Crow's nest A crow's nest is a structure in the upper part of the mainmast of a ship that is used as a lookout point. This position ensured the best view of the approaching hazards, other ships or land. It was the best device for this purpose until the invention of radar. It was a sailor in the crow's nest who actually first witnessed the Americas in 1492, rather than Christopher Columbus.
	Crowberry Crowberry is a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit. They are commonly found in the northern hemisphere, from temperate to Subarctic climate climates, and also in the Andes of South America and on Tristan da Cunha. The typical habitat is on moorlands, tundra and muskeg, but also in spruce forests.
	Crowd A crowd is a group, also known as a mob. The crowd may have a common purpose or set of emotions, such as at a Demonstration, at a sports game, or during looting, or simply be made up of many people going about their business in a busy area.
	Crowfoot Crowfoot or Isapo-Muxika Crowfoot was born in 1830 in an area later to become the province of Alberta. His parents were Packs a Knife and Attacked Towards Home. His brother Iron Shield became Chief Bull. His mother remarried to Many Names. Crowfoot was a warrior, fought as many as nineteen battles, and sustained many injuries during the course of his life.
	Crown jewels Crown jewels are those that belong to the Monarch and pass to the next sovereign to symbolize the right to rule. They usually include one or more Crowns, scepters, globus crucigers, swords, and/or jewelry rings. See also: regalia.
	Crown of Thorns In Christianity, the Crown of Thorns, one of the instruments of the Passion, was the woven chaplet of thorn branches worn by Jesus before his crucifixion. It is mentioned in the Gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, and Gospel of John and is often alluded to by the early Christian Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and others.
	Crown roast Crown roast is an elegant holiday favorite main dish. It is generally made from either lamb or pork. The construction of the roast will require a senior journeyman butcher, 10+ years experience. The entire roast, after excess bone removal, is hand trimmed. For those unfamiliar with the dish, it takes three or more backrib section tied together to form a crown.
	Crown Vetch Crown Vetch, also called Purple Crown Vetch, is a low-growing legume vine. It is native to Africa, Asia and Europe and is commonly used throughout the United States and Canada for erosion control, roadside planting and soil rehabilitation. It has become an invasive species in many states of the US.
	Crownbeard Crownbeard is the common name of a family of flowering plants , the genus Verbesina, in the family Asteraceae. They bear yellow flowers similar to small sunflowers. The name Verbesina refers to the similarity of the foliage to that of the verbena. Actinomeris is a basionym of Verbesina.
	Crucian carp The Crucian Carp is a member of the family Cyprinidae, which includes many other fish such as the common carp, or the smaller minnows. They inhabit lakes, ponds, and slow-moving rivers throughout Europe and Asia. The crucian is a medium-sized cyprinid, which rarely exceeds a weight of over 3.3 pounds.
	Crucible A crucible is a cup-shaped piece of laboratory equipment used to contain chemical compounds when heating them to very high temperatures. The receptacle is usually made of porcelain or an inert metal. One of the earliest uses of platinum was to make crucibles. More recently, metals such as nickel and zirconium have been used.
	Cruciferous vegetables Edible plants in the family Brassicaceae are termed Cruciferous vegetables. For a botanical description of plants in this family, see Brassicaceae.
	Crucifix A crucifix is a Christian cross with a representation of Jesus' body, or corpus. It is a principal symbol of the Christianity religion. It is primarily used in the Catholic Church, certain Lutheran churches, Orthodox churches, and the Anglican church, and emphasizes Christ's sacrifice—his death by crucifixion.
	Crucifixion Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution , where the victim was tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang there until dead. It was widely considered a not uncommon but extremely dishonorable and painful form of judicial execution in the Roman Empire, though similar methods were employed in other ancient cultures such as Persia.
	Crudités Crudit?s are traditional French appetizers comprising sliced or whole raw vegetables which are dipped in a vinaigrette or another dipping sauce. Crudit?s often include carrot sticks, pepper strips, celery sticks, and asparagus spears. The French word "crudit?" originates in much the same way as the English word "crude," from Latin.
	Cruise control Cruise control is a system to automatically control the speed of an automobile. The driver sets the speed and the system will take over the throttle of the car to maintain the same speed.
	Cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile missile which uses a lifting wing and most often a jet engine propulsion system to allow sustained flight. Cruise missiles are, in essence, unmanned aircraft. They are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear weapon warhead many hundreds of miles with excellent accuracy.
	Cruise ship A cruise ship is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are considered an essential part of the experience. Cruising has become a major part of the tourism industry, with millions of passengers each year as of 2006. The industry's rapid growth has seen nine or more newly built ships catering to a North American clientele added every year since 2001, as well as others servicing European clientele.
