List of Old English Words in the OED/C

Old English	English
Calends n.	First day of any month in the Roman calendar. In OE. a month; also, a season. 3. fig, a prelude 4. Calendar, a record. (Latin loan word )
Calf n.	Young of any bovine family. (b) a dolt; occas. meek, harmless person. 2. A small island lying near a larger one; as in the Calf of Man. Adj: Calfish: raw, untrained.
Calf-ground n.	Place of birth or early part of life
Calf-kill n.	A heath plant (Kalmia latifolia)
Callow adj.	Bald, without hair, down of youth. 2. inexperienced, unfledged 3. bare, low-lying land
Calve vb & n.	Action of glacier losing ice; the ice lost.
Cammock n.	The plant Ononsis spinosa, also called Rest-harrow.
Camp n.	Combat, martial contest, fight, battle, war. Eg: Camp-ball: an ancient form of football played by large numbers. cf: kemp
Camping vb.	Fight, contend in battle, strive, 2. excell, surpass 3. participate in athletics
Cample n.	Wordy conflict, wrangle, scold, answer in anger
Can n.	Vessel for holding liquids, with a handle over the top. 2. Vessel of tin iron in which fruit, fish, etc are sealed up air tight. 3. Chimney pot
Can vb.	The original meaning of the present was 'I have learned'; whence, 'I have known'. 2. To know. 3. To have knowledge. cf canny
Candle n.	Stick of hard wax with a wick. You light the wick to give a steady flame that provides light.
Candlefly n.	A moth.
Canker n.	Cancer, gangrene, ulcer. Anything that frets, corrodes, corrupts or consumes slowly and secretly
Cankeredly adj.	Spiteful, peevish, malignant
Cankerfret n.	Eat with cancer; rust
Canny adj.	Sagacious, prudent, cautious, skilfully cunning.
Cap n.	A head covering, hood, headdress; a top layer. (Latin loan word)
Capsheath n.	The top sheath of a shock or stook, also fig.
Caresome adj.	Troublesome, burdensome
Carf n.	A cut; the cut part of the end of a piece of wood.
Carl pref.	Prefix denoting maleness, as in carl-cat, carl-crab. n 2. a man of the common people, particularly a husband-man 3. villian, base fellow 4. niggard, churl. Carlish, Carlishness.
Carles-wain n.	(OE.Carles waegn the wain of Carl(Charlemagne) Orig. the wain of Arturus, verbally associated with Arturus. Arthur and Charlemagne are associated in legend.) The asterism comprising the seven bright stars in Ursa Major, known also as The Plough.
Carr n.	A rock; now esp. used of insulated rocks of the Northumbrian & Scottish coasts.
Cart n.	A heavy two-wheeled vehicle for carrying loads. 2. A light two-wheeled pleasure vehicle with springs. 3 Loosely, any two or four-wheeled vehicle. Carter.
Cart vb.	To convey or carry in or as a cart. 2. to drive or use a cart
Cart-bote n.	An allownace of wood by the lord to a tenant for making or repairing carts.
Carve vb.	Hew, cut or sculpture (out of stone, ivory or wood). 2. To shape by cutting. 3. Cut up or subdivide.
Cast vb.	Throw, fling, project. 2 In phrases and combinations such as cast aside, cast down, cast up, cast off etc.
Castling n.	The offspring of an untimely birth; an abortion. 2. the second (or third) swarm from one hive in a season
Cat n.	A carnivorous quadruped; a domesticated carnivorous mammal.
Cat-hole n.	Den of the wild cat. OE. only. 2. A hole large enough to let a cat through. Fig, any small or cramped lodging.
Cawl n.	Basket, creel
Chaff n.	The husk of corns or other grains separated by threshing or winnowing. 2. cut hay and straw used for feeding cattle. 3. banter, ridicule, badinage
Chaffer n.	Trade, traffic, dealing, buying and selling. Cognates: Chaffer, Chafferer: trader, dealer. Chaffering: bargaining, haggling
Chaffer vb.	To trade, deal in merchandise, buy and sell, to bargain, haggle about price or terms. 2. haggle or bandy over words.
Chalk n.	An opaque soft white earthy limestone. 2. A chalk-like concretion used in the form of a crayons for drawing.
Chalky adj.	Resembling chalk; fragility (esp. of bones)
Chapman n.	Merchant,trader. Chap-woman: female trader; Chafferer, Chapmanship: performance of a chapman. Cognate: Cheap-fare: bargains
Chare n.	Deed, work, business; domestic work, turning or moving back, return, retreat. After-chare: repentance. 2. The returning of a time. A turn ; to turn of work; housework, cleaning (of a house)
Chare n.	Narrow lane or wynd; a turn-down.
