domestic animal that catches mice, cominonly reckoned by naturalists the lowest order of the leonine species. "I was you incens'd the rabble: Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth, As I can of those mysterics, which heav'n Will not have earth to know. Shaksp. Coriolanus. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. Shaksp. A cat, as she beholds the light, draws the ball of her eye small and long, being covered over with a green skin, and dilates it at pleasure. Peacham on Drawing. CAT. n. s. A sort of ship. CAT in the pan. [imagined by some to be rightly written Catipan, as coming from Catipania. An unknown correspondent imagines, very naturally, that it is corrupted from Čate in the pan.] There is a cunning which we, in England, call the turning of the cat in the pan; which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him. Bacon. CAT o' nine tails. A whip with nine lashes, used for the punishment of crimes. You dread reformers of an impious age, Prologue to Vanburgh's False Friend. CAT ACHRE'SÏS. n. s. [natayos abuse.] It is, in rhetorick, the abuse of a trope, when the words are too far wrested from their native signification; or when one word is abusively put for another, for want of the proper word; as a voice beautiful to the ear. Smith. CATACHRE'STICAL. adj. [from catachresis.] Contrary to proper use; forced; far fetched. A catachrestical and far derived similitude it holds with men, that is, in a bifurcation. Brown. CATACLYSM. n. s. [xaтaxhyoμ☞.] A deluge; an inundation: used generally for the universal deluge. The opinion that held these cataclysms and empyroses universal, was such as held that it put a total consummation unto things in this lower world. Hale's Origin of Mankind. CATACOMBS. n. s.[from xere, and x, a hollow or cavity.] Subterraneous cavities for the burial of the dead; of which there are a great number about three miles from Rome, supposed to be the caves and cells where the primitive christians hid and assembled themselves, and where they interred the martyrs, which are accordingly visited with devotion. But, anciently, the word catacomb was only understood of the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. Chambers. On the side of Naples are the catacombs, which must have been full of stench, if the dead bodies that lay in them were left to rot in open nitches. Addison. CATAGMA'TICK. adj. [naraype, a frac ture.] That has the quality of consoli dating the parts. I put on a catagmatick emplaster, and, by the use of a laced glove, scattered the pituitous swelling, and strengthened it. Wiseman's Surgery.. CATALE PSIS. n. s. [wurdan+15] A lighter species of the apoplexy, or epilepsy. There is a disease called a catalepsis, wherein the patient is suddenly seized without sense or motion, and remains in the same posture in which the disease seizeth him. Arbuthnot. CATALOGUE. n. s. [xaraday] An enumeration of particulars; a list; a register of things one by one. In the catalogue ye go for men; Showghes, water rugs, and demy wolves, are cleped All by the name of dogs. Shakspeare's Mach. Make a catalogue of prosperous sacrilegious persons, and I believe they will be repeated South. sconer than the alphabet. In the library of manuscripts belonging to St. Laurence, of which there is a printed catalogue, I locked into the Virgil, which disputes its antiquity with that of the Vatican. Addison. The bright Taygete, and the shining Bears, With all the sailors catalogue of stars. Addison. CATAMO'UNTAIN. 7. S. [from cat and mountain.] A fierce animal, resembling a cat. The black prince of Monomotapa, by whose side were seen the glaring catamountain, and the quill-darting porcupine. Arbuthnot and Pepe. CA'TAPHRACT. n. s. [cataphracta, Lat.] A horseman in complete armour. On each side went armed guards, Both horse and foot; before him and behind, Archers and slingers, cataphracts and spears. Milt. Agonistes. A CA'TAPLASM. 7. 5. [κατάπλασμα Warm cataplasms discuss, but scalding hot may confirm, the tumour. Arbuthnot on Aliments. CATAPULT. n. s. [catapulta, Lat.] An engine used anciently to throw stones. The balista violently shot great stones and quarries, as also the catapults. Camden's Remains. CATARACT. n. s. [xaraçaxrò.] A fall of water from on high; a shoot of water; a cascade. