but can be reversed or alleviated by returning the affected person to a high air pressure, and then gradually decreasing the pressure to allow the gases to be released from the body fluids. It is a danger well known to divers. It is also called the bends and decompression sickness. It can be prevented in divers by a slow return to normal pressure, or by using a breathing mixture of oxygen combined with a gas having low solubility in water, such as helium.
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Caitiff (?), a. [OE. caitif, cheitif, captive, miserable, OF. caitif, chaitif, captive, mean, wretched, F. chétif, fr. L. captivus captive, fr. capere to take, akin to E. heave. See , and cf. .] 1. Captive; wretched; unfortunate. [Obs.] Chaucer.
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2. Base; wicked and mean; cowardly; despicable.
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Arnold had sped his caitiff flight. W. Irving.
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Caitiff, n. A captive; a prisoner. [Obs.]
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Avarice doth tyrannize over her caitiff and slave. Holland.
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2. A wretched or unfortunate man. [Obs.] Chaucer.
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3. A mean, despicable person; one whose character meanness and wickedness meet.
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The deep-felt conviction of men that slavery breaks down the moral character . . . speaks out with . . . distinctness in the change of meaning which caitiff has undergone signifying as it now does, one of a base, abject disposition, while there was a time when it had nothing of this in it. Trench.
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Cajanus n. a genus of erect densely branched shrubby perennials of Old World tropics; naturalized in other warm regions.
Syn. -- genus Cajanus.
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Cajeput (?), n. See .
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Cajole (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Cajoled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Cajoling.] [F. cajoler, orig., to chatter like a bird in a cage, to sing; hence, to amuse with idle talk, to flatter, from the source of OF. goale, jaiole, F. geôle, dim. of cage a cage. See , .] To deceive with flattery or fair words; to wheedle.
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I am not about to cajole or flatter you into a reception of my views. F. W. Robertson.