Charity n.	Alms-giving in OE. 2. benvolence to the Poor 3, Christian love, esp .of one's fellow man. 4. love, natural affection, spontaneous goodness; fairness, equity.
Chark, Chirk vb.	Creak, grating, jar. 2 To be querulous. Cognate: charksome, charkful, charkless See Chirk.
Charles's Wain n.	See Carles-wain.
Charlock n.	Sinapsis arvensis or Field Mustard; also used for other field weeds.
Charr vb.	Murmur, complain
Chary adj.	Sorrowful. 2. dear, cherished. 3. careful, cautious, shy, frugal, sparing.
Chaw vb.	To chew. 2. mumble 3. ruminate upon, brood over. Cognate: Chawer, Chaw-bacon: bumpkin
Chawn n.	Gap, cleft, chink, rift, fissure, chine
Chawn vb.	Gape open, cleave, asunder, chine
Cheap n.	The sense "cattle" is found only in OE. 1. a bargain, bargaining. 2. a market, marketplace. (hence in place-names, as Cheapside etc.) 3. price 4. goods.
Cheap vb.	Barter, bargain
Cheapgild n.	A market-place, cheaping
Cheek n.	The jaw, jawbone. 2. side of the face below the eye. 3. insolence in speaking to any one, cool confidence, effrontery, as in the phr. to give cheek. 4. closest intimacy, as in the phr. cheek by jowl. 5. side post of a door, gate.
Cheekbone n.	The bone of the lower jaw.
Cheek-tooth n.	A molar
Cheese n.	The curd of milk separated from the whey and pressed into a solid mass
Cheesemonger n.	One who deals in cheese.
Cheeselip n.	Common woodlouse
Cheole, Chel n.	Throat
Cherry n.	A well known stone fruit; the pulpy drupe of certain species of prunus (NO. Rosacae)
Cheery-merry adj.	Merry, esp, with conviviality
Chesil n.	Gravel, shingle. Now dial. or in placenames.
Chest n.	A box, coffer; now mostly a large box of strong construction. 2.coffin. Still dial. 3.case in which certain commodities, as tea, sugar are stored. 4. that part of the body enclosed by the ribs and breastbone; the thorax.
Chester n.	A walled town; orig. that had been a roman station in Britain.
Chestnut n.	The edible nut of the chestnut(Castnea vesca). 2. the hard knob in the skin of the horse at the inner side of the foreleg. 3. a venerable joke or story 4. deep reddish colour
Chew vb.	To crush bruise or grind by the action of the molar; bite, chomp. 2. masticate food. 3. trans & transfig. to examine or plan deliberately; meditate or ruminate upon
Chicken n.	The young of the domesticated fowl. 2. a child, one young or inexperienced.
Chicken-hearted adj.	Of a heart so timorous as a chicken; of a cowardly person.
Chide vb.	To contend with loud and angry altercation, wrangle, brawl. 2. scold, rebuke, find fault with. 3. drive, compel or repel by chiding.
Chike n.	Childishness, childness
Chilblain n.	An inflammatory swelling produced by exposure to cold, affecting the hands and feet, accompanied by burning or with heat, itching and sometimes ulceration.
Childing adj.	Pregnant, bearing child
Childwite n.	Fine paid to the lord for getting his bondswoman with child.
Chill n.	Cold, Coldness
Chill vb.	To make cold; to affect injuriously with cold. 2. to cause to shiver. 3. fig what tends to repress warmth of feeling; repress deaden in feeling; dampen or dispirit.
Chilver n.	Ewe lamb, young wether, chilver lamb
Chime n.	The rim at the end of a cask formed by ends of the staves. 2. the part of the waterway left the thickest and above the deck plank.
Chin n.	The part of the face below the upper lip formed by the prominent extremities of the lower jaw. Chinwag, chinless,
Chincough n.	Hooping-cough; From the stem (Saxon):kink- OT., kik, to chink, kink. gasp (by popular etymology connected with chin)
Chine n.	Deep hollow ravine cut in soft rock by water, as Shanklin's Chine in the Isle of Wight
Chink vb.	To gasp convulsively for breath in laughing and coughing. Cf Chincough
Chip n.	A small thin piece of wood or other material, prepared for hewing, cutting, breaking. 2. counter used in a game of chance. 3. anything worthless without flavor, innutritious or dried up. 4. slight fracture caused by chipping.
