cibation, a process in alchemy; lit. ‘a feeding’. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol). From L. cibus, food.
cinoper, ‘cinnabar’. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). Cp. MHG. zinober.
cinque-pace, a kind of lively dance. Much Ado, ii. 1. 77. F. cinq pas, lit. five paces; Littré gives cinq pas et trois visages (five paces, three faces) as the name of an old French dance.
cioppino, a ‘chopine’. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Hedon). See [choppine].
circling: phr. a circling boy, i.e. a kind of roarer, one who circumvented and cheated his dupes. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 2 (Edgworth). See Nares.
circular, going round-about, indirect. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii. 2 (Physician).
circumstance, detailed and circuitous narration; details, particulars; ‘Without circumstance’, i.e. without further details, Romeo, v. 3. 181; ceremony, formality, ‘Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war’, Othello, iii. 3. 355.
citronise, to bring to the colour of citron; a process in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Subtle).
cittern-headed, ugly; because the head of the cittern (a kind of guitar) was often grotesquely carved to resemble a human head. Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone). The citterns were mostly found in barbers’ shops.
†city-wires (?); ‘His cates . . . Be fit for ladies: some for lords, knights, ’squires; Some for your waiting-wench, and city-wires’, B. Jonson, Epicoene (Prologue).