Chapter Crack-brained to Credat Judæus of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Crack-brained to Credat Judæus

Crack-brained Eccentric; slightly mad. Another form is "A crack-skull."

Crack a Bottle - i.e. drink one. The allusion is to the mischievous pranks of the drunken frolics of times gone by, when the bottles and glasses were broken during the bout. Miss Oldbuck says, in reference to the same custom, "We never were glass-breakers in this house, Mr. Lovel" (Antiquary); meaning they were not bottle-crackers, or given to drunken orgies. (See Crush.)

"Dear Tom, this brown jug that now foams with mild ale,
From which I now drink to sweet Nan of the Vale,
Was once Toby Filpot's, a thirsty old soul
As e'er cracked a bottle, or fathomed a bowl."
O'Keefe: Poor Soldier.

Crack a Crib (To). To break into a house as a thief. (See Crib .)

Crack Up a Person (To). To praise him highly. (See Crack .)

Cracked Made a bankrupt. A play on "rupt," which is from the Latin rumpo, to break.

Cracked Pipkins Cracked pipkins are discovered by their sound. Ignorance is betrayed by speech.

"They bid you talk - my honest song
Bids you for ever hold your tongue;
Silence with some is wisdom most profound -
Cracked pipkins are discovered by the sound."
Peter Pindar: Lord B. and his Motions.

Cracker So called from the noise it makes when it goes off.

Cracknells (from the French craquelin). A hard, brittle cake.

Cradle-land The same as "borough English," under which lands descend to the youngest son. By Gavelkind, land passes to all sons in equal proportions.
   If the father has no son, then (in cradle-land tenures) the youngest daughter is sole heiress. If neither wife, son, nor daughter, the youngest brother inherits; if no brother, the youngest sister is heir; if neither brother nor yet sister, then the youngest next of kin.

Craft (A). A trade (Anglo-Saxon, cræft). A craftsman is a mechanic. A handicraft is manual skill, i.e. mechanical skill. And leechcraft is skill in medicine. (Anglo-Saxon læce-cræft; læce, a doctor.)

Craft (A). A general term for a vessel employed in loading and unloading ships.
   Small craft. Such vessels as schooners, sloops, cutters, and so on. A ship-builder was at one time the prince of craftsmen, and his vessels were work of craft emphatically.

Craft Cunning, or skill in a bad sense. Hence Witchcraft, the art or cunning of a witch.

Craigmillar Castle So called from Henry de Craigmillar, who built the castle in the twelfth century.

Crakys of War Cannons were so called in the reign of Edward III.

Cram To tell what is not true. A crammer, an untruth. The allusion is to stuffing a person with useless rubbish.

Crambe bis Cocta ["cabbage boiled twice"]. A subject hacked out. Juvenal says, "Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros" (vii. 155), alluding to the Greek proverb "Dis krambe thanatos."

"There was a disadvantage in treading this Border district, for it had been already ransacked by the author himself, as well as by others; and, unless presented under a new light, was likely to afford ground to the objection of Crambe bis cocta." - Sir W. Scott: The Monastery (Introduction).

Crambo Repetition. So called from a game which consists in some one setting a line which another is to rhyme to, but no one word of the first line must occur in the second.
   Dumb crambo. Pantomime of a word in rhyme to a given word. Thus if "cat" is the given word, the pantomimists would act Bat, Fat, Hat, Mat, Pat, Rat, Sat, etc., till the word acted is guessed.