Chip vb.	To pare away. 2. hew or cut with an axe; to break off a small fragment etc., 3. crack or break the shell of. 4. In Australia, to harrow
Chirk vb.	Variant of Chark. 1, To make a strident noise, chirp, squeak, croak 2. To cheer up, to be in a lively spirit
Chithe n.	Sprout, bud, tender blade of grass, chive, glume, awn, chit.
Chirm vb.	Vociferate, call-out, roar
Chise adj,	Fastidious, neat, tidy
Chiule n.	An Old English or Norse warship
Choke-lewe n.	Choking, suffocation, strangling. Alt spelling: Cheke-lewe
Choose vb.	To take by preference all that is available; to select. to gather at pleasure. to pick out by sight.
Chough n.	Chatter, prattle, (birds of the crow family.)
Costlewe adj.	Costly, sumptious, expensive, lavish in expenditure, extravagant
Cotter n.	A peasant who occupies a cottage belonging to a farm as a sort of out-servant.
Chrism n.	Oil mingled with balm, a sacramental anointing.
Christ n.	The Messiah or "Lord's Anointed"
Christen vb.	To administer baptism
Christmas n.	The festival of the nativity of Christ
Church n.	A building for religious worship
Church-folk n.	People at church; adherents of the established church
Church-going adj.	Regular going to church.
Church-grith n.	Right of church sanctuary, church peace, abstinence of violence within the church precincts.
Church-hawe n.	Churchyard, kirkyard, garth
Church-litten n.	Cemetery, burying enclosure, church cemetery
Churchship n.	Status of a church; also Churchdom
Church-scot n.	In old English times a custom of corn collected on St Martin's; extended to other contributions.
Churchsoke n.	Territory of the church; inhabitants of a church district.
Churl n.	Male human, man simply of no rank, low class of freeman. Cognate: Churldom, Churlhood, churliness Cf: carl
Churn n.	A vessel or machine for making butter.
Churn vb.	Agitate, stir, upset, trouble, to produce froth
Cinder n.	Scoria, a residue of combustible substance or ashes, esp. coal after it has ceased to flare and, also, after it has ceased to burn.
Cinders path n.	A running track laid with cinders
Clad vb.	Cover with or as with clothing; array, bedeck.
Clake vb.	Hurt, injury, scathe
Clary n.	(In OE. slarie, slareye) Resolved by apothecaries into clear-eye) The plant Salvia sclarea, considered good for the eye.
Clatter n.	A non-ringing noise made by the collision of; tattle, noisy talk, gossip.
Clatter vb.	To utter in a chattering way, prattle , tattle,
Clauster n.	Cloister, cell, monastery
Claut, Cleach, Cletch vb.	grasping hard, clutch. 2. scratch, claw, rake, scrape out
Claver, Clifer n.	Talon, claw
Claw n.	Talon. cf, crombe, Clee
Claw vb.	Scratch, tear with the claw, sieze, grip, grasp, clutch. 2. scratch gently to relieve itching, 3. flatter, cajole, fawn upon. Claw back: regain position by tenacity.
Clayly adj.	Earthly as opposed to spiritually
Claycold adj.	Cold as dead body
Clead, Cleading n.	Clothing, apparel, attire. Cognates: Cleadful: handsomely attired.
Cleam, Cloam vb.	Smear, anoint, dedaub, plaster sticky matter to, adhere
Cleat n.	Wedge
Cleave vb.	That which cannot be clefted, or divided; 2. Easy to split, apt to split or asunder, fissible, divisible.
Clee, cloat n	Talon, claw; cf, crombe.
Clem vb.	Pinch with hunger or fasting, waste with hunger, starve, pine of hunger
Clem, Clemmings n.	Pangs of hunger.
Cleve n.	Room, chamber, sleeping place
Clib adj.	Eager, sharp, keen. Also Clibby: sticky.
Cloam, Cloamen n.	Earthenware, pottery, clay. Also Cloamer: Potter, maker of earthenware
Cloud, Clod n.	Mass of rock, a hill; consolidated mass of earth & sky.
Clough, n.	Ravine or valley with steep sides, a cleugh
Clum vb.	Mutter, murmur
Clumper n.	Mass, lump
Clumse vb.	Become stiff, numb with cold, stupefy, amaze, daze
Coane n.	Chawn, gap, deft, chink
Coath vb.	Swoon
Coathed adj.	Diseased
Codder n.	Leather-worker, saddler
Cold adj.	Feeling no warmth
Cold-blooded adj.	Having blood(physically) cold or not warmer than the external air or water; esp. said of fish & reptiles. 2. without excitement, feelings or sensibility; deliberately cruel; ruthless,.