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, You cataracts and huricanoes, spout, Her stores were open'd, and the firmament No sooner he, with them of man and beast Torrents and loud impetuous cataracts, Blackmere. CATARACT. [In medicine.] A suffusion of the eye, when little clouds, motes, and flics, seem to float about in the air; when confirmed, the pupil of the eye is either wholly, or in part, covered, and shut up with a little thin skin, so that the light has no admittance. Quincy. Saladine hath a yellow milk, which hath likewise much acrimony; for it cleanseth the eyes: it is good also for cataracts. Becen's Nat. Hist. CATA'RRH. n. s. [xaraffew, defo.] A defluxion of a sharp serum from the glands about the head and throat, generally occasioned by a diminution of insensible perspiration, or cold, wherein what should pass by the skin, oozes out upon those glands, and occasions irritations. The causes are, whatsoever occasions too great a quantity of serum; whatsoever hinders the discharge by urine, and the pores of the skin. Quincy. All fev'rous kinds, Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs. Paradise Lost. Neither was the body then subject to die by piecemeal, and languish under coughs, catarrhs, or consumptions. CATA'RRHAL. Į CATA'RRHOUS. [from catarrb.] South. Relating to a catarrh; proceeding from a catarrh. The catarrbal fever requires evacuations. Floyer. Old age, attended with a glutinous cold, catarrbous, leuco-phlegmatick constitution. Arbuthnot on Diet. CATA'STROPHE. n. s. [xaτaclgoph.] 1. The change, or revolution, which produces the conclusion or final event of a dramatick piece. Pat! He comes like the catastrophe of the old comedy. Shakspeare. That philosopher declares for tragedies whose catastrophes are unhappy with relation to the principal characters. Dennis. 2. A final event; a conclusion generally unhappy. Here was a mighty revolution, the most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw; an elegant and habitable earth quite shattered. Woodward's Natural History. CA'TCAL. n. s. [from cat and call. A squeaking instrument, used in the playhouse to condemn plays. A young lady, at the theatre, conceived a passion for a notorious rake that headed a party of catcals. Spectator. Three catcals be the bribe Of him, whose chatt'ring shames the monkey tribe. Pope. To CATCH. v. a. pret. I catched or caught; I have catched or caught. [ketsen, Dutch.] 1. To lay hold on with the hand: intimating the suddenness of the action. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. 1 Sam. 2. To stop any thing flying; to receive any thing in the passage. Others, to catch the breeze of breathing air, To Tusculum or Algido repair. Addison on Italy. 3. To seize any thing by pursuit. I saw him run after a gilded butterfly, and, when he caught it, he let it go again; and after it again; and over and over he comes, and up again; and caught it again. Shakspeare's Coriol. 4. To stop any thing falling; to intercept falling. A shepherd diverted himself with tossing up eggs, and catching them again. Spectator. 5. To ensnare; to entangle in a snare; to take or hold in a trap. And they sent unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to cant him in his words. 6. These artificial methods of reasoning are more adapted to catch and entangle the mind, than to instruct and inform the understanding. Locke. To receive suddenly. The curling smoke mounts heavy from the fires, At length it catches flame, and in a blaze expires. Dryden But stopp'd for fear, thus violently driv'n, The sparks should catch his axictree of heav'n. Dryden 7. To fasten suddenly upon; to seize. The mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak. 2 Samuel Would they, like Benhadad's ambassadours, catch hold of every amicable expression. 8. To seize unexpectedly. Decay of Piety. To catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him. Luke. 9. To seize eagerly. They have caught up every thing greedily, with that busy minute curiosity, and unsatisfac tory inquisitiveness, which Seneca calls the disease of the Greeks. Popco 10. To please; to seize the affections; to charm. I've perus'd her well; Beauty and honour in her are so mingled, That they have caught the king. Shakspeare. For I am young, a novice in the trade, The fool of love, unpractis'd to persuade; And want the soothing arts that catch the fair, But, caught myself, lie struggling in the snare. Dryden. 11. To receive any contagion or disease. I cannot name the disease, and it is caught Of you that yet are well. Shakspeare's Winter's Tale. Those measles, Which we disdain should tetter us, yet seek The very way to catch them, Shakp, Coriolanus. In sooth I know not why I am so sad: It wearies me; you say it wearies you; But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, I am to learn." Shakspeare's Mer, of Venice. The softest of our British ladies expose their necks and arms to the open air; which the mea could not do without catching cold, for want of being accustomed to it. Addison's Guardian. Or call the winds thro' long arcades to roar, Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door. Pope 12. To catch at. To endeavour suddenly to lay hold on. Saucy lictors Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald rhimers Ballad us out of tune. Shaksp. Ant. Cleop. Make them catch at all opportunities of subverting the state. Addison's State of the War. To CATCH. v. n. 1. To be contagious; to spread infection, or mischief. "T is time to give them physick, their diseases Are grown so cateling. Shakspeare's Henry vui. Sickness is catching; oh! were favour so, Yours would I cotch, fair Hermia, ere I go. Shak Considering it with all its malignity and catching nature, it may be enumerated with the worst of epidemicks. Harvey The palace of Deiphobus ascends In smoky flames, and cutches on his friends. ments. Fate of empires, and the fall of kings, Should turn on flying hours, and catch of moDryden. 