crutch 
in walking, consisting of a staff of the proper 
length, with a crosspusce at one end so shaped 
as to fit easily under the armpit. The upper part of 
the staff is now commonly divided lengthwise into two 
parts, separated by an inserted piece used as a handle. 
The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay, . . . 
Shouldered his crutch, and showed how fields were won. 
Goldsmith, Des. Vil., 1. 158. 
He [Euripides] substituted crutches for stilts, bad ser- 
mons for odes. Macaulay. 
Hence 2. Figuratively, old age. [Rare and 
poetical.] 
Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born, 
And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. 
Shak., L. L. L., iv. 3. 
3. Any fixture or mechanical device resem- 
bling a crutch or the head of a crutch, (a) A 
forked rest for the leg on a woman's saddle, (b) The cross- 
handle of a ladle for molten metal, (c) The fork at the 
arm supporting the anchor-escapement of a clock, (d) 
Naut. : (1) A forked support for the main-boom of a sloop, 
brig, or cutter, etc., and for the spanker-boom of a ship, 
when their respective sails are stowed. (2) A piece of 
knee-timber placed inside a ship, for the security of the 
heels of the cant-timbers abaft. (3) A stanchion of wood 
or iron in a ship, the upper part of which is forked to re- 
ceive a rail, spar, mast, yard, etc., when not in use. [In 
these uses also written crotch. ] (e) In soap-making, a perfo- 
rated piece of wood or iron attached to a pole, used to stir 
together the ingredients. (/) In mU.it. mining, an upright 
piece of wood having a crosspiece at its upper end, used 
for holding up the cap-sill of a gallery-case, while excava- 
tions for the rest of the frame are made. 
The crutches [two] are set up, and an excavation made 
large enough to admit the cap of the next case, which is 
laid on the projecting ends of the crutches, and, being sup- 
ported by them, prevents the earth over the roof of the 
gallery from falling while the excavation is continued to 
admit the remainder of the new case. 
Ernst, Manual of Milit. Engineering, p. 362. 
(g) A rack: as, a bacon-crcA. Crutch-escapement. 
See escapement. 
crutch 1 (kruch), v. t. [< crutch*, .] 1. To sup- 
port on crutches ; prop or sustain. 
Two fools that crutch their feeble sense on verse. 
Dryden, Abs. and Achit., ii. 409. 
The genius of Moliere, long undiscovered by himself, in 
its first attempts in a higher walk did not move alone ; it 
was crutched by imitation, and it often deigned to plough 
with another's heifer. 
/. D'Israeli, Lit. Char. Men of Genius, p. 409. 
2. In soap-making, to stir forcibly with a crutch. 
See crutch 1 , ., 3 (e). 
crutch 2 t (kruch), n. [A var. of crouch^, < ME. 
crouche, a cross : see crouch 2 , cross 1 . The word 
in this form is more or less confused with crutch*, 
q. v.] A cross. See cross*. 
crntch-backt (kruch'bak), n. A humped or 
crooked back. Davies. 
crutched (kruch'ed), a. A variant of crouched. 
Crutched friars. See friar. 
crutchet (kruch'et), n. [E. dial. (Warwick- 
shire); origin uncertain.] The common perch. 
crutch-handle (kruch'han"dl), (. A handle, as 
of a spade, which has a crosspiece at the end. 
crutch-handled (kruch'han"dld), a. Having a 
crutch-handle. 
cruve, n. See cruive. 
Cruveilhier's atrophy. See atrophy. 
crux (kvuks), H. ; pi. cruxes, cruces (kruk'sez, 
kro'sez). [L., a cross: see cross*, .] 1. Across. 
See phrases below. Specifically 2. [cop.] 
The Southern Cross, the most celebrated con- 
stellation of the southern heavens. It was erected 
into a constellation by Royer in 1879, but was often spoken 
of as a cross before ; there even seems to be an obscure al- 
lusion to it in Dante. It is situated south of the western 
part of Centaurus, east of the keel of Argus. It is a small 
constellation of four chief stars, arranged in the form of 
a cross. Its brightest star, the southernmost, is of about 
the first magnitude ; the eastern, half a magnitude fainter ; 
the northern, of about the second magnitude ; and the west- 
ern, of the third magnitude and faint. The constellation 
owes its striking effect to its compression, for it subtends 
only about 6 from north to south and still less from east 
to west. It looks more like a kite than a cross. All four 
stars are white except the northernmost, which is of a 
clear orange-color. It contains a fifth star of the fourth 
magnitude, which is very red. 
3. The cross as an instrument of torture ; 
hence, anything that puzzles or vexes in a 
high degree ; a conundrum. 
Dear dean, since in cruxes and puns you and I deal, 
Pray, why is a woman a sieve and a riddle? 
Sheridan, To Swift. 
One yet legally unsolved crux of ritualism is the proper 
preaching vestment. Edinburgh Rev., CLXIII. 172. 