Cold feet cliche.	To get cold feet: to lose one's nerve; to have doubts about taking on an activity.
Coldheaded adj.	Wanting in sensibility or natural affection; unkind.
Cold-hearted adj.	To be aloof and unfeeling.
Cold shoulder mph.	To ostentatiously ignore someone; as in, to give someone the cold shoulder
Collow vb.	Make black or dirty with soot, blacken, smut, begrime
Collow n.	Soot, smut, grime, coal dust
Commonweal n.	General good, common well-being, prosperity of the community, public welfare
Coom n.	Soot formed on a fireplace, blacksmith furnace, refuse
Coomy adj.	Covered or blackened by soot, dust, grime. 2. Soily, smirchy
Coomb n.	Small valley, hollow, deep hollow or valley
Cop n.	Summit, top, peak, brow, 2. top of anything, esp. of a hill, 3. the head. 4. bird's crest. 5. heap, mound, tumulus. 6. ridge
Copen vb.	Desire eagerly, long for, yearn deeply
Copener n.	Paramour
Copse n.	Shackle for any part of the body. Fot-copse: leg iron; Hand-copse: manacle; Wear-copse: neck-copse; 2. Hapse for fastening a gate or door; fastener.
Cornmonger n.	Corndealer, often used with the implication of greed and extortion
Cost n.	Way, manner, available course. 2. Hence, probably the modern at nay cost.
Cost n.	The herb called Alecost or Costmary.
Costen vb.	Try
Costening n.	Cost, expense
Costlewe adj.	Costly, sumptious, expensive, lavish in expenditure, extravagant
Costnung n.	Temptation
Cot n.	Small house, cottage, poetical connoting smallness, humbleness, (rather than meanness or rudeness expressed by hut.) That is: cot-folk, cot-town.
Cote n.	Small detached house occupied by the poor. Note: Cottage: a slight building for the shelter of animals (pigs, sheep, fowl)
Cote vb.	To enclose animals, pen
Cotland n.	Piece of land (about 5 acres) held by a cotman, cotlander, cotter.
Cotlif n.	Life or living, dwelling in a cot, see: mynster-lif: a monastery.
Cotly adv	Quickly, keenly, boldly, fiercely
Cotset n.	Cottage settler, (In Doomesday Book)
Cotter n.	A peasant who occupies a cottage belonging to a farm as a sort of out-servant.
Couch-grass n.	a species of grass, Triticum repens, with long, creeping root-stalks
Coulter n.	The iron blade fixed at the front of a share plough; also attributively.
Coulterneb n.	The local name for the Puffin, so called because of the shape of its bill.
Council n.	Great Council occas. applied to the Witangemot
Court n.	In OE. an assembly held by the sovereign at his residence. From OF.
Courtleet n.	Court record. 2. a court district or jurisdiction or district which jurisdiction extends.
Couth adj.	As of a quality of things: known, well known, familiar, famous, renown.
Cove n.	In a rock hollow or recess in a rock. 2. Recess in a precipitious mountside. 3. Sheltered place or recess in forest, hills, woods. 4.cell in a pigeon coup.
Cow n.	The female of the domestic or of any bovine animal. The female of some other large animals, eg, elephant, whale.
Cow-hearted adj.	Cowardly
Cowl n.	A garment with a hood, esp worn by monks; occasionally the hood alone. Sometimes = a monk.
Cow-leech n.	Cow doctor
Cowshard n.	Cowdung, sheard, sharn
Cowslip n.	Cow-dung. 2. the common name of Primula veris, a well known wild plant in pastures and grassy banks.
Crab n.	Any decapod crustaceous animal of the tribe Brachyura; esp the edible species found on or near the seacoast.
Crab-face n.	Any ugly ill-tempered looking face.
Crab-harrow n.	A harrow with bent teeth for tearing up the ground. Hence to crab-harrow, vb.
Crack vb.	To make a sharp or explosive noise.
Cradle n.	A little bed r cot for an infant. 2. infancy, or the first stage of existence. 3. the place in which anything is nurtured in its earlier stage. Cradlehood. Infancy, babyhood..
Craft n.	Power, strength, force. 2. intellectual power, skill, art, ability in planning and construction, ingenuity, dexterity.
Craft n.	Guild, union
Craftedness n.	Possessing a handicraft
Craftful adj.	Skillful
Craftsman n.	A person who practices a handicraft; an artisan. Also craftsmanship
Crafty adj.	Strong, weighty, skilful, dextrous, cunning, ingenuous.