4. The act of taking quickly from another. Several quires,placed one over against another, and taking the voice by catches anthem wise, give great pleasure. Bacon. 5. A song sung in succession, where one catches it from another. This is the tune of our catch, play'd by the picture of nobody. Shakspeare's Tempest. Far be from thence the glutton parasite, Singing his drunken catches all the night. Dryd. jun. The meat was serv'd, the bowls were crown'd, Catches were sung, and healths went round. Prior. 6. The thing caught; profit; advantage. Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out your brains! he were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel. Shakspeare. 7. A snatch; a short interval of action. It has been writ by catches, with many intervals. Locke. 8. A taint; a slight contagion. We retain a catch of those pretty stories, and our awakened imagination smiles in the recollection. Glanville's Scepsis. 9. Any thing that catches and holds, as a hook. 10. A small swift-sailing ship: often written ketch. CA'TCHER. n. s. [from catch] 1. He that catches. 2. That in which any thing is caught. Scallops will move so strongly, as oftentimes to leap out of the catcher wherein they are caught. Grew's Musæum. CA'TCHFLY. n. s. [from catch and Ay.] A plant; a species of campion. CATCHPOLL. n. s. [from catch and poll.] A serjeant; a bumbailiff. Catchpoll, though now it be used as a word of contempt, yet, in ancient times, it seems to have been used without reproach, for such as we now call serjeants of the mace, or any other that uses to arrest men upon any cause. Corvell. They call all temporal businesses under she- Another monster, With force incredible and magick charms Erst have endued, if he his ample palm Should haply on ill-fated shoulder lay Of debtor. Philips. CA'TCHWORD. n. s. [from catch and aword. With printers.] The word at the corner of the page under the last line, which is repeated at the top of the next page. CATE. n. s. Food; something to be eaten. This is scarcely read in the singular. See CATES. We'll see what cates you have, For soldiers stomachs always serve them well. Shakspeare. CATECHETICAL. adj. [from xxi.] Consisting of questions and answers. Socrates introduced a catechetical method of arguing; he would ask his adversaryquestion upon question, till he convinced him, out of his own mouth, that his opinions were wrong. Addisen. CATECHETICALLY. adv. [from-cateche tical.] In the way of question and an swer. To CA'TECHISE. v. a. [xarnxśw.] 1. To instruct by asking questions, and correcting the answers. I will catechise the world for him; that i make questions, and bid them answer. Sbakst. Had those three thousand souls been catechised by our modern casuists, we had seen a wide difference. Decay of Piety. 2. To question; to interrogate; to examine; to try by interrogatories. Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise My picked man of countries. Shakspeare. There flies about a strange report, Of some express arriv'd at court; I'm stopp'd by all the fools I meet, And catechis'din ev'ry street. Swift. CA'TECHISER. n. s. [from To catechise.] One who catechises. CATECHISM. n. s. [from .] A form of instruction by means of questions and answers, concerning religion. Ways of teaching there have been sundry, always usual in God's church; for the first introduction of youth to the knowledge of God, the Jews even till this day have their catechisms. Heaker. He had no catechism but the creation, needed no study but reflection, and read no book but the volume of the world. South. CATECHIST. n.s. [wilnyisù;] One whose charge is to instruct by questions, or to question the uninstructed concerning religion. None of years and knowledge was admitted, who had not been instructed by the catechist in this foundation, which the catechist received from the bishop. Hammond's Fundamentali. CATECHU'MEN, n. s. [xalnyáμm.] One who is yet in the first rudiments of christianity; the lowest order of christians in the primitive church. The prayers of the church did not begin in St. Austin's time, till the catechumens were dismissed. Stilling fee. CATECHUMENICAL. adj. [from catechu men.] Belonging