caisson (kas on)

[F., aug. of cai e, a chest, a case: see case2.] 1. Milit.: (a) A wooden chest into which several bombs are put, and cajote caitiff (kā'tif), a. and n. [ Myn name is looth, a caitife kynge of Orcanye, and of leonoys, to whom not hinge doth falle but myschef ne not hath don longe tyme. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 477. 21. Wretched; miserable. I am so caytyf and so thral. Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 1. 694. 3. Servile; base; ignoble; cowardly. He keuered hym with his counsayl of caytuf wyrdes. Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), ii. 1605. With that he crauld out of his nest, Forth creeping on his caitive hands and thies. Spenser, F. Q., IL. iii. 35. A territory Wherein were bandit earls and caitiff knights. IMG:content-2911.png:[blocks in formation] At caitiffs and at wrongers of the world. Tennyson, Geraint. sometimes gunpowder, to be exploded in the caitifflyt, adv. Knavishly; servilely; basely. way of an enemy or under some work of which caitifteet, n. [ME., also caitifte, caitivte, in the soffit of Roman or Renai ance architecture, etc.; a coffer; a lacunar. See cut under Wyclif , Rev. xiii. 10. caitivet, a. and n. An obsolete form of caitiff. coffer.-3. In civil eng in.: (a) A ve el in the caitivene t, n. [ME., also caitifnes, form of a boat, used as a flood-gate in docks. (b) An apparatus on which ve els may be raised and floated; especially, a kind of floating dock, which may be sunk and floated under a ve el's keel, used for docking ve els at their moorings, without removing stores or masts. (See floating dock, under dock.) (c) A water-tight box or casing used in founding and building structures in water too deep for a coffer-dam, such as piers of bridges, quays, etc. The cai on is built upon land, and then chained and anchored directly over the bed, which has been leveled or piled to receive it. The masonry is built upon the bottom of the cai on, which is of heavy timber. As the cais son sinks with the weight, its sides are built up, so that the upper edge is always above water. In some cases the masonry is at first built hollow, and is not filled in until after it has reached its bed, and its sides have been carried higher than the surface of the water. Sometimes the sides of the masonry itself form the sides of the cai on. In another form the cai on, made of heavy timbers, is shaped like an inverted shallow box, having sharp, iron-bound edges. The weight of the masonry forces the cai on into the sand and mud on the bottom. Air under pre ure is then forced into the cai on, Cai on of the East River Suspension-bridge, New York. driving out the water and permitting the workmen to enter through suitable air-locks. A sealed well or a pipe and sand-pump are provided, through which the material excavated under the cai on may be removed. The latter gradually sinks under the weight of the superstructure and removal of the loose soil below, until a firm foundation is reached, when the whole interior of it is caitive, +-ne .] 1. Captivity; slavery; misery. -2. Despicable, mean, and wicked conduct. It is a strange caitive ne and basene of disposition of so furiously and unsatiably to run after perishing and uncertain interests. Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), L. 77. Cajanus (ka-jā'nus), n. [NL.,