Cleet, A. More generally used in the plural, as “cleets.” Iron tips on a shoe. Hence we have the expression, “to cleet oxen,” that is, to shoe them when they work.

Close. Hard, sharp. “It hits close,” means it hits hard.

Cothe. (From the Old-English “coða, coðe.”) A “cothe sheep,” means a sheep diseased in its liver. The springs in the New Forest are said “to cothe” the sheep—that is, to disease their livers. Hence we have such places as “Cothy Mead,” and “Cothy Copse.” Mr. Barnes (as before) gives the form “acothed,” as used in Dorsetshire.

Crink-crank. “Crink-crank words” are long words—verba sesquipedalia—not properly understood. (See Proceedings of Philological Society, vol. v. pp. 143-148.)

Crow-peck, The. The Shepherd’s needle (Scandix-pecten Veneris); called also “old woman’s needle.” There is a common saying in the New Forest, that “Two crow-pecks are as good as an oat for a horse;” to which the reply is, “That a crow-peck and a barley-corn may be.”

Crutch, A. (From the Friesic kroek, connected with the Old-English crocca, our crock). A dish, or earthenware pipkin. We daily in the New Forest and the neighbourhood hear of lard and butter crutches. The word “shard,” too, by the way, is still used in the Forest for a cup, and housewives still speak of a “shard of tea.”

Cuttran, A. A wren; more commonly called a “cutty;” which last word Mr. Barnes gives in his Glossary of the Dorsetshire Dialect, p. 331, but which is common throughout the West of England. As Mr. Barnes, p. 354, observes, the word is nothing more than cutty wren;—the little wren. (See “Kittywitch,” Transactions of Philological Society, 1855, p. 33.)

Decker, or Dicker, To. One of the old forms of to deck; literally, to cover; from the Old-English “þeccan;” in German, decken. It now, however, only signifies to ornament or spangle. A lady’s fingers are said to be deckered with rings, or the sky with stars.

Deer’s-Milk. Wood-spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides). So called from the white viscous juice which exudes from its stalks when gathered.

Dount, To. To dint, or imprint. Formed, as Mr. Wedgwood remarks, of the kindred words, dint, dent, dunt, by an onomatopoëtic process. We find the word in an old song still sung in the New Forest, “A Time to remember the Poor:”—