county, a count, as a title, Romeo, i. 3. 105; Merch. Venice, i. 2. 48. (Frequent.)
couped, cut, cut clean off, with a smooth edge (in heraldry). Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 214. F. couper, to cut.
coupee, a dance step; the dancer rests on one foot, and passes the other forward or backward, with a sort of salutation. Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, iii. 1; Steele, Tender Husband, iii. 1 (Mrs. Clerimont). F. coupé, ‘mouvement par lequel on coupe un espace; (Danse) Pas composé d’un plié avec changement de pied suivi d’un glissé’ (Hatzfeld).
cour, to cover; Pt. t., courd; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 9. See NED. (s.v. Cover).
courant, a dance with a running or gliding step; a coranto. Etherege, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Steele, Tender Husband, i. 2 (Tipkin). See [coranto].
courant, corant, an express message; a newspaper. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Moth); Underwoods, lxi. 81. F. courant, running, a runner; from courir, to run.
coursing, succession in due ‘course’. Only in the following passage: ‘My Ladye Mary and my Ladye Elizabeth . . . by succession and course are inheritours to the crowne. Who yf they shulde mary with straungers, what should ensue God knoweth. But God graunt they never come vnto coursyng nor succedynge.’ Latimer, 1 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, p. 30).
courteau; see [curtal].
court holy-water, a proverbial phrase for flattery, and fine words without deeds; ‘Court holy-water in a dry house is better than this rainwater out o’ door’, King Lear, iii. 2. 10; ‘Her unperformed promise was the first court holy-water which she sprinkled amongst the people’, Fuller, Ch. Hist. viii. 1. 6; ‘Court-holy-water, Promissa rei expertia, fumus aulicus’, Coles, 1699; ‘Eau beniste de cour, court holy-water, fair words, flattering speeches’, Cotgrave. See Nares.
Also, court holy bread; ‘He feeds thee with nothing but court holy bread, good words’, Dekker and Webster, Westward Ho, ii. 3 (M. Honeysuckle).