Syn. -- To flatter; wheedle; delude; coax; entrap.
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Cajolement (?), n. The act of cajoling; the state of being cajoled; cajolery. Coleridge.
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Cajoler (?), n. A flatterer; a wheedler.
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Cajolery (?), n.; pl. Cajoleries (�). A wheedling to delude; words used in cajoling; flattery. “Infamous cajoleries.” Evelyn.
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Cajun (?), n. [A corruption of .] (Ethnol.) In Louisiana, a person reputed to be Acadian French descent. Also used attributively, as in Cajun cooking.
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Cajuput (?), n. [Of Malayan origin; kāyu tree + pūtih white.] (Med.) A highly stimulating volatile inflammable oil, distilled from the leaves of an East Indian tree (Melaleuca cajuputi, etc.) It is greenish in color and has a camphoraceous odor and pungent taste.
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Cajuputene (?), n. (Chem.) A colorless or greenish oil extracted from cajuput.
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Cake (kāk), n. [OE. cake, kaak; akin to Dan. kage, Sw. & Icel. kaka, D. koek, G.kuchen, OHG. chuocho.]
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1. A small mass of dough baked; especially, a thin loaf from unleavened dough; as, an oatmeal cake; johnnycake.
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2. A sweetened composition of flour and other ingredients, leavened or unleavened, baked in a loaf or mass of any size or shape.
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3. A thin wafer-shaped mass of fried batter; a griddlecake or pancake; as buckwheat cakes.
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4. A mass of matter concreted, congealed, or molded into a solid mass of any form, esp. into a form rather flat than high; as, a cake of soap; an ague cake.
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Cakes of rusting ice come rolling down the flood. Dryden.
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Coloq. Cake urchin (Zoöl), any species of flat sea urchins belonging to the Clypeastroidea. -- Coloq. Oil cake the refuse of flax seed, cotton seed, or other vegetable substance from which oil has been expressed, compacted into a solid mass, and used as food for cattle, for manure, or for other purposes. -- Coloq. To have one's cake dough , to fail or be disappointed in what one has undertaken or expected. Shak.
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Cake, v. i. To form into a cake, or mass.
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Cake, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Caked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Caking.] To concrete or consolidate into a hard mass, as dough in an oven; to coagulate.
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Clotted blood that caked within. Addison.
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Cake, v. i. To cackle as a goose. [Prov. Eng.]
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Caking coal (?). See .
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Cal (?), n. (Cornish Mines) Wolfram, an ore of tungsten. Simmonds.
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calaba n. a West Indian tree (Calophyllum calaba) having racemes of fragrant white flowers and yielding a durable timber and resinous juice.
Syn. -- Santa Maria tree.
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Calabar (?), n. A district on the west coast of Africa.
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Coloq. Calabar bean , The of a climbing legumious plant (Physostigma venenosum), a native of tropical Africa. It is highly poisonous. It is used to produce contraction of the pupil of the eye; also in tetanus, neuralgia, and rheumatic diseases; -- called also ordeal bean, being used by the negroes in trials for witchcraft.
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Calabarine (?), n. (Chem.) An alkaloid resembling physostigmine and occurring with it in the calabar bean.
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Calabash (kălȧbăsh), n. [Sp. calabaza, or Pg. calabaça, cabaça (cf. F. Calebasse), lit., a dry gourd, fr. Ar. qar', fem., a kind of gourd + aibas dry.] 1. The common gourd (plant or fruit).
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2. The fruit of the calabash tree.
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3. A water dipper, bottle, bascket, or other utensil, made from the dry shell of a calabash or gourd.
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Coloq. Calabash tree . (Bot.), a tree of tropical America (Crescentia cujete), producing a large gourdlike fruit, containing a purgative pulp. Its hard shell, after the removal of the pulp, is used for cups, bottles, etc. The African calabash tree is the baobab.
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Calaboose (?), n. [A corruption of Sp. calabozo dungeon.] A prison; a jail. [Local, U. S.]
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Calabozo (?), n. [Sp.] A jail. See .
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calabura n. a fast-growing tropical American evergreen (Muntingia calabura) having white flowers and white fleshy edible fruit; bark yields a silky fiber used in cordage and wood is valuable for staves.
Syn. -- Jamaican cherry, calabur tree, silkwood.
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Calade (?), n. [F.] A slope or declivity in a manege ground down which a horse is made to gallop, to give suppleness to his haunches.
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caladenia n. any of various orchids of the genus Caladenia.
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Caladium (?), n. [NL.] A genus of aroideous plants, of which some species are cultivated for their immense leaves (which are often curiously blotched with white and red), and others (in Polynesia) for food.
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Calaite (kăl�īt), n. [L. callaïs, Gr. kalai:s, kallai:s; cf. F. calaïte.] A mineral. See .
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Calamanco (kălȧmăṉk�), n. [LL. calamancus, calamacus; cf. camelaucum; a head covering made of camel's hair, NGr. kamelaykion, and F. calmande a woolen stuff.] A glossy woolen stuff, plain, striped, or checked. “A gay calamanco waistcoat.” Tatler.
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Calamander wood (kălȧmăndẽr w�d). A valuable furniture wood from India and Ceylon, of a hazel-brown color, with black stripes, very hard in texture. It is a species of ebony, and is obtained from the Diospyros quæsita. Called also Coromandel wood.
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{ Calamar (kălȧmär), Calamary, (-m�r�r)} n. [LL. calamarium inkstand, fr. L. calamus a reed pen: cf. F. calmar, calemar, pen case, calamar.] (Zoöl.) A cephalopod, belonging to the genus Loligo and related genera. There are many species. They have a sack of inklike fluid which they discharge from the siphon tube, when pursued or alarmed, in order to confuse their enemies. Their shell is a thin horny plate, within the flesh of the back, shaped very much like a quill pen. In America they are called squids. See .
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Calambac (kălămbăk), n. [F. calambac, calambour, from Malay Kalambaq a king of fragrant wood.] (Bot.) A fragrant wood; agalloch.
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Calambour (kălămb�r), n. [See .] A species of agalloch, or aloes wood, of a dusky or mottled color, of a light, friable texture, and less fragrant than calambac; -- used by cabinetmakers.
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Calamiferous (?), a. [L. calamus reed + ferous.] Producing reeds; reedy.
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Calamine (kălȧmīn or -mĭn), n. [F. calamine, LL. calamina, fr. L. Cadmia. See .] (min.) A mineral, the hydrous silicate of zinc.
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☞ The name was formerly applied to both the carbonate and silicate of zinc each of which is valuabic as an ore; but it is now usually restricted to the latter, the former being called smithsonite.
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Calamint (-mĭnt), n. [OE. calamint, calemente (cf. F. calament) fr. L. calamintha, Gr. kalaminqh, kalaminqos. See 1st .] (Bot.) A genus of perennial plants (Calamintha) of the Mint family, esp. the Calamintha Nepeta and Calamintha Acinos, which are called also basil thyme.
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Calamist (-mĭst), n. [L. calamus a reed.] One who plays upon a reed or pipe. [Obs.] Blount.
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Calamistrate (-mĭstrāt), v. i. [L. calamistratus, curled with the curling iron, fr. calamistrum curling iron, fr. calamus a reed.] To curl or friz, as the hair. [Obs.] Cotgrave.

