cot-quean, the housewife of a labourer’s hut. Nashe, Almond for Parrat, 5; a coarse, vulgar, scolding woman, B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 3 (Jupiter addressing Juno); used contemptuously of a man who acts the housewife, and busies himself unduly in household matters, Romeo, iv. 4. 9; Addison, Spect. (1712) No. 482; spelt quot-quean, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, ii. 2. 6; to play the cotqueane, Heywood, Gunaik. iv. 180 (NED.). Cp. use of cot and molly-cot in Cheshire and Yorkshire, see EDD. (s.v. Cot, sb.1 1).
Cotswold, pronounced Cotsal in Shaks., Fol. 1, Merry Wives, i. 1. 93; a Cotsal man, an athletic man, such as lived in the Cotswold Hills, a district famous for athletic sports, 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 23; a Cotsold lion, a humorous expression for a sheep of that country, Udall, Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 70), iv. 6 (Merygreek). ‘As fierce as a lion of Cotswold, i.e. a sheep’, Fuller’s Worthies (Bohn’s Proverbs, 204).
cotton: in phr. this geer (or gear) will cotton, this stuff will come to a good nap, this thing will succeed. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 8 (Thomas); Middleton, Inner Temple Masque (Second Antimasque).
couch, to place, arrange, order. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 7, § 6; to cause to cower, Lucrece, 507; to place a lance in rest, 1 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 134.
couch: in phr. to couch a hogshead, to lie down and sleep. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Harman, Caveat, p. 84.
couchee, an evening court-reception. Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 516; ‘The King’s Couchée’, Etherege, Man of Mode, iv. 1; the equivalent of Le Coucher du Roi, or simply Le Coucher, the reception which preceded the king’s going to bed. Cp. Dict. Acad. Fr. 1786 (s.v. Coucher, s.m.), ‘Il se trouve au lever et au coucher du Roi.’ For the E. form of the word compare our levee for F. lever, ‘réception dans la chambre d’un roi au moment où il se lève’ (Hatzfeld).
couch-quail, to play. The same as to couch as a quail; to cower, crouch down; see Thersytes, 20; Skelton, Speke Parrot, 420. Cp. Chaucer’s ‘Thou shalt make him couche as dooth a quaille’ (C. T. E. 1206).
coul, to trim the feather of an arrow along the top. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 128, 129, 131, 133. Cp. cowl, to gather, collect, scrape together, a north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Cowl, vb.2 1).
could, coud, couth, pt. t., knew, knew how to. Spenser, F. Q. v. 7. 5; Shep. Kal., Jan., 10. (Common). See [can].
couleuvre, a snake. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 92. 21; spelt couleure, id., lf. 91, back, 19. F. couleuvre.