craven, cravant, cravaunde

& a. [0. Fr. cravanté, acravanté, pa. par. of cravanter, crevanter; *Lat. crepanto to break, to overthrow. ( Nicol.) The word is really cravand, pr. par. of the verb to crave (q. v.), and is a sort of translation or accommodation of the O. Fr. creant; Mid. Eng. creant, creaunt. (Skeat.)] [RECREANT.] A. As substantive: 1. Properly, one who in battle yielded himself to his adversary like a coward, without resisting as a man; hence, generally, a coward, a recreant, a mean, spiritle fellow. [BATTLE, B. 1.] "I vow'd, base knight, when I did meet thee next, To tear the garter from thy craven's leg." Shakesp.: Hen. VI ., Pt . I. , iv. 1. *2. Applied to a beaten game-cock. ". "No cock of mine; you crow too like a craven." Shakesp.: Tam. of Shrew, ii. 1. B. As adj .: Cowardly, fainthearted, despicable. stood in craven fear of the sarcasm of Dorset." -Macaulay: Hist . Eng . , ch. viii. To cry craven : To give in, to fail. "When all human means cry craven."-Fuller: Ch. Hist., II. vi. 33. *cra-ven, v. t . [CRAVEN, 8.] To make craven, recreant, cowardly, or dispirited, "That cravens my weak hand." Shakesp.: Cymbeline, iii. 4. W. Ingram: Poems , p. 75. "The humbler cravings of the heart." Words worth: Excursion, bk. iv. crâw (1), *crawe, s . [Dut. kro =the crop, kraag =the neck; Sw kräfva =the craw, the crop; akin to crag or craig (q. v.)=the neck.] 1. The crop or first stomach of fowls. Corrupted in the north of Scotland into crawcroops (q. v.). *craw-doun, s. [A corruption of Mid. Eng. creant (q. v.).] A coward, a dastard, a craven. "Becum thou cowart crawdoun recriand, And by consent cry cok, thy dede is dicht." Douglas: Virgil , 356, 29. crâw-fish, crây-fish, #craifish, *crevish, *krevys, 8. [Corrupted from Fr. écrevi e .] Zool. & Ord . Lang .: A decapod long-tailed Crustacean, Astacus flu via til is . It belongs to the same family as the Lobster. It is IMG:content-1265.png:[graphic][merged small] IMG:content-1266.png:[blocks in formation] 3. Ranunculus bulbosus. Yellow Craw; Ranunculus bulbosus. (Lyte.) craw-croops, s. pl. Crowberries. "And what pray will you dine on? Rob. Craw - croops , hips, Blackberries, slaes, rough brambles frae the rock." Donald and Flora , p. 74. craw-flower, s. Scilla nutans (?). ( Tanna hill .) craw-foot, s. [CROWFOOT.] ( Scotch .) (Used specially of Ranunculus acris and R. repens .) "I wrought it eerthestreen upo' the plain, A garlan' o' braw spinks and crawfeet made." Macaulay: Poems , p. 120. craws-court, s. A court of judgment held by crows. hodmandod or dodman, and the tortoise."- Bacon. "Let me to crack live crawfish recommend."- Pope . Crawfish. "The common crawfish, and the large sea crawfish , both produce the stones called crab's eyes."- Hill.