Their riders, the flow'r and choice Of many provinces, from bound to bound. Milton. 6. Several things proposed at once, as objects of judgment and election. A braver choice of dauntless spirits Did never float upon the swelling tide. Shaksp. 7. To make CHOICE of. To choose; to take from several things proposed. Wisdom of what herself approves makes choice, Nor is led captive by the common voice. Denb. CHOICE. adj. [choisi, French.] 1. Select; of extraordinary value. After having set before the king the choicest of wines and fruits, he told him the best part of his entertainment was to come. Guardian. Swift. Thus, in a sea of folly toss'd, My choicest hours of life are lost. 2. Chary; frugal; careful: used of per sons. He that is choice of his time, will also be choice of his company, and choice of his actions. Taylor's Holy Living. CHOICELESS. adj. [from choice.] Withwithout out the power of choosing; right of choice; not free. Neither the weight of the matter of which the cylinder is made, nor the round voluble form of it, are any more imputable to that dead choiceless creature, than the first motion of it; and, therefore, it cannot be a fit resemblance to shew the reconcileableness of fate with choice. Hammond. CHO'ICELY. adv. [from choice.] 1. Curiously; with exact choice. A band of men, Collected choicely from each county some. Shak. 2. Valuably; excellently. It is certain it is choicely good. Walton's Ang. CHOICENESS. n. s. [from choice.] Nicety; particular value. Carry into the shade such auriculas, seedlings, or plants, as are for their choiceness reserved in Evelyn's Kalendar. pots. CHOIR. n. s. [chorus, Latin.] 1. An assembly or band of singers. They now assist the choir Of angels, who their songs admire. 2. The singers in divine worship. 3. The choir, Waller. With all the choicest musick of the kingdom, Shakspeare. The part of the church where the choristers or singers are placed. The lords and ladies having brought the queen To a prepar'd place in the choir, fell off Shakspeare. At distance from her. To CHOKE. v. a. [aceocan, Sax. from ceoca, the check or mouth. According to Minshew, from ; whence, probably, the Spanish abogar.] 1. To suffocate; to kill by stopping the passage of respiration. But when to my good lord I prove untrue, I'll choke myself. Shakspeare. While you thunder'd, clouds of dust did choke Contending troops. Waller. 2. To stop up; to obstruct; to block up a passage. Men troop'd up to the king's capacious court, stay, And crowds of mourners choke their sov'reign's way. To hinder by obstruction or confine She cannot lose her perfect pow'r to see, Tho' mists and clouds do choke her windowDavies. light. It seemeth the fire is so choked, as not to be Bacon's Nat. Hist. able to remove the stone. You must make the mould big enough to contain the whole fruit, when it is grown to the greatest; for else you will choke the spreading of Bacon's Natural History. the fruit. The fire, which chok'd in ashes lay, A load too heavy for his soul to move, Was upward blown below, and brush'd away Dryden. by love. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. Luke. No fruitful crop the sickly fields return; But oats and darnel choke the rising corn. Dryd. CHOKE. n. s. [from the verb.] The filamentous or capillary part of an artichoke. A cant word. CHOKE PEAR. n. s. [from choke and pear.] 1. A rough, harsh, unpalatable pear. 2. Any aspersion or sarcasm, by which another is put to silence. A low term. Pardon me for going so low as to talk of giv Clarissa. ing choke-pears. CHO'KE-WEED. n. s. [ervangina.] plant. CHOKER. n. s. [from choke.] A 1. One that chokes or suffocates another. 2. One that puts another to silence. 3. Any thing that cannot be answered. CHO'K Y. adj. [from choke.] That has the power of suffocation. CHOLAGOGUES.n.s. [xô), bile.] Medicines which have the power of purging bile or choler. CHOLER. n. s. [cholera, Latin, from χολή.] 1. The bile. Marcilius Ficimus increases these proportions, adding two more of pure choler. Wotton. There would be a main defect, if such a feeding animal, and so subject unto diseases from bilious causes, should want a proper conveyance for choler. Brown's Vulgar Errours. 2. The humour which, by its superabundance, is supposed to produce iras cibility. It engenders choler, planteth anger; And better 't were that both of us did fast, Since, of ourselves, ourselves are cholerick, Than feed it with such over-roasted flesh. Shak. He, methinks, is no great scholar, Who can mistake desire for choler. CHO'LERICK. adj. [cholericus, Lat.] 1. Abounding with choler. Prior. Our two great poets being so different in their tempers, the one cholerick and sanguine, the other phlegmatick and melancholick. Dryden, 2. Angry; irascible: of persons. Bull, in the main, was an honest plain-dealing fellow, cholerick, bold, and of a very unconstant temper. Arbuthnot. 3. Angry; offensive: of words or actions. There came in cholerick haste towards me about seven or eight knights. Sidney. Becanus threateneth all that read him, using his confident, or rather cholerick speech. Raleigh. CHO'LERICKNESS. n. s. [from cholerick.] Anger; irascibility; peevishness. To CHOOSE. v. a. I chose, I have chosen, or chose. [choisir, Fr. ceoran, Saxon, kiesen, Germ.] 1. To take by way of preference of several things offered; not to reject. Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest. 1 Samuel. I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse whom I dislike. Shakspeare. If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket, you should refuse to perform your father's will if you should refuse to accept him. Shakspeare. 2. To take; not to refuse. Let us choose to us judgment; let us know among ourselves what is good. Job. The will has still so much freedom left as to enable it to choose any act in its kind good; as also to refuse any act in its kind evil. South. 3. To select; to pick out of a number. How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him? Job. 4. To elect for eternal happiness; to predestinate to life. A term of theologians. To CHOOSE. v. n. To have the power of choice between different things. It is generally joined with a negative, and signifies must necessarily be. Without the influence of the Deity supporting things, their utter annihilation could not choose but follow." Hooker. CHO'OSER. n. s. [from choose.] He that has the power or office of choosing; elector. Come all into this nut, quoth she; Come closely in, be rul'd by me; Each one may here a chooser be, For room you need not wrestle. Drayton. In all things to deal with other men, as if I might be my own chooser. Hammond's Pract. Cat. This generality is not sufficient to make a good chooser, without a more particular contracWotton. tion of his judgment. To CHOP. v. a. [kappen, Dutch; couper, French.] I. To cut with a quick blow. What shall we do, if we perceive Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots? Chop off his head, man. Shakspeare. Within these three days his head is to be chopt Shakspeare. And where the clever chops the heifer's spoil, Thy breathing nostril hold." Gay's Trivia. 2. To devour eagerly: with up. off. You are for making a hasty meal, and for chopping up your entertainment like an hungry clown. Dryden. Upon the opening of his mouth he drops his breakfast, which the fox presently chopped up. L'Estrange. 3. To mince; to cut into small pieces. They break their bones, and chop them in Micab. pieces, as for the pot. Some granaries are made with clay, mixed with hair, chopped straw, mulch, and such like. Mortimer's Husbandry. By dividing of them into chapters and verses, they are so chopped and minced, and stand so broken and divided, that the common people take the verses usually for different aphorisms. 4. To break into chinks. Locke I remember the cow's dugs, that her pretty chopt hands had milked. Shakspeare To CHOP. v. n. 1. To do any thing with a quick and unexpected motion, like that of a blow: as we say, the wind chops about, that is, changes suddenly. If the body repercussing be near, and yet not so near as to make a concurrent echo, it choppeth with you upon the sudden. Bacon's Nat. Hist. 2. To catch with the mouth. Out of greediness to get both, he chops at the shadow, and loses the substance. L'Estrange 3. To light or happen upon a thing suddenly with upon. To CHOP. z. a. [ceapan, Saxon; koopen, Dutch, to buy.] 1. To purchase, generally by way of truck; to give one thing for another." The hopping of bargains, when a man buys Old Cross condemns all persons to be fops, That can't regale themselves with mutton chops. King's Cookery. 3. A crack, or cleft. Water will make wood to swell; as we see in the filling of the chops of bowls, by laying them Bacon. in water. CHOP-HOUSE. n. s. [from chop and house.] A mean house of entertainment, where provision ready dressed is sold. I lost my place at the chop-house, where every man eats in publick a mess of broth, or chop of Spectator. meat, in silence. CHO'PIN. n. s. [French.] 1. A French liquid measure, containing nearly a pint of Winchester. 2. A term used in Scotland for a quart of wine measure. CHO'PPING. participial adj. [In this sense, Both Jack Freeman and Ned Wild The straight smooth elms are good for axle- Here comes Dametas, with a sword by his You seem to understand me,, Shakspeare. CHOPS. n. 5. without a singular. [cor rupted probably from CHAPS, whick 1. The mouth of a beast. So soon as my chops begin to walk, yours must He ne'er shook hands, nor bid farewel to him, vice. CHO'RAL. adj. [from chorus, Latin.] concert. All sounds on fret by string or golden wire Choral symphonies. 