culvert

() [Either from O. Fr. culvert; Fr. couerta covered pa age, from couvrir to cover, or a corruption of O. Fr. coulouere =a channel, a gutter; Fr. couler =to flow, to trickle; Lat.colo=to filter; colum a strainer. ( Skeat.) A drain or water-way of masonry beneath a road or canal. It is a bridge or viaduct on a small scale. *cul-vert, a . [O. Fr. culvert , cuivert .] Cowardly. "The porter is culuert and felun."- Florice & Blanche fleur , 329. *cul-vert-age (age as Ig), s. [Mid. Eng. culvert, a.; Eng. suff. age . The forfeiture of a va al's land to the lord. "Under pain of culvertage and perpetual servitude, "-Daniel: Hist. Eng., p. 116. In stormy winter's long and dreary night, For cumbent sheep." Dyer: Fleece. IMG:content-1531.png:[blocks in formation] "The multiplying variety of arguments, especially frivolous ones, is not only lost labor, but cumbers the memory to no purpose." -Locke . 3. To weigh down, to oppre . "Hardly his head the plunging pilot rears, Clogg'd with his cloaths, and cumber'd with his years." Dryden: Virgil's Æneid v. 232. 4. To be a trouble, an annoyance, or an obstruction; to be a usele burthen. "Why cumbereth it the ground?"- Luke xiii. 7. 15. To embarra , to retard or delay, as though by overloading.. "So fierce, so tamele , and so fleet, Sore did he cumber our retreat." Scott: Lady of the Lake, iv. 4. *cum-brançe, *com-branse, *com-braunce, *cum-branse, s . [COMBER, v.] A burden, an encumbrance; a source of embarra ment, trouble or vexation. Cum-bri-an, a. & s . [From Lat. Cumbria=the country of the Cumbri, an old British tribe, inhabit ing what afterward came to be called Cumber land.] A. As adj .: Pertaining or relating to Cumber land. B. As substantive : 1. Ord. Lang.: A native of Cumber land. *2. Geol.: The Cam brian formation. [1] (1) Cum brian formation : Geol.: The same as 2 and 3 (q. v.). (2) Cum brian group : Geol.: The same as 1 and 3 (q. v.). (3) Cum brian rocks: Geol.: Ancient rocks constituting the lowest of the slaty deposits in Skiddaw and Grasmere Fell in Cumber land, England. They consist of the Skiddaw Slates-i.e., the equivalent in age of the Lower Llandeilo Flags, above which are the Coniston Limestone Bala Limestone, and the Coniston Grits =Llandoverygroup. The term Cum brian was introduced by Prof. Sedgwick, who believed the beds in Cumber land thus designated to be the equivalents IMG:content-1532.png:[blocks in formation] 2. Trouble, vexation, embarra ment, distre . "By the occasion thereof I was brought to as great cumber and danger, as lightly any might escape." Sidney. cumbered, cum-byrd, *cum-merd, pa. par. or a. [CUMBER, 8.] cum-ber-field, s. [Eng. cumber; and field.] Polygonum aviculare. cum-běr-ing, pr. par., a. & s. [CUMBER, U.] A. & B. As pr . par. & particip . adj .: (See the verb.) C. As subst.: The act of encumbering, embarra ing, hindering, or distracting. Căm-bèr-land, s . & a . [Lat. Cumbri , and Eng. land.] [CUM BRIAN.] A. As substantive: Geog.: A county in the northwest of England. B. As adj .: Pertaining to, or in any way connected with, the county named under A. in the latter locality, he had bestowed the name Cam brian. There was no use for two terms if one would do, and Cum brian is now disused, Cam brian being retained. Sir Roderick Murchison would also have dispensed with Cam brian, and brought Sedgwick's rocks so designated, with the Cum brian beds, also under his Silurian system. Sir Charles Lyell, however, in his Student's Elements of Geology , has retained the word Cam brian, omitting Cum brian. Under the heading Upper Cam brian, he places Tre madoc Slates, and the Lingula Flags of Britain, enumerating as their foreign equivalents in age part of Barrande's Primordial Zone of Bohemia, the Alum Schists of Sweden and Norway, and the Potsdam Sandstone; and under the Lower Cam brian Rocks the Menevian beds of Wales, and the Longmynd group, the latter consisting of the Har lech Grits and the Llanberis Slates. The foreign equivalents of these are the lower portion of Bar the Fucoid rande's Primordial Zone in Bohemia Huronian series of Canada. The Cam brian as thus described, is made immediately to follow the Lauren tian and precede the Silurian formation.