Crux ansata, a cross with a handle ; the tau-cross with 
an additional member at the top in the form of a loop 
or stirrup. See ankh. Crux commlssa. Same as tau- 
cross (which see, under crossi). Crux decussata. Same 
as cross of St. Andrew or St. Patrick; a saltier. Crux 
stellata, a cross the arms of which end in stars of five or 
six points. 
cruyshage (kro'shaj), n. [Origin obscure.] A 
shark, Lamna cornubica. 
cruzado, . See crusudo 2 . 
1378 
crwth (kroth), . The modern Welsh form of 
crowd?. 
cry (kri), v. ; pret. and pp. cried, ppr. crying. 
[Early mod. E. also crye, crie ; < ME. crien = 
MHG. krien, < OF. crier, F. crier = Pr. eridar 
= OSp. cridar, Sp. Pg. gritar = It. gridare, cry, 
shriek (ML. cridare, clamor, cry, also proclaim), 
prob. < L. quiritarc, cry, lament, shriek, freq. 
of queri, lament, complain, > also ult. E. quar- 
rel* and querulous, q. v. Cf. W. crew, cry, cri, 
a cry ; prob. from E.] I. intrans. 1. To speak 
earnestly or with a loud voice ; call loudly ; 
exclaim or proclaim with vehemence, as in an 
earnest appeal or prayer, in giving public no- 
tice, or to attract attention: with to or unto, 
formerly sometimes on or upon, before the per- 
son addressed. 
The people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Gen. xli. 55. 
Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem. Jer. ii. 2. 
No longer on Saint Dennis will we cry. 
Shak., 1 Hen. VI., i. 6. 
With longings and breathings in his soul which, he says, 
are not to be expressed, he cried on Christ to call him, 
being "all on a flame " to be in a converted state. 
Southey, Bunyan, p. 22. 
2. Specifically, to call for or require redress or 
remedy ; appeal ; make a demand. 
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the 
ground. Gen. iv. 10. 
3. To utter a loud, sharp, or vehement inartic- 
ulate sound, as a dog or other animal. 
In a cowslip's bell I lie : 
There I couch when owls do cry. 
Shak., Tempest, v. 1. 
How cheerfully on the false trail they cry t 
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs. 
Shak., Hamlet, iv. 5. 
And farther on we heard a beast that cried. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, I. 26. 
4. To call out or exclaim inarticulately ; make 
an inarticulate outcry, as a person under ex- 
citement of any kind ; especially, to utter a 
loud sound of lamentation or suffering, such as 
is usually accompanied by tears. 
Whan he com be-fore the town he be-gan to make grete 
sorow, and cried high and cleer that thei with-ynue vpon 
the walles myght wele it here. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 261. 
Esau . . . cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry. 
Gen. xxvii. 34. 
Hence 5. To weep; shed tears, whether with 
or without sound. 
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence 
Me, and thy crying self. Shak., Tempest, i. 2. 
Her who still weeps with spungy eyes, 
And her who is dry cork, and never cries. Donne. 
6f. To bid at an auction. 
To our office, where we met all, for the sale of two ships 
by an inch of candle (the first time that ever I saw any of 
this kind), where I observed how they do invite one an- 
other, and at last how they all do cry, and we have much 
to do to tell who did cry last. Pepys, Diary, I. 120. 
To cry against, to utter reproof or threats against with 
a loud voice or earnestly ; denounce. 
Arise, go to Nineveh, . . . and cry against it. 
Jonah i. 2. 
TO cry back, (a) In hunting, to return as on a trail ; 
hark back. (6) To revert to an ancestral type. See extract. 
The effect of a cross will frequently disappear for several 
generations, and then appear again in a very marked de- 
gree. This principle is known to physicians as Atavism, 
and amongst breeders of stock such progeny is said to 
cry back a. term derived from a well known hunting 
expression. Phin, Diet. Apiculture, p. 27. 
To cry out. (a) To exclaim ; vociferate ; clamor. 
And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out. 
Luke ix. 39. 
She was never known to cry out, or discover any fear, in 
a coach or on horseback. Surift, Death of Stella. 
(6) To complain loudly ; utter lamentations ; expostulate : 
often with against. 
When any evil has been upon philosophers, they groan 
as pitifully, and cry out as loud, as other men. Tillotson. 
(ct) To be in childbirth. 
K. Hen. What, is she crying out? 
Loo. So said her woman ; and that her sufferance made 
Almost each pang a death. Shak., Hen. VIII., v. 1. 
II. trans. 1 . To utter loudly ; sound or noise 
abroad ; proclaim ; declare loudly or publicly. 
Let heaven, and men, and devils, let them all, 
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak. 
Shak., Othello, v. 2. 
Then of their session ended they bid cry 
With trumpets' regal sound the great result. 
Milton, P. L., ii. 514. 
These are the men that still cry the King, the King, the 
Lord's Anointed. Milton, Church-Government, ii., Con. 
2. To give notice regarding; advertise by cry- 
ing; hawk: as, to cry a lost child; to cry goods. 
I am resolv'd to ask every man I meet ; and if I cannot 
hear of him the sooner, I'll have him cried. 
