Chapter Corinth to Coronation Chair of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Corn - Law Rhymer Ebenezer Elliot, who wrote philippics against the corn laws (1781-1849).

“Is not the corn-law rhymer already a king?”- Carlyle.

Cornstalks In Australia and the United States, youths of colonial birth are so called from being generally both taller and more slender than their parents.

Corns To tread on one's corns. To irritate one's prejudices; to annoy another by disregard to his pet opinions or habits.

Cor`nage (2 syl.), horn-service. A kind of tenure in grand serjeanty. The service required was to blow a horn when any invasion of the Scots was perceived. “Cornagium” was money paid instead of the old service.

Corneille du Boulevard Guilbert de Pixérécourt (1773-1844).

Corneille d'Esope (La). Motley work. “C'est la corneille d'Esope. ”
The allusion is to the fable of the Jackdaw which decked itself with the plumage of the peacocks. The jackdaw not only lost its borrowed plumes, but got picked well-nigh to death by the angry peacocks.

Corner (A). The condition of the market with respect to a commodity which has been largely bought up, in order to create a virtual monopoly and enhance its market price; as a salt-corner, a corner in pork, etc. The idea is that the goods are piled and hidden in a corner out of sight.

“The price of bread rose like a rocket, and speculators wished to corner what little wheat there was.”- New York Weekly Times (June 13, 1894).

Corner Driven into a corner. Placed where there is no escape; driven from all subterfuges and excuses.

Corner (The). Tattersall's horse-stores and betting-rooms, Knightsbridge Green. They were once at the corner of Hyde Park.
   To make a corner. To combine in order to control the price of a given article, and thus secure enormous profits. (See Corner.)
   What have I done to deserve a corner? To deserve punishment. The allusion is to setting naughty children in a corner by way of punishment.

“There's nothing I have done yet, o' my conscience,
Deserves a corner.”
Shakespeare: Henry VIII., iii. 1.

Corner-stone (The). The chief corner-stone. A large stone laid at the base of a building to strengthen the two walls forming a right angle. These stones in some ancient buildings were as much as twenty feet long and eight feet thick. Christ is called (in Eph. ii. 20) the chief corner-stone because He united the Jews and Gentiles into one family. Daughters are called corner-stones (Psalm cliv. 12) because, as wives and mothers, they unite together two families. In argument, the minor premise is the chief corner- stone.

Cornet The terrible cornet of horse. William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham (1708-1778). His son William was “the pilot that weathered the storm” (meaning the French Revolution and Napoleon).

Cornette Porter la cornette. To be domineered over by the woman of the house; to be a Jerry Sneak. The cornette is the mob-cap anciently worn by the women of France. Porter les culottes (to wear the breeches) is the same idea; only it shows who has the mastery, and not who is mastered. In the latter case it means the woman wears the dress of the man, and assumes his position in the house. Probably our expression about “wearing the horns” may be referred to the “cornette” rather than to the stag or deer.

Corngrate (2 syl.). A term given in Wiltshire to the soil in the north-western border, consisting of an irregular mass of loose gravel, sand, and limestone.

Cornish Hug A hug to overthrow you. The Cornish men were famous wrestlers, and tried to throttle their antagonist with a particular grip or embrace called the Cornish hug.