cursen, Christian; ‘As I am a cursen man’, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, iv. 6 (Carter); ‘By my Cursen soule’, Brome, Sparagus Gard. iii. 7; ‘We be Cursenfolke’, id. iv. 5; cursen name, Christian name, Mrs. Behn, Feign’d Curtizan, i. 2; to christen, baptize; cursen’d, pp. christened, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 3 (Nan). For the pronunciation, see EDD. (s.v. Christen).
curst, cross, ill-tempered. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 185; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, ii. 3 (Arethusa). In prov. use in the north and in the W. Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Curst, 2).
curtal, having a docked tail; ‘Curtal dog’, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 114; said of a horse, All’s Well, ii. 3. 65. ‘Docke your horse tayle, and make hym a courtault’, Palsgrave; in form courteau, a horse with a docked tail, used as a term of derision, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Anaides). OF. courtaut, ‘écourté’ (Hatzfeld); courtault, ‘cheval ou chien de courte taille. On appelait aussi courtault le chien ou le cheval qui avait la queue coupée’ (Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais).
curtana, the sword of mercy, a pointless sword, carried before our kings at a coronation. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 419. See Ducange, s.v. The name of the legendary sword of ‘Ogier le Danois’ was Courtain.
cushes, ‘cuisses’, pieces, of armour protecting the thighs. 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 105 (1596); Heywood, Iron Age, Part II, v. 1. 15.
cushion: phr. to miss the cushion, to make a mistake. Lit. to sit down amiss. ‘Whan he weneth to syt, Yet may he mysse the quysshon’, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 998; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 24.
cushion-cloth, a cushion-case or cover. Middleton, Women beware Women, iii. 1 (Bianca); cusshencloth, Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 475.
custard-politic, a large custard prepared for the Lord Mayor’s feast. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Lick.).
customer, a custom-house officer, ‘publicanus’. Udall, Erasmus’s Paraph. on Mark, ii. 22; Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 1 (Erostrato). In use in this sense in Scotland (EDD.).
cut, a lot; he who drew the shortest (or rarely, the longest) of some pieces of stick or paper drew the lot. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, Induction (2 Child, and 3 Child). ME. cut, lot (Chaucer, C. T. A. 845). Probably unconnected with the vb. ‘to cut’, see NED.