2. Singing in a choir. Milton Milton. And choral seraphs sung the second day. CHORD. n. s. [chorda, Latin. Amburt. When it signifies a rope or string in general, 1. The string of a musical instrument. Their stops and chords, was seen; his volant Instinct thro' all proportions, low and high, 2. [In geometry.] A right line, which To CHORD. V. a. [from the noun.] To What passion cannot musick raise and quell! CHO'RION. n. s. [xwv, to contain.] The CHO'RISTER. n. s. [from chorus.] Dryden. The musical voices and accents of the aerial choristers. Ray on the Creation. CHORO'GRAPHER. n. s. [from xwon, a region, and ysápu, to describe.] He that describes particular regions or countries. CHOROGRAPHICAL. adj. [See CHOROGRAPHER.] Descriptive of particular regions or countries; laying down the boundaries of countries. CHOUSE. n. s. [from the verb. This word is derived by Henshaw from kiaus, or chiaus, a messenger of the Turkish court; who, says he, is little better than a fool.] 1. A bubble; a tool; a man fit to be I have added a chorographical description of this terrestrial paradise. Raleigh. CHOROGRAPHICALLY. adv. [from chorographical.] In a chrorographical manner; according to the rule of chorography; in a manner descriptive of particular regions. CHORO'GRAPHY. n. s. [See CHOROGRAPHER.] The art or practice of describing particular regions, or laying down the limits and boundaries of particular 2. provinces. It is less in its object than geography,and greater than topography. CHORUS. n. s. [chorus, Lat.] 1. A number of singers; a concert. The Grecian tragedy was at first nothing but a chorus of singers; afterwards one actor was introduced. Dryden. Never did a more full and unspotted chorus of human creatures join together in a hymn of deAddison. votion. In praise so just let every voice be join'd, And fill the general chorus of mankind! Pope. 2. The persons who are supposed to behold what passes in the acts of a tragedy, and sing their sentiments between the acts. For supply, Admit me chorus to this history. Shakspeare. 3. The song between the acts of a tragedy. 4. Verses of a song in which the company join the singer. CHOSE. The preter tense, and sometimes the participle passive, of choose. Our sovereign here above the rest might stand, And here be chose again to rule the land. Dryd. CHO'SEN. The participle passive of choose. If king Lewis vouchsafe to furnish us With some few bands of chosen soldiers, I'll undertake to land them on our coast. Shak. CHOUGH. n. s. [ceo, Sax. choucas, Fr.] A bird which frequents the rocks by the sea side, like a jackdaw, but bigger. Hanmer. In birds, kites and kestrels have a resemblance with hawks, crows with ravens, daws and choughs. Bacon's Natural History. To crows the like impartial grace affords, And choughs and daws, and such republick birds. Dryden. CHOULE. ". S. [commonly pronounced and written jorul.] The crop of a bird. The choule or crop, adhering unto the lower side of the bill, and so descending by the throat, is a bag or sachel. Brown's Vulgar Errours. To CHOUSE. v. a. [The original of this word is much doubted by Skinner, who tries to deduce it from the French gosser, to laugh at; or joncher, to wheedle; and from the Teutonick kosen, to prattle. It is perhaps a fortuitous and cant word, without etymology.] 1. To cheat; to trick; to impose upon. Freedom and zeal have chous'd you o'er and o'er, Pray give us leave to bubble you once more. Dryden. From London they came, silly people to chouse, Their lands and their faces unknown. Swift. a. It has of before the thing taken away by fraud. When geese and pullen are seduc'd, And sows of sucking pigs are chous'd. Hudib. cheated. A sottish house, Who, when a thief has robb'd his house, Applies himself to cunning men. Hudibras. A trick or sham. To CHO'WTER. v. n. To grumble or mutter like a froward child. Phillips CHRISM. n. s. [xgia, an ointment.] Unguent, or unction: it is only applied to sacred ceremonies. One act never to be repeated, is not the thing that Christ's eternal priesthood, denoted especi ally by his unction or chrism, refers to. Hama. CHRI'SOM. n. s. [See CHRISM.] A child that dies within a month after its birth. So called from the chrisom-cloth, a cloth anointed with holy unguent, which the children anciently wore till they were christened. When the convulsions were but few, the number of chrisoms and infants was greater. Graunt's Bills of Mortality. To CHRISTEN. v. a. [christian, Sax.] 1. To baptize; to initiate into christianity by water. 2. To name; to denominate. Where such evils as these reign, christen the thing what you will, it can be no better than a mock millennium. Burnet. CHRISTENDOM. n. s. [from Christ and dom.] The collective body of christianity; the regions of which the inhabitants profess the christian religion. What hath been done, the parts of christendom most afflicted can best testify. Hooker. An older and a better soldier, none That christendom gives out. Shakspeare. His computation is universally received over all christendom. Holder on Time. CHRISTENING. n. s. [from christen.] The ceremony of the first initiation into christianity. The queen was with great solemnity crowned at Westminster, about two years after the mar riage; like an old christening that had staid long for godfathers. Bacon. We shall insert the causes why the account of christenings hath been neglected more than that of burials. Graunt. The day of the christening being come, the house was filled with gossips. Arbuthnot and Pope. CHRISTIAN. n. s. [christianus, Lat.] A professor of the religion of Christ. We christians have certainly the best and the holiest, the wisest and most reasonable, religion in the world. Tillotson. CHRISTIAN. adj. Professing the religion of Christ. I'll not be made a soft and dull-ey'd fool, To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield To christian intercessors. Shakspeare. CHRISTIAN-NAME. n. s. The name given at the font, distinct from the gentilitious name, or surname. CHRISTIANISM.n.s.