Caitiff, kā′tif, n. a mean despicable fellow.—adj. mean, base.—n. Cai′tive (Spens.), captive, subject. [O. Fr. caitif, (Fr. chétif)—L. captivus, a captive—cap-ĕre, to take.]
Cajole, ka-jōl′, v.t. to coax: to cheat by flattery.—ns. Cajole′ment, coaxing for the purpose of deluding: wheedling language: flattery; Cajol′er; Cajol′ery. [Fr. cajoler, to chatter; ety. dub.]
Cajuput, kaj′i-put, n. a pungent, volatile, aromatic oil, distilled from the leaves of two trees native to Australia.—Also Caj′eput. [Malay.]
Cake, kāk, n. a piece of dough that is baked: a small loaf of fine bread: any flattened mass baked, as pan-cake, &c., or as soap, wax, tobacco, &c.: a thin hard-baked kind of oaten-bread—whence Scotland is styled the 'Land of Cakes:' fancy bread, sweetened: a composition of bread with butter, sugar, spices, currants, raisins, &c., baked into any form—plum-cake, tea-cake, wedding-cake.—v.t. to form into a cake or hard mass.—v.i. to become baked or hardened.—adj. Cak′y.—Cakes and ale, a phrase covering vaguely all the good things of life.—To take the cake (slang), to carry off the honours, rank first. [Scand. kaka; cog. with Ger. kuche, Dut. koek.]
Calabar-bean, käl′a-bär-bēn, n. the seed of Physostigma venenosum, the ordeal bean of Old Calabar, used in the form of an emulsion in cases of witchcraft, the accused being plainly innocent if he can throw off the poison by vomiting.
Calabash, kal′a-bash, n. a tree of tropical America, bearing a large melon-like fruit, the shell of which, called a calabash, is used for domestic purposes, as holding liquids, &c. [Fr. calebasse—Sp. calabaza—Pers. kharbuz, melon.]
Calaboose, kal′a-bōōs, n. a prison in New Orleans, esp. a common lock-up. [Sp. calabozo, a dungeon.]
Caladium, kal-ā′di-um, n. a genus of plants of the Arum family, with edible starchy root-stocks. [Latinised from Malay kélādy.]
Calamanco, kal-a-mangk′o, n. a satin-twilled woollen stuff, checkered or brocaded in the warp. [Dut. kalamink, Ger. kalmank, Fr. calmande; origin unknown.]
Calamander, kal′a-man-dėr, n. a hard and valuable cabinet-wood of a brownish colour, with black stripes, brought from India and Ceylon. [Prob. Singh.]