Calamistration (kălȧmĭstrāshŭn), n. The act or process of curling the hair. [Obs.] Burton.
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Calamistrum (?), n. [L., a curling iron.] (Zoöl.) A comblike structure on the metatarsus of the hind legs of certain spiders (Ciniflonidæ), used to curl certain fibers in the construction of their webs.
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Calamite (?), n. [L. calamus a reed: cf. F. calamite.] (Paleon.) A fossil plant of the coal formation, having the general form of plants of the modern Equiseta (the Horsetail or Scouring Rush family) but sometimes attaining the height of trees, and having the stem more or less woody within. See , and .
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Calamitous (?), a. [L. Calamitosus; cf. F. calamiteux.]
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1. Suffering calamity; wretched; miserable. [Obs.]
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Ten thousands of calamitous persons. South.
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2. Producing, or attended with distress and misery; making wretched; wretched; unhappy. “This sad and calamitous condition.” South. “A calamitous prison” Milton.

Syn. -- Miserable; deplorable; distressful; afflictive; wretched; grievous; baleful; disastrous; adverse; unhappy; severe; sad; unfortunate.

-- Calamitously, adv. -- Calamitousness, n.
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Calamity (?) n.; pl. Calamities (#). [L. calamitas, akin to in-columis unharmed: cf. F. calamité] 1. Any great misfortune or cause of misery; -- generally applied to events or disasters which produce extensive evil, either to communities or individuals.
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The word calamity was first derived from calamus when the corn could not get out of the stalk. Bacon.
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Strokes of calamity that scathe and scorch the soul. W. Irving.
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2. A state or time of distress or misfortune; misery.
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The deliberations of calamity are rarely wise. Burke.
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Where'er I came I brought calamity. Tennyson.

Syn. -- Disaster; distress; affliction; adversity; misfortune; unhappiness; infelicity; mishap; mischance; misery; evil; extremity; exigency; downfall. -- , , , , . Of these words, calamity is the strongest. It supposes a somewhat continuous state, produced not usually by the direct agency of man, but by natural causes, such as fire, flood, tempest, disease, etc, Disaster denotes literally ill-starred, and is some unforeseen and distressing event which comes suddenly upon us, as if from hostile planet. Misfortune is often due to no specific cause; it is simply the bad fortune of an individual; a link in the chain of events; an evil independent of his own conduct, and not to be charged as a fault. Mischance and mishap are misfortunes of a trivial nature, occurring usually to individuals. “A calamity is either public or private, but more frequently the former; a disaster is rather particular than private; it affects things rather than persons; journey, expedition, and military movements are often attended with disasters; misfortunes are usually personal; they immediately affect the interests of the individual.” Crabb.
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Calamus (?), n.; pl. Calami (#). [L., a reed. See .] 1. (Bot.) The indian cane, a plant of the Palm family. It furnishes the common rattan. See , and .
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2. (Bot.) A species of Acorus (Acorus calamus), commonly called calamus, or sweet flag. The root has a pungent, aromatic taste, and is used in medicine as a stomachic; the leaves have an aromatic odor, and were formerly used instead of rushes to strew on floors.
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3. (Zoöl.) The horny basal portion of a feather; the barrel or quill.
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Calando (?), a. [It.] (Mus.) Gradually diminishing in rapidity and loudness.
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Calandrinia n. a large genus of low-growing herbs; widespread throughout tropical and warm temperate regions having usually basal leaves and panicles of purplish ephemeral flowers.
Syn. -- genus Calandrinia.
[WordNet 1.5]

calanthe n. any of various showy orchids of the genus Calanthe having white or yellow or rose-colored flowers and broad leaves folded lengthwise.
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Calash (?), n. [F. calèche; of Slavonic origin; cf. Bohem. kolesa, Russ. koliaska calash, koleso, kolo, wheel.] 1. A light carriage with low wheels, having a top or hood that can be raised or lowered, seats for inside, a separate seat for the driver, and often a movable front, so that it can be used as either an open or a closed carriage.
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The baroness in a calash capable of holding herself, her two children, and her servants. W. Irving.
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2. In Canada, a two-wheeled, one-seated vehicle, with a calash top, and the driver's seat elevated in front.
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3. A hood or top of a carriage which can be thrown back at pleasure.
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4. A hood, formerly worn by ladies, which could be drawn forward or thrown back like the top of a carriage.
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