Chapter Cloaci na to Clym of the Clough of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Close Rolls are mandates, letters, and writs of a private nature, addressed, in the Sovereign's name, to individuals and folded or closed and sealed on the outside with the Great Seal.
    Patent Rolls are left open, with the seal hanging from the bottom.

Close-time for Game (See Sporting Seasons .)

Closh (Mynherr). A Dutch Jack-tar. Closh is corrupt form of Claus, a contraction of Nicholas, a name as
common with the Dutch as Jack is with the English people.

Cloten A vindictive lout who wore his dagger in his mouth. He fell in love with Imogen, but his love was not reciprocated (Shakespeare Cymbeline.)

Cloth (The). The clergy, the clerical office, thus we say “having respect for the cloth” Formerly the clergy used to wear a distinguishing costume, made of grey or black cloth.

Clotharius or Clothaire (in Jerusalem Delivered) At the death of Hugo he takes the lead of the Franks, but is shot by Clorinda (q.v.) with an arrow (book xi.). After his death, his troops sneak away and leave the Christian army (book xiii.).

Clotho in Classic mythology One of the Three Fates. She presided over birth, and drew from her distaff the thread of life, Atropos presided over death and cut the thread of life, and Lachesis spun the fate of life between birth and death. (Greek, klótho, to draw thread from a distaff.)

“A France slashed asunder with Clotho-scissors and civil war”- Carlyle. (This is an erroneous allusion It was Atropos who cut the thread.)

Cloud, Clouds
   He is in the clouds In dreamland, entertaining visionary notions; having no distinct idea about the matter in question.
   He is under a cloud. Under suspicion, in disrepute.
   To blow a cloud is to smoke a cigar or pipe.

Cloud A dark spot on the forehead of a horse between the eyes. A white spot is called a star, and an elongated star is a blaze. (See Blaze )

“Agrippa He [Antony] has a cloud on his face.
Enobarbus. He were the worse for that were he a horse”
Shakespeare. Antony and Cleopatra, iii 2

Cloud (St.). Patron saint of nailsmiths, by a play upon the French word clou, a nail.

Clouded Cane (A). A malacca cane clouded or mottled from age and use. These canes were very fashionable in the first quarter of the present century.

Cloven foot To show the cloven foot, i.e. to show a knavish intention, a base motive. The allusion is to Satan, represented with the legs and feet of a goat; and, however he might disguise himself, he could never conceal his cloven feet. (See Bag O'Nails, Goat .)

“Real grief little influenced its composition and the cloven foot peeps out in some letters written by him at the period.”- St. James's Magazine

Clover He's in clover. In luck, in prosperous circumstances, in a good situation. The allusion is to cattle feeding in clover fields.

Clowns The three most celebrated are Joseph Grimaldi (1779-1837), the French Carlin (1713-1783), and Richard Tarlton, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, who acted at the galleried inn called the Belle Sauvage.

“To sit with Tarlton on an alehouse signe.”
Bishop Hall: Satires.

Club A society of persons who club together, or form themselves into a knot or lump.
   The word was originally applied to persons bound together by a vow. (German, gelübde) (See Cards 4 clubs.)

“[1190] was the era of chivalry, for bodies of men uniting themselves by a sacred vow, gelubde, which word and thing have passed over to us in a singularly dwindled condition, `club' we call it; and the vow