to the catechumens. Dict. CATEGORICAL. adj. [from category.] Absolute; adequate; positive; equal to the thing to be expressed. ment. The absolute infinitude, in a manner, quite changes the nature of beings, and exalts them Cheyne. into a different category. CATENA'RIAN. adj. [from catena, Lat.] Relating to a chain; resembling a chain. In geometry, the catenarian curve is formed by a rope or chain hanging freely between two Harris. points of suspension. The back is bent after the manner of the cate narian curve, by which it obtains that curvature that is safest for the included marrow. Cheyne. To CATENATE. v. a. [from catena, Dict. Latin.] To chain. CATENATION. n. s. [from catena, Lat.] Link; regular connexion. This catenation, or conserving union, when ever his pleasure shall divide, let go, or separate, Brown. they shall fall from their existence. To CATER. v. n. [from cates.] To provide food; to buy in victuals. Shakspeare. He that doth the ravens feed, Yea providently caters for the sparrow, Be comfort to my age. CA'TER. n. s. [from the verb.] Provider; collector of provisions, or victuals: misprinted perhaps for caterer. The oysters dredged in this Lyner, find a welcomer acceptance, where the taste is cater for the stomach, than those of the Tamar. Care. CA'TER. n. s. [quatre, French.] The four of cards and dice. A corruption of CA'TER-COUSIN. n. s. quatre-cousin, from the ridiculousness of calling cousin or relation to so remote a degree. Shakspeare. these to be His master and he, saving your worship's reverence, are scarce cater-cousins. Poetry and reason, how come Rymer. cater-cousins? CATERER. n. s. [from cater.] One employed to select and buy in provisions for the family; the provider or pur veyor. Let no scent offensive the chamber infest; Let fancy, not cost, prepare all our dishes; Let the caterer mind the taste of each guest, And the cook in his dressing comply with their wishes. Ben Jonson. He made the greedy ravens to be Elias's caKing Charles. terers, and bring him food. Seldom shall one see in cities or courts that athletick vigour, which is seen in poor houses, where nature is their cook, and necessity their caterer. South. CA'TERESS. n. s. [from cater.] A woman employed to cater, or provide victuals. Impostor! do not charge innocent nature, As if she would her children should be riotous With her abundance: she, good cateress, Means her provision only to the good. Milton CATERPILLAR. n. s. [This word Skinner and Minshew are inclined to derive from chatte peluse, a weasel. It seems easily deducible from cates, food, and piller, Fr. to rob; the animal that eats up the fruits of the earth.] 1. A worm which, when it gets wings, is sustained by leaves and fruits. The caterpillar breedeth of dew and leaves; for we see infinite caterpillars breed upon trees and hedges, by which the leaves of the trees or hedges are consumed. Bacon. Auster is drawn with a pot pouring forth water, with which descend grasshoppers, caterpil lars, and creatures bred by moisture. Peachum. 2. Any thing voracious and useless. CATERPILLAR. n. s. [scorpioides, Latin.] Miller. The name of a plant. To CATERWA'UL. v. n. [from cat.] What a caterwauling do you keep here! If my lady has not called up her steward Malvolio, and bid him turn you out of doors, never trust Shakspeare's Twelfth Night. me. Hudibras. Was no dispute between The catervailing bretheren? CATES. n. s. [of uncertain etymology: Skinner imagines it may be corrupted from delicate; which is not likely, because Junius observes, that the Dutch have kater in the same sense with our Viands; It has no singular.] food; dish of meat: generally employed to signify nice and luxurious food. The fair acceptance, sir, creates The entertainment perfect, not the cates. Ben Jonson. cater. O wasteful riot, never well content With low priz'd fare; hunger ambitious. Of cates by land and sea far fetcht and sent. Raleigh. Alas, how simple to these cates, Philips. With costly cates she stain'd her frugal board, Then with ill-gotten wealth she bought a lord. Arbuthnot. CATFISH. . s. The name of a sea fish in the West Indies; so called from its round head and large glaring eyes, by which they are discovered in hollow Phillips. rocks. CATHARPINGS. n. s. Small ropes in a ship, running in little blocks from one side of the shrouds to the other, near the deck: they belong only to the main shrouds; and their use is to force the shrouds tight, for the ease and safety of the masts, when the ship rolls: Harris. CATHARTICAL. Į adj. [xaJagrixis.] Purging medicines. The CATHARTICK. S vermicular or peristaltick motion of the guts continually helps on their contents, from the pylorus to the rectum; and every irritation either quickens that motion in its natural order, or occasions some little inversions in it. In both, what