Chapter Cast Anchor to Cat and Dog of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Cast Anchor to Cat and Dog

Cast Anchor (To). To throw out the anchor in order to bring the vessel to a standstill. (Latin, anchoram, jacere.)

Cast Aside (To). To reject as worthless.

Cast Down Dejected. (Latin, dejectus.)

Cast a Sheep's Eye at One (To). To look askance or sideways at one; to look wantonly at one.

Cast beyond the Moon To form wild conjectures. One of Heywood's proverbs. At one time the moon was supposed to influence the weather, to affect the ingathering of fruits, to rule the time of sowing, reaping, and slaying cattle, etc.

“I talke of things impossible, and cast beyond the moon.” Heywood.

Cast in One's Lot (To). To share the good or bad fortune of another.

Cast into One's Teeth (To). To throw a reproof at one. The allusion is to knocking one's teeth out by stones.

“All my faults observed, set in a note book,
Learned and conned by rote, to cast into my
teeth.” Shakespeare: Julius Coesar.

Cast of the Eye (A). A squint. One meaning of the word cast is to twist or warp. Thus, a fabric is said to “cast” when it warps; and seamen speak of “casting,” or turning the head of a ship on the tack it is to sail. We also speak of a “casting” or turning vote.

“My goode bowe clene cast [twisted] on one side.”- Ascham: Toxophilus.

Cast Pearls before Swine (To). If pearls are cast to swine, the swine would only trample them under foot.

Casting Vote The vote of the presiding officer when the votes of the assembly are equal. This final vote casts, turns, or determines the question.

Castagnette (Captain). A hero noted for having his stomach replaced by Desgenettes by a leather one. His career is ended by a bomb, which blows him into fragments. An extravaganza from the French of Manuel.

Castaly A fountain of Parnassus sacred to the Muses. Its waters had the power of inspiring with the gift of poetry those who drank of them.

“The drooping Muses [Sir Industry]
Brought to another Castalie,
Where Isis many a famous nursling breeds,
Or where old Cam soft paces o'er the lea
In pensive mood.”
Thomson: Castle of Indolence, ii. 21.

   “Isis” means the University of Oxford, and “Cam” the University of Cambridge, so called from the respective rivers on which they stand.

Caste (1 syl.), race. The Portuguese casta. In Sanskrit the word used for the same purpose is varna (colour). The four Hindu castes are Brahmins (the sacred order), Shatriya (soldiers and rulers), Vaisy'a (husbandmen and merchants), Sudra (agricultural labourers and mechanics). The first issued from the mouth of Brahma, the second from his arms, the third from his thighs, and the fourth from his feet. Below these come thirty-six inferior classes, to whom the Vedas are sealed, and who are held cursed in this world and without hope in the next. The Jews seem to have entertained the same notion respecting the common people, and hence the Sanhedrim say to the officers, “This people; who know not the law, are cursed.” (John vii. 49.)
   To lose caste. To lose position in society. To get degraded from one caste to an inferior one.