CORDAGE. A general term for the running-rigging of a ship, as also for rope of any size which is kept in reserve, and for all stuff to make ropes.—Cable-laid cordage. Ropes, the three strands of which are composed of three other strands, as are cables and cablets. (See [Rope].)
CORDILLA. The coarse German hemp, otherwise called torse.
CORDLIE. A name for the tunny fish.
CORDON. In fortification, the horizontal moulding of masonry along the top of the true escarp. Also, sometimes used for lines of circumvallation or blockade, or any connected chain of troops or even sentries. Also, the riband of an order of knighthood or honour, and hence used by the French as signifying a member thereof, as Cordon bleu, Knight of the order of the Holy Ghost, &c.
CORDOVAN. Leather made from seal-skin; the term is derived from the superior leather prepared at Cordova in Spain.
CORDUROY. Applied to roads formed in new settlements, of trees laid roughly on sleepers transverse to the direction of the road; as suddenly for artillery.
CORKIR, or Cudbear. The Lecanora tartarea, a lichen producing a purple dye, growing on the stones of the Western Isles, and in Norway.
CORMORANT. A well-known sea-bird (Phalacrocorax carbo) of the family Pelecanidæ.
CORN, To. A remainder of the Anglo-Saxon ge-cyrned, salted. To preserve meat for a time by salting it slightly.
CORNED. Slightly intoxicated. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, mention is made of "corny ale."