	Cruiser A cruiser is a large warship capable of engaging multiple targets simultaneously. Historically they were generally considered the smallest ships capable of independent operations — destroyers usually requiring outside support such as ship's tender — but in modern parlance this difference has disappeared.
	Cruller A cruller is a type of doughnut. It is often covered or topped in icing, which may be chocolate. It is often twisted in shape and unraised. The word comes from early 19th century Dutch language kruller, from krullen "to curl." It is most commonly found in New England and the Mid-Atlantic and North Central states of the USA, but it is also common in California.
	Crumble A crumble is a dish of United Kingdom origin containing stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat, flour, and sugar. The crumble is baked in an oven until the topping is crisp. It is often served with custard, cream or ice cream as a hearty, warm close to a meal.
	Crumhorn category: early musical instruments The crumhorn is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. It was popular in the Renaissance period. In the 20th century, there was a revival of interest in Early Music and people started to play crumhorns again. The name derives from the German language Krumhorn meaning bent horn.
	Crumpet An England crumpet is a cake made from flour or potato and yeast. It is eaten mainly in the United Kingdom, but also in the nations of the Commonwealth of Nations. In Scotland, the term is used for a large thin teacake, made from the same ingredients as a "Scotch pancake".
	Crupper A crupper is a piece of tack used on horses to keep a saddle or surcingle from sliding forward. It consists of a strap with a buckle on one end, to adjust the crupper's length, and a padded, rounded strap that passes under the horse's tail. Cruppers are usually seen on round or overweight ponies or mules.
	Crusaders The Crusaders are a New Zealand Rugby Union team based in Christchurch, New Zealand that competes in the Super 14. They are the most successful team in Super 14 history, having won the title six times. The franchise represents the Buller Rugby Football Union, Tasman Rugby Union, West Coast Rugby Football Union, Canterbury Rugby Football Union, Mid Canterbury Rugby Football Union and South Canterbury Rugby Football Union unions.
	Crusades The Crusades were a series of military campaigns waged in the name of Christendom This term refers to a particular political polity of the Medieval world. and usually sanctioned by the Pope.The Sixth Crusade was the first crusade to set sail without the official blessing of the Church, thus setting a precedent allowing other rulers to independently call for crusades on subsequent expeditions to the Holy land. They were of a religious war, combining pilgrimage with mili
	Crushing Death by crushing or pressing, as a method of capital punishment, has a long history, and the techniques to achieve this end varied greatly from place to place. This form of execution is no longer sanctioned by any governing body. A common method of death by crushing was through the use of elephants throughout South and South-East Asia for over 4,000 years of recorded history, and perhaps before that.
	Crustacean The crustaceans are a large group of arthropods , usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as lobsters, crabs, shrimp and barnacles. The majority are aquatic, living in either fresh water or marine environments, but a few groups have adaptation to terrestrial life, such as terrestrial crabs, Coenobitas and woodlouse.
	Crutch Crutches are medicine tools used in the event that one's leg or legs may be injured or unable to support weight. The term, crutch, can also refer to anything used by a person as a psychological or emotional prop, or to something used as an excuse not to engage in normal life activities.
	Crux Crux, being Latin for cross, commonly known as the Southern Cross , is List of constellations by area of the 88 modern constellations, but nevertheless one of the most distinctive. It is surrounded on three sides by the constellation Centaurus while to the south lies the Fly .
	CRUX name = CRUX Linux | logo = | screenshot = | caption = | developer = Per Lidn and CRUX Linux community | family = Linux | source_model = Open source | working_state = Current | latest_release_version = | latest_release_date = April 9, 2006 | kernel_type = Monolithic kernel |
	Cryobiology Cryobiology is the study of living organisms, organs, biological tissues or biological cells at low temperatures. This knowledge is practically applied in three fields: cryonics, cryopreservation and cryosurgery.
	Cryolite Cryolite is an uncommon mineral of very limited natural distribution. It is mostly identified with the once large deposit at Ivittuut on the west coast of Greenland, which ran out in 1987. It was historically used as an ore of aluminium and later in the electrolytic processing of the aluminium rich oxide ore, bauxite, which is a combination of aluminium oxide minerals such as gibbsite, boehmite and diaspore.
	Cryonics Cryonics is the practice of cryopreservation humans or animals that can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine until resuscitation may be possible in the future. The process is not currently reversible, and by law can only be performed on humans after legal death in anticipation that the early stages of clinical death may be reversible in the future .
	Crypt In medieval terms, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault, usually beneath the floor of a church or castle, usually containing tombs of important persons such as saints or saints' relics, or high ranking church officials. Churches were occasionally raised above ground level to accommodate a crypt at the ground level, such as St. Michael's Church in Hildesheim, Germany.
	Cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so. Typically, this involves finding the secret key. In non-technical language, this is the practice of codebreaking or cracking the code, although these phrases also have a specialised technical meaning .
	Cryptogams The name cryptogams is a term fairly widely in use as a phrase of convenience, although regarded as an obsolete taxonomic term. A similar case is "lichens". The name cryptogams refers to 'plants' which reproduce by spores. Also in use are names such as "lower plants" and "spore plants". Best known groups of cryptogams are lichens, mosses and ferns.
	Cryptography Cryptography is a discipline of mathematics concerned with information security and related issues, particularly encryption, authentication, and access control. Its purpose is to hide the meaning of a message rather than its existence. In modern times, it has also branched out into computer science.
	Cryptomeria Cryptomeria is a genus of Pinophyta in the cypress family Cupressaceae formerly belonging to the family Taxodiaceae; it includes only one species, Cryptomeria japonica . It is endemic to Japan, where it is known as Sugi; this vernacular name is increasingly being used as the English name as well, replacing the old, botanically inaccurate name "Japanese Cedar" - the tree is not related to the cedars.
	Cryptorchidism Cryptorchidism is a medical term referring to absence from the scrotum of one or both testes. This usually represents failure of the testis to move, to "descend," during fetal development from an abdomen position, through the inguinal canal, into the ipsilateral scrotum.
	Crystal In chemistry and mineralogy, a crystal is a solid in which the constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are packed in a regularly ordered, repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. Generally, crystals form when they undergo a process of solidification.
	Crystal ball A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball believed to aid clairvoyance. It is sometimes known as a shew stone.
	Crystal oscillator A crystal oscillator is an electronic circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency. This frequency is commonly used to keep track of time , to provide a stable clock signal for digital integrated circuits, and to stabilize frequencies for radio transmitters.
	Crystallite A crystallite is a domain of solid-state matter that has the same structure as a single crystal. Solid objects that are large enough to see and handle are rarely composed of a single crystal, except for a few cases. Most materials are polycrystalline; they are made of a large number of single crystals — crystallites — held together by thin layers of amorphous solid.
	Crystallization Crystallization is the process of formation of solid crystals from a solution. Crystallization is also a chemical solid-liquid separation technique.
	CS gas CS or 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile is a substance that is used as a riot control agent and is usually claimed to be Non-lethal force by the forces who use it. CS was discovered by two Americans, Ben Carson and Roger Staughton in 1928, the first letters of the scientists' surname giving us the name of the substance, 'CS' .
	Ctenoid Ctenoid means 'having the margin toothed like a comb'. It is used to the scales of some fishes, such as perciforms that have such a toothed margin. Ctenoid scales are essentially cycloid scales with teeth at their posterior edges. It is thought that these teeth help to reduce hydrodynamic drag during swimming.
	Ctenophore The ctenophore , also known as the comb jelly, is a phylum classically grouped with Cnidaria in the Coelenterata infrakingdom. The phylum includes the sea gooseberry and the Venus' girdle . The word ctenophore comes from Greek language, kteno-, kteis, "comb" and -phore, meaning "bearer".
	Cub Scout A Cub Scout is a member of the section of the worldwide Scouting movement for young persons normally aged 810. In some countries they are called Wolf Cubs and are often referred to simply as Cubs. The movement is often referred to simply as Cubbing. Originally, like the Boy Scouts, the Cubbing was for boys only; girls were expected to join the Brownies and then the Girl Guides.
	Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, consists of the island of Cuba, the Isle of Youth and adjacent small islands. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Cuba is south of the eastern United States and the Bahamas, west of the Turks and Caicos Islands and Haiti and east of Mexico.
	Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution was the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista regime by the 26th of July Movement and the establishment of a new Cuba government led by Fidel Castro in the 1950s. It began with the assault on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, and ended on January 1, 1959, when Batista was driven from the country and the cities Santa Clara, Cuba and Santiago de Cuba were seized by rebels, led by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro's surrogates Ral Castro
	Cube A cube is a three-dimensional space Platonic solid composed of six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. The cube is a special kind of square prism , of rectangular parallelepiped and of 3-sided trapezohedron, and is dual polyhedron to the octahedron.
	Cube root In mathematics, the cube root of a number is the number which, when cubed, gives the original number. For example, the cube root of 8 is 2, because 2 × 2 × 2 = 8, or: The cube root operation is associativity with exponentiation and distributivity with multiplication and division, but is not associative or distributive with addition or subtraction.