[christianismus,Lat.] 1. The christian religion. 2. The nations professing christianity. Hooker. Every one, who lives in the habitual practice of any voluntary sin, cuts himself off from christianity. Addison. To CHRISTIANIZE. v. a. [from christian.] To make christian; to convert to christianity. The principles of Platonick philosophy, as it is now christianized. Dryden. CHRISTIANLY. adv. [from christian.] Like a christian; as becomes one who professes the holy religion of Christ. CHRISTMAS.n.s. [from Christ and mass.] The day on which the nativity of our blessed Saviour is celebrated, by the particular service of the church. CHRISTMAS-BOX. n. s. [from christmas and box.] A box in which little presents are collected at Christmas. When time comes round, a christmas-box they And one day makes them rich for all the year. It hath long sharp spines: the flower has five leaves, in form of a rose: out of the flower-cup, which is divided into several segments, rises the pointal, which becomes a fruit, shaped like a bonnet, having a shell almost globular, which is divided into three cells, in each of which is contained a roundish seed. This is by many, persons supposed to be the plant from which our Saviour's crown of thorns was composed. Miller. CHROMATICK. adj. [xgua, colour.] 1. Relating to colour. I am now come to the third part of painting; which is called the chromatick, or colouring. Dryden's Dufresney. 2. Relating to a certain species of ancient musick, now unknown. It was observed, he never touched his lyre in such a truly chromatick and enharmonick manner. Arbuthnot and Pope. CHRO'NICAL. adj. [from xgo, time.] A chronical distemper is of length: as dropQuincy. sies, asthmas, and the like. Of diseases some are chronical, and of long duration; as quartane agues, scurvy, wherein we defer the cure unto more advantageous seasons. Brown's Vulgar Errours. The lady's use of these excellencies is to divert the old man when he is out of the pangs of a Spectator. chronical distemper. CHRONICLE. n. s. [chronique, French; from xi, time.] I. A register or account of events in order of time. No more yet of this; 2. A history. Shakspeare. You lean too confidently on those Irish chro- I am traduc'd by tongues, which neither know Shakspeare. I give up to historians the generals and heroes which crowd their annals, together with those which you are to produce for the British chronicle. Dryden. To CHRONICLE. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To record in chronicle, or history. This to rehearse, should rather be to chronicle times than to search into reformation of abuses in that realm. Spenser. 2. To register; to record. For now the devil, that told me I did well, Says that this deed is chronicled in hell. Shaksp. Love is your master, for he masters you : And he that so yoked by a fool, Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise. Shakspeare. I shall be the jest of the town; nay, in two days I expect to be chronicled in ditty, and sung in woeful ballad. Congreve CHRONICLER. n. s. [from chronicle.] 1. A writer of chronicles; a recorder of events in order of time. Here gathering chroniclers, and by them stand Donne. Giddy fantastick poets of each land. 2. A historian; one that keeps up the memory of things past. I do herein rely upon these bards, or Irish chroniclers. Spenser. This custom was held by the Druids and bards of our ancient Britons, and of latter times by the Irish chroniclers, called rimers. Raleigh. CHRONOGRAM. n. s. [xg, time, and yoάow, to write.] An inscription including the date of any action. Of this kind the following is an example: sunto. A chronogrammatical verse, which includes not only this year, 1660, but numerical letters enough to reach above a thousand years further, Horvel. until the year 2867. CHRONOGRAMMA'TICAL. adj. [from chronogram.] Belonging to a chronogram. See the last example. CHRONOGRAMMATIST. n. s. [from chro nogram.] A writer of chronograms. There are foreign universities, where, as you praise a man in England for being an excellent philosopher or poet, it is an ordinary character Addison. to be a great chronogrammatist. CHRONOLOGER. n. s. [x, time, and ay, doctrine.] He that studies or explains the science of computing past time, or of ranging past events according to their proper years. Holder on Time. Chronologers differ among themselves about most great epochas. CHRONOLOGICAL. adj. [from chronology. Relating to the doctrine of time. Thus much touching the chronological account of some times and things past, without confining of Hale. myself to the exactness years. CHRONOLOGICALLY. adv. [from chronological.] In a chronological manner; according to the laws or rules of chronology; according to the exact series of time. CHRONOLOGIST. n. s. [See CHRONOLOGER.] One that studies or explains time; one that ranges past events ac |