Shirley, Love in a Maze, v. 4. 
cry 
Everything, till now conceal'd, flies abroad in public 
print, and is cried about the streetes. 
Evelyn, Diary, December 2, 1688. 
You know how to cry wine and sell vinegar. 
Longfellow, Spanish Student, i. 4. 
3. To publish the banns of ; advertise the mar- 
riage of. 
What have I to expect, but, after a deal of flimsy prep- 
aration with a bishop's license, and my aunt's blessing, 
to go simpering up to the altar ; or perhaps be cried three 
times in a country-church, and have an unmannerly fat 
clerk ask the consent of every butcher in the parish to 
join John Absolute and Lydia Languish, spinster ! 
Sheridan, The Rivals, v. 1. 
4f. To call. 
The medes [meadows] clensed tyme is now to make, 
And beestes from nowe forth from hem [them] to crie. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 44. 
5f. To demand ; call for. 
The proud sheryfe of Notyngham 
Dyde crye a full fayre play. 
Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode (Child's Ballads, V. 93). 
The affair cries haste. Shak., Othello, i. 3. 
This is a new way of begging, and a neat one ; 
And this cries money for reward, good store too. 
Fletcher, The Pilgrim, i. 2. 
To cry aim. Seeotw, . f. To cry cockles. Seeeoefcfes. 
To cry crayent. See craven. To cry down, (a) To 
decry ; depreciate by words or in writing ; belittle ; dis- 
praise ; disparage. 
Men of dissolute lives cry down religion, because they 
would not be under the restraints of it. Tillotson. 
Some great decorum, some fetish of a government, some 
ephemeral trade, or war, or man, is cried up by half man- 
kind and cried down by the other half, as if all depended 
on this particular up or down. Emerson, Misc., p. 87. 
(ft) To overbear ; put down. 
I'll to the king ; 
And from a mouth of honour quite cry down 
This Ipswich fellow's insolence. 
Shak., Hen. VIII., i. 1. 
To cry halves. See half, n. To cry mewt. See the 
extract. 
With respect to crying mew, it appears to have been an 
old and approved method of expressing dislike at the first 
representation of a play. Decker has many allusions to 
the practice ; and, what appears somewhat strange, in his 
Satiromastix, charges Jonson with mewing at the fate of 
his own works. "When your plays are misliked at court 
you shall not cry mew, like a puss, and say you are glad 
you write out of the courtier's element." 
Gi/ord, Note to B. Jonson 's Every Man out of his 
[Humour, Ind. 
To cry (one) mercy, to beg (one's) pardon. 
Forthi I connseile alle Cristene to crie Crist merci, 
And Marie his moder to beo mene bi-twene. 
Piers Plowman (A), viii. 182. 
I crw you mercy, madam ; was it you ? 
Shak., 2 Hen. VI., i. 3. 
Sir, this messenger makes so much haste that I cry you 
mercy for spending any time of this letter in other em- 
ployment than thanking you for yours. 
Donne, Letters, xli. 
To cry one's eyes out, to weep inordinately. To cry 
UP. (a) To praise ; applaud ; extol : as, to cry up a man s 
talents or patriotism, or a woman's beauty ; to cry up the 
administration. 
Laughing loud, and crying up your own wit, though 
perhaps borrowed. B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, ii. 1. 
Thus finally it appears that those purer Times were no 
such as they cry'd up, and not to be follow'd without sus- 
picion, doubt, and danger. Milton, Reformation in Eng. , i. 
(dt) To raise the price of by proclamation : as, to cry vp 
certain coins. 
cry (kri), n.; pi. cries (kriz). [< ME. cry, crye, 
crie, cri = MHG. krie, krei, < OF. cri, cride, crie, 
F. cri = Pr. crit, crida = Sp. Pg. grito, grita = 
It. grido, grida, a cry (ML. crida, clamor, proc- 
lamation); from the verb.] 1. Any loud or 
passionate utterance ; clamor ; outcry ; a vehe- 
ment expression of feeling or desire, articulate 
or inarticulate : as, a cry of joy, triumph, sur- 
prise, pain, supplication, etc. 
And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land 
of Egypt. Ex. xi. 6. 
He forgetteth not the cry of the humble. Ps. ix. 12. 
One cry of grief and rage rose from the whole of Protes- 
tant Europe. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. 
2. A loud inarticulate sound uttered by man 
or beast, as in pain or anger, or to attract at- 
tention. 
I could have kept a hawk, and well have holloa'd 
To a deep cry of dogs. 
Fletcher (and another), Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 4. 
One deep cry 
Of great wild beasts. 
Tennyson, Palace of Art. 
3. Loud lamentation or wailing; hence, the 
act of weeping; a fit of weeping. 
And than a-noon be-gan so grete a noyse and sorowfull 
crt/e, that all the court was trowbled. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 63. 
Oh ! would I were dead now, 
Or up in my bed now, 
To cover my head now, 
And have a good cry ! 
Hood, A Table of Errata. 
