Chapter Couvade to Crack of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

satire i.

Cow The cow that nourished Ymir with four streams of milk was called Audhumla. (Scandinavian mythology.) (See Audhumla.)
   Curst cows. (See under Curst.)
   The whiter the cow, the surer is it to go to the altar. The richer the prey, the more likely is it to be seized.

"The system of impropriations grew so rapidly that, in the course of three centuries, more than a third part of all the benefices in England became such, and those the richest, for the whiter the cow, the surer was it to go to the alter." - Blant: Reformation in England, p. 63.

Cow's Tail "Always behind, like a cow's tail." "Tanquam coda vituli." (Petronius.)
   The cow knows not the worth of her tail till she loses it, and is troubled with flies, which her tail brushed off.

"What we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack the value."
Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing, iv.1.

Cow-lick A tuft of hair on the human forehead, sometimes called a
feather; it cannot be made to lie in the same direction as the rest of the hair by brushing, or even by pomatum. When cows lick their hides they make the hair stand on end.

"This term must have been adopted from a comparison with that part of a ... cow's hide where the hairs, having different directions, meet and form a projecting ridge, supposed to be occasioned by the animals licking themselves." - Brochett: Glossary of North-Country Words.

Coward (anciently written culvard) is either from the French, couard, originally written culvert, from culver (a pigeon), pigeon-livered being still a common expression for a coward; or else from the Latin, culum vertere, to turn tail (Spanish, cobarde; Portuguese, covarde; Italian, codardo, "a coward," Latin, cauda, "a tail"). A beast cowarded, in heraldry, is one drawn with its coue or tail between its legs. The allusion is to the practice of beasts, who sneak off in this manner when they are cowed.

Cowper Called "Author of The Task," from his principal poem. (1731-1800.)

Cowper Law a corruption of Cupar, etc., is trying a man after execution. Similar expressions are Jedwood, Jeddart, and Jedburgh justice. Cowper justice had its rise from a baron-baile in Coupar-Angus, before heritable jurisdictions were abolished. (See Lydford Law.)

"Cowper Law, as we say in Scotland - hang a man first, and then judge him." - Lord de Ros: Tower of London.

Coxcomb An empty-headed, vain person. The ancient licensed jesters were so called because they wore a cock's comb in their caps.

"Coxcombs, an ever empty race,
Are trumpets of their own disgrace."
Gay: Fables, xix.

"Let me hire him too; here's my coxcomb."
Shakespeare: King Lear, i. 4.

   The Prince of Coxcombs. Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne. (1535-1614.)
   Richard II. of England is sometimes called the Coxcomb. (1366, 1377-1400.)
   Henri III. of France was called le Mignon, which means pretty well the same thing. (1551, 1574-1589.)

Coxeyites (3 syl.). Followers of Mr. ["General"] Coxey, of the United States, who induced 50,000 labourers from sundry states "to march" to Washington to overawe the Government into giving employment to the unemployed. The word is now employed to express labour processions and masses organised to force concessions to workmen.

Coxswain Kog is Norwegian for a cockboat; Welsh, cwch; Italian, cocca, etc.; and swain, Anglo-Saxon for a servant, superintendent, or bailiff. (See Cockboat.)

Coyne and Livery Food and entertainment for soldiers, and forage for their horses, exacted by an army from the people whose lands they passed through, or from towns where they rested on their march.

Coystril Coystrel, or Kestrel.. A degenerate hawk; hence, a paltry fellow. Holinshed says, "costerels or bearers of the arms of barons or knights" (vol. i. p. 162); and again, "women, lackeys, and costerels are considered as the unwarlike attendants on an army" (vol. iii. 272). Each of the life-guards of Henry VIII.