Cram vb.	To press, squeeze. 2. to fill a space, etc in more than it properly holds by compression. 2. to thrust, force, stuff, crowd. 3. to fed with an excess of food.
Creek n.	Bay. 2. contrivance, trick, crooked device
Crane n.	A large grallatorial bird of the family Gruidae, characterised by very long legs, neck and bill.
Crane vb.	To stretch (the neck) like a crane; to lean or bend forwatd with the neck stretched out.
Crave vb.	To demand, to ask with authority, or by right, to long for, yearn, to need greatly.
Craw n.	The crop of birds or insects. 2. stomach (of man or animals) derisively.
Creekward adj.	In a corner, out of the way
Creep vb.	To move with the body close to the ground, as a reptile, insect, quadruped moving stealthily. 2. to come on slowly by degree. 3. to move timorously, cautiously, or slowly. 4. to grow extending along the ground, as a creeper.
Creep n.	A sensation as of creeping thing on ones body. Also phr: 'It gives me the creeps.'
Cress n.	Name of various cruciferous plants, having mostly edible leaves of a pungent flavour. 2 as a type something of little worth.
Crib n.	In OE. a barrel, receptacle for fodder. 2. the stall or cabin for an ox. 3. A cabin, a hovel or narrow room. 4. bed for a child with barrel sides. 5. a wickerwork basket. 6. something cribbed: a plagiarism. 7. a petty theft.
Cringe vb.	To draw in or contract any part of the body. 2. behave obsequiously to show base or servile deference. 3. recede from ones purpose.
Crinkle vb.	To form many short twists or turns; crumple. 2. to emit sharp thin sounds.
Cripple n.	One who is disabled, either from birth or by accident or injury; a lame person. Also: Crippledom.
Cripple vb.	To deprive (wholly or fully) of the use of one's limbs; disable, hobble. 2. Impair the action of a person in his resources, efforts, etc, in trade, schemes, strength.
Cripple-hole n.	A hole left in the fence, hedge or walls for sheep to creep through.
Crock n.	Earthen pot, jar, a metal pot. 2. a broken piece of earthennware 3. a sick weak or emaciated beast; an old ewe past bearing; a broken down horse
Croft n.	A piece of enclosed ground, usedfor tillage or pasture. 2. a small piece of arable land attached to a house. 3. a small agricultural holding worked by a peasant, esp in the Highlands of Scotland. Also crofter one who rents and farms a croft.
Cromb n.	A hook, crook. In early use , also a talon, claw
Crop n.	A pouch like enlargement in the oesophagus oor gullet of many birds, from which food is prepared for digestion; the craw. 2. Head of a herb, flower, tree, etc. 3. The annual produce of plants grown or gathered for food; the produce of some particular plant in one season or locality.
Cross n.	A kind of gibbet, a stake with a transverse bar, on which anciently criminals were put to death. 2. The holy Rood (late OE.)
Crowke n.	Pitcher, jug
Crow n.	A bird of the genus Corvus
Crow vb.	To utter the loud cry of a crow. of persons, to utter an inarticulate sound of joy or exultation; to exult loudly, boast, swagger
Crowberry n.	The fruit of Empctum nigrum
Crowbill n.	Forceps for extracting bullets from wounds
Crow-iron n.	Crowbar
Crow-keeper n.	One who guard cornfields from crows and rooks; a scarecrow.
Crow-leek n.	The wild hyacinth (Scilla nutans)
Crown n.	In OE. The cincture or covering for the head, worn by the monarch as a mark of sovereignty. 2. the role, position or empire of a monarch.
Crumb n.	A small particle; a small particle of bread. 2. a scrap of s.t. immmaterial. 3. the soft part of the bread as opposed to the crust. Phr to gather (or pick up ones crumbs: to pick up strength.
Crump n.	A crooked bodied person; hunchback
Crump vb.	To curl up, bend into a curve.
Crutch n.	A staff for a lame or infirmed person to lean on for walking. transfig & fig. a support or prop to lean on.
Cud n.	The food which a ruminating animal brings back into the mouth from the first stomach. Metaphor. to chew the cud: to recall & reflect on things past; ruminate.
Cudwort n.	The plant usu. gnaphalium given to cattle that had lost their cud.
Cudgel n.	A short thick stick used as a weapon; a club. Fig & transfig. to take up the cudgel for someone: to defend someone.
Cuff n.	a mitten or glove. 2. ornamental part of the bottom of the sleeve.
Cuff vb.	to strike with the hand or deal blows. 2. to handcuff.
Culver n.	A dove; now the local name of the wood pigeon.