The Thirty-Nine Steps (25 page)

coddling
VERB
coddling means to treat someone too kindly or protect them too much
and I’ve been coddling the fellow as if I’d been his grandmother
(
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott)

coil
NOUN
coil means noise or fuss or disturbance
What a coil is there?
(
Doctor Faustus 4.7
by Christopher Marlowe)

collared
VERB
to collar something is a slang term which means to capture. In this sentence, it
means he stole it [the money]
he collared it
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

colling
VERB
colling is an old word which means to embrace and kiss
and no clasping and colling at all
(
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy)

colloquies
NOUN
colloquy is a formal conversation or dialogue
Such colloquies have occupied many a pair of pale-faced weavers
(
Silas Marner
by George Eliot)

comfit
NOUN
sugar-covered pieces of fruit or nut eaten as sweets
and pulled out a box of comfits
(
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll)

coming out
VERB
when a girl came out in society it meant she was of marriageable age. In order to
‘come out’ girls were expecting to attend balls and other parties during a season
The younger girls formed hopes of coming out a year or two sooner than they might
otherwise have done
(
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen)

commit
VERB
commit means arrest or stop
Commit the rascals
(
Doctor Faustus 4.7
by Christopher Marlowe)

commodious
ADJ
commodious means convenient
the most commodious and effectual ways
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

commons
NOUN
commons is an old term meaning food shared with others
his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out; and
a long grace was said over the short commons
. (
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens)

complacency
NOUN
here complacency means a desire to please others. To-day complacency means feeling
pleased with oneself without good reason.
Twas thy power that raised the first complacency in me
(
The Prelude
by William Wordsworth)

complaisance
NOUN
complaisance was eagerness to please
we cannot wonder at his complaisance
(
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen)