Chapter Crude Forms to Cucking-stool of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Crusted Port When port is first bottled its fermentation is not complete; in time it precipitates argol on the sides of the bottle, where it forms a crust. Crusted port, therefore, is port which has completed its fermentation.
    The “crust” is composed of argol, tartrate of lime, and colouring matter, thus making the wine more ethereal in quality and lighter in colour.

Crusty Ill-tempered, apt to take offence. This is formed from the old word crous, cross, peevish.

“Azeyn [against] hem was he kene ane crous,
And said, `Goth out my Fader hous.' ”
Cursor Mundi.

Crutched Friars is the Latin cruciati (crossed) - i.e. having a cross embroidered on their dress. They were of the Trinitarian order.

Crux (A). A knotty point, a difficulty. Instantia crucis means a crucial test, or the point where two similar diseases crossed and showed a special feature. It does not refer to the cross, an instrument of punishment; but to the crossing of two lines, called also a node or knot; hence a trouble or difficulty. Qua te mala crux agitat? (Plautus); What evil cross distresses you? - i.e. what difficulty, what trouble are you under?

Crux Ansata The tau cross with a loop or handle at the top. (See Cross.)

Crux Decussata A St. Andrew's cross

“Crux decussata est in qua duo ligna directa et æquabilia inter se obliquantur, cujus formam refert litera X quæ, ut ait Isidorus (Orig, 1, iii.) `in figura crucem et in numero decem demonstrat.' Hæc vulgo Andreana vocatur, quod vetus traditio sit in hac S. Antream fuisse necatum.” - Gretser: De Cruce, book i. p. 2.

Crux Pectoralis The cross which bishops of the Church of Rome suspend over their breast.

“Crucem cum pretioso ligno vel cum reliquis Sanctorum ante pectus portare suspensum ad collum, hoc est quod vocant encolpium [or crux Pectoralis].” - See Ducange, vol.iii. p. 302, col. 2, article ENCOLPIUM.

Cry
   Great cry and little wool. This is derived from the ancient mystery of David and Abigail, in which Nabal is represented as shearing his sheep, and the Devil, who is made to attend the churl, imitates the act by “shearing a hog.” Originally, the proverb ran thus, “Great cry and little wool, as the Devil said when he sheared the hogs.” N.B. - Butler alters the proverb into “All cry and no wool.”
Cry of Animals (The). (See Animals .)

Cry (To).
   To cry over spilt milk. To fret about some loss which can never be repaired.

Cry Cave To). To ask mercy; to throw up the sponge; to confess oneself beaten. (Latin, caveo.) (See Cave In)

Cry Havock! No quarter. In a tract entitled The Office of the Constable and Mareschall in the Tyme of Werre (contained in the Black Book of the Admiralty), one of the chapters is, “The peyne of hym that crieth havock, and of them that followeth him” - “Item si quis inventus fuerit qui clamorem inceperit qui vocatur havok. ”

“Cry Havock, and let slip the dogs of war.”
Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar, iii. 1

Cry Quits (See Quit .)

Cry Vinegar (To). In French, Crier Vinaigre. The shout of sportsmen when a hare is caught. He cries “Vinegar !” he has caught the hare; metaphorically it means, he has won success. “C'étoit, dit le Duchat, la coutume en Languedoc, entre les chasseurs, de s'écrier l'un à l'autre `Vinaigre,' dès qu'ils avaient tiré un lièvre, parceque la vraie sauce de cet animal est le vinaigre. ”
   Crier au Vinaigre has quite another meaning. It is the reproof to a landlord who serves his customers with bad wine. In a figurative sense it means Crier au Voleur.

Cry Wolf (See Wolf .)

Crystal Hills On the coast of the Caspian, near Badku, is a mountain which sparkles like diamonds, from the sea-glass and crystals with which it abounds.