	Cubeb Cubeb, or tailed pepper, is a plant in genus Piper, cultivated for its fruit and essential oil. It is mostly grown in Java and Sumatra, hence sometimes called Java pepper. The fruits are gathered before they are ripe, and carefully dried. Commercial cubebs consist of the dried berries, similar in appearance to black pepper, but with stalks attached — the "tails" in "tailed pepper".
	Cubic metre The cubic metre is the SI derived unit of volume. It is the volume of a cube with edges one metre in length. In the United States it is spelled "cubic meter". An alternate name, which allowed a different usage with SI prefixes, was the stre.
	Cubicle A cubicle, cubicle desk or office cubicle is a partially enclosed workspace, separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions, generally five to six feet high. It is partially or entirely open on one side to allow access. Horizontal work surfaces are usually suspended from the partitions, as is shelving, overhead storage, and other amenities.
	Cubism Cubism was an early 20th century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized Europe painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form — instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to present the piece in a greater context.
	Cubit Cubit is the name for any one of many units of measure used by various ancient peoples. The natural cubit is based on the distance between thumb and another finger to the elbow on an average person. It was employed consistently through the Middle-Ages up to the Early modern Europe.
	Cubitus Cubitus is a fictional dog character from an eponymous Belgian comic book series by cartoonist Dupa. Cubitus is a fat, round, white fuzzy dog who lives with his owner, an old white-mustached retired sailor called Semaphore. There has been a anime based on his comics, named Don Don Romeru to Ron which was renamed Wowser in the USA.
	Cuboid In anatomy, the cuboid bone is a bone in the foot. In geometry, a cuboid is a solid figure bounded by six rectangular faces: a rectangular box. All angles are right angles, and opposite faces of a cuboid are congruency. It is also a right rectangular Prism.
	Cuboid bone The cuboid bone is one of seven Tarsal bones. Distally, the Cuboid articulates with the fourth and fifth metatarsals, forming the fourth and fifth tarsometatarsal joints. Proximally, it articulates with the calcaneus, forming the calcaneocuboid joint. The medial surface of the bone articulates with both the lateral cuneiform bone and the navicular bone.
	Cucking stool Ducking-stools and cucking-stools are chairs formerly used for the punishment. They were both instruments for the social humiliation/censure primarily for offences of scolding or back biting, and less often for sexual offences like having an illegitimate child or prostitution.
	Cuckold A cuckold is a married man with a sexually infidelity wife. In current usage it sometimes refers to non-married couples as well, although the common and traditional meaning is a man who is a victim of his wife's adultery. There are connotations of helplessness and humiliation attributed to the word: implications that the husband lacks the strength to enforce the fidelity due to a man, and is too weak, too stupid, or henpecked to leave or divorce her.
	Cuckoo The Cuculidae or cuckoos are a family of near passerine birds. Many of the Old World species and some New World species are brood parasites, laying their Eggs in the nests of other birds. The best-known example is the European Common Cuckoo. The cuckoo egg hatches earlier and the chick grows faster and in most cases the chick evicts the eggs or young of the host species.
	Cuckoo clock A cuckoo clock is a clock, typically pendulum clock, that striking clock using small bellows and whistles that imitate the call of the Common Cuckoo in addition to striking a wire gong. The mechanism to produce the cuckoo call was installed in almost every kind of cuckoo clock since the middle of the eighteenth century and has remained almost without variation until the present.
	Cuculiformes The near passerine bird order Cuculiformes traditionally included three families as below: * Order Cuculiformes ** Family Musophagidae: turacos and allies ** Family Cuculidae: cuckoos ** Family Opisthocomidae: Hoatzin However, the taxonomy of this group is now controversial.
	Cucumber The cucumber is in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, and in the same genus as the muskmelon. The plant is widely cultivated today. The cucumber plant has large leaves that form a canopy over the fruit. The vine is grown on the ground or on trellises, often in greenhouses.
	Cucumber tree Several plants are known as the Cucumber tree. This page is about Magnolia acuminata, of North America. For the species Averrhoa bilimbi, from South-east Asia, click bilimbi. For the species Dendrosicyos socotrana, from the Horn of Africa, click Dendrosicyos socotrana.
	Cucumis Cucumis is a genus of vine, tendril-bearing plants in the Cucurbitaceae family(biology) which includes the cucumber and the muskmelon.
	Cucurbita Cucurbita is a genus in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae. It includes species grown for their fruit and edible seeds, as well as some species grown only as gourds. They have bicollateral vascular bundles. Many North and Central American species are visited by specialist pollinators in the apidae group Eucerini, especially the genera Peponapis and Xenoglossa, and these bees can be very important for fruit set.