but slightly adheres to the coats will be loosened, and they will be more agitated, and thus rendered more fluid. By this only it is manifest, how a cathartick hastens and increases the discharges by stool; but where the force of the stimulus is great, all the appendages of the bowels, and all the viscera in the abdomen, will be twitched; by which a great deal will be drained back into the intestines, and made a part of what they discharge. Quincy. Quicksilver precipitated either with gold, or without addition, into a powder, is wont to be strongly enough cathartical, though the chymists have not proved, that either gold or mercury hath any salt, much less any that is purgative. Boyle's Sceptical Chymist. Lustrations and catharticks of the mind were sought for, and all endeavour used to calm and regulate the fury of the passions. Decay of Piety. The piercing causticks ply their spiteful pow'r, Emeticks ranch, and keen catharticks scour. Garth. Plato has called mathematical demonstrations the catharticks or purgatives of the soul. Addison. CATHARTICALNESS. n. s. [from cathartical.] Purging quality. CA'THEAD. n. s. A kind of fossil. The nodules with leaves in them, called catbeads, seem to consist of a sort of iron stone, not unlike that which is found in the rocks near Whitehaven in Cumberland, where they call them catscaups. Woodward on Fossils. CA'THEAD. n. s. [In a ship.] A piece of timber with two shivers at one end, having a rope and a block, to which is fastened a great iron hook, to trice up the anchor from the hawse to the top of the forecastle. Sea Dict. CATHEDRAL. adj. [from cathedra, Lat. a chair of authority; an episcopal see.] 1. Episcopal; containing the see of a bishop. A cathedral church is that wherein there are two or more persons, with a bishop at the head of them, that do make as it were one body politick. Ayliffe's Parergon. Methought I sat in seat of majesty, In the cathedral church of Westminster. Shakspeare. 2. Belonging to an episcopal church. His constant and regular assisting at the cathe dral service was never interrupted by the sharpness of weather. Locke 3. In low phrase, antique ; venerable; old. This seems to be the meaning in the following lines. Here aged trees catbedral walks compose, And mount the hill in venerable rows; There the green infants in their beds are laid. Pope. CATHEDRAL. n. s. The head church of a diocese. There is nothing in Leghorn so extraordinary as the cathedral, which a man may view with pleasure, after he has seen St. Peter's. Addison. CATHERINE PEAR. See PEAR. For streaks of red were mingled there, Suckling. CATHETER. n. s. [xa&ergh.] A hollow and somewhat crooked instrument, to thrust into the bladder, to assist in bring ing away the urine, when the passage is stopped by a stone or gravel. A large clyster, suddenly injected, hath fre quently forced the urine out of the bladder; but CA'THOLES. n.s. [In a ship.] Two little if it fail, a catheter must help you. Wireman. holes astern above the gun-room ports, to bring in a cable or hawser through them to the capstan, when there is occasion to heave the ship astern. Sea Dict CATHOLICISM. n. s. [from catholick.] Adherence to the catholick church. CATHOLICK. adj. [catholique, Fr. xSó, universal or general.] 1. The church of Jesus Christ is called catholick, because it extends throughout the world, and is not limited by time. 2. Some truths are said to be catholick, because they are received by all the faithful. 3. Catholick is often set in opposition to heretick or sectary, and to schismatick. 4. Catholick or canonical epistles, are seven in number; that of St. James, two of St. Peter, three of St. John, and that of St. Jude. They are called catholick, because they are directed to all the faithful, and not to any particular church; and canonical, because they contain excellent rules of faith and morality. Calmet. Doubtless the success of those your great and catholick endeavours will promote the empire of man over nature, and bring plentiful accession of glory to your nation. Glanville's Scepsis. Those systems undertake to give an account of the formation of the universe, by mechanical hypotheses of matter, moved either uncertainly, or according to some catholick laws. Ray. CATHOLICON. n. s. [from catholick; xJónov Tapa.] An universal medicine. Preservation against that sin, is the contemplation of the last judgment. This is indeed a c tholicon against all; but we find it particularly applied by St. Paul to judging and despising our brethren. Government of the Tongue. CATKINS. n. s. [kattekens, Dutch. In botany.] An assemblage of imperfect flowers hanging from trees, in manner of a rope or cat's tail; serving as male blossoms, or flowers of the trees, by which they are produced. Chambers. C'ATLIKE. adj. [from cat and like-] Like a cat. |