Lexicon

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V
Ca Ce Ch Ci Co Cr
Cal Car Cas Cat

Calcareous

adj.

Containing or composed of calcium carbonate. Chalky.

[“Clarice Lispector,” from Coming to Writing and Other Essays — Hélène Cixous]

Calescent

adj.

  1. growing warm; increasing in heat.

[Brendan Adkins, in a review of Brown Sugar on Letterboxd]

Carom

n.

1. a cannon in billiards or pool

v. 

1. make a carom; strike and rebound

[The Absolute Book — Elizabeth Knox]

Caryatid

n. (Architecture)

  1. a stone carving of a draped female figure, used as a pillar to support the entablature of a Greek or Greek-style building.

[Moby-Dick; or, The Whale — Herman Melville]

Casuistry

n.

  1. Specious or excessively subtle reasoning intended to rationalize or mislead.
  2. The determination of right and wrong in questions of conduct or conscience by analyzing cases that illustrate general ethical rules.

[A Reader on Reading — Alberto Manguel]

Catachresis

n.

  1. the use of a word in a way that is not correct, for example, the use of mitigate for militate. Also the name given to many different types of figures of speech in which a word or phrase is being applied in a way that significantly departs from conventional (or traditional) usage.

Catamite

n.

  1. a boy kept for homosexual practices

[Adlai Arnold, in conversation]

Cathect

v.

  1. to invest with mental or emotional energy

[A Handbook of Disappointed Fate — Anne Boyer]

Also: cathexis (n.) from bell hooks