Chapter Couvade to Crack of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

had an attendant, called a coystrel or coystril. Some think the word is a corruption of costerel, which they derive from the Latin coterellus (a peasant); but if not a corruption of kestrel, I should derive it from costrel (a small wooden bottle used by labourers in harvest time)."Vasa quædom quæ costrelli vocantur."(Matthew Paris.)

"He's a coward and a coystril that will not drink to my niece." - Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, i.3.

Cozen To cheat. (Armoric, Couczyein; Russian, kosnodei; Arabic, gausa; Ethiopic, chasawa; our chouse.)

"I think it no sin To cozen him that would unjustly win." Shakespeare: All's Well that Ends Well, iv.2.

Crab (A). An ill-tempered fellow; sour as a crab-apple.
   To catch a crab, in rowing. (See Catch A Crab.)

Crab-cart The carapace of a crab. So called because it is used very commonly by children for a toy- cart.

Crack as a crack man, a first-rate fellow; a crack hand at cards, a first-rate player; a crack article, an excellent one, i.e. an article cracked up or boasted about. This is the Latin crepo, to crack or boast about. Hence Lucretius ii. 1168,"crepas antiquum genus."

"Indeed, la! `tis a noble child; a crack, madam." Shakespeare: Coriolanus, i.3.

   A gude crack. A good talker.

"To be a gude crack ... was essential to the trade of a `puir body' of the more esteemed class." - Sir W. Scott: The Autiquary (Introduction).

   In a crack. Instantly. In a snap of the fingers, crepitu digitorum (in a crack of the fingers). (French, craquer.)

"Une allusion au bruit de l'ongle contre la dent que les Orieutaux du moyen âme touchaient du doight quand ils voulaient affirmer solennellement une chose." Hence -
Sire, bien vous croi seur les Dieux;
Mais asses vous querroie mieux
Se vous l'ongle hurties an dent."
Theatre Francois de Moyen Age, p. 167.