A Dictionary of Cont..

char& thnt a person did this or that (It wus
charged that he aided und abetted the enemy).
The former construction is sometimes used in
America, but the latter is rarely used in England.
charge; accuse. To charge is to make a formal
accusation. It is often used of an accusation
brought at law (Charge an honest woman with
picking thy pocket?) or one delivered with the
solemnity of an indictment. An accusation can
be formal, but it can also be informal and even
mild (The younger children accztsed John of
eating more than his share. Here charged him
with eating more than his share would be ponderous).
In an impersonal construction only charge
can be used (It has been charged that Richard’s
early associates corrupted his morals).
chart. See map.
charter. See hire.
chartered; charted. One sometimes hears or even
reads of unchartered seas. A chart is a map. A
charter is a document that grants certain rights
and privileges.
chateau. The plural is chateaus or chateaux.
cheap; inexpensive. Cheap was originally the process
of buying and selling. (From this came
Cheapside, a part of London in which the shops
were congregated, what we would call a shopping
center.) As late as 1727, Swift, in his “A
Description of a City Shower,” wrote: To shops
in crowds the daggled females fly/Pretend to
cheapen goods, but nothing buy. It is only recently
and in a very small part of the world that
prices have been fixed. Formerly it was assumed
that the purchaser would offer less than what
was asked and that the seller would, in time,
accept less. Thus cheapen, from the buyer’s
point of view, came to mean to lower the price
and from this came all of our favorable meanings
of cheap (Eggs are wonderfully cheap r~ow.
If you want a cheap vacation, travel on an
ocean freighter). From the seller’s point of view,
however, it was necessary to lower the quality
in order to gain by the transaction even if the
price were lowered, and from this come our
unfavorable meanings of cheap: shoddy, shabby,
mean (Zt just looks sleazy and cheap. That
was a cheap trick to play on a friend). Some
purists have deplored this second use of the
word, but surely it is as inherent in its development
as the first.
Cheap suggests a low cost. One could say
that a diamond necklace was cheap at a hundred
thousand dollars. But the word would certainly
not be used in its modern sense if one said that
it was a cheap necklace. Inexpensive is now the
commoner word to emphasize lowness of price
and suggest that the value is fully equal toI the
cost.
Cheap has been used as an adverb as long as
it has been used as an adjective. Cheaply can be
used only as an adverb. But he sold it cheap is
just as good English as he sold it cheaply.
check. In the sense of a written order directing a
bank to pay money, the English spell the word
cheque, Americans spell it check.
91 cheerful
Check, as a verb and a noun, has some uses
in America that it does not have in England.
A piece of luggage is checked in America when
it is sent to a destination under the privilege of
a passenger ticket. To check up or check up on
is to make an inquiry or investigation for verification.
To check out is to leave and pay for one’s
quarters at a hotel (“I will have to check up on
this check before you can check out,” said the
desk clerk).
check; curb; repress; restrain. Check implies the
sudden arrest of a forward motion (He checked
his horse sharply. The reform movement received
a check when the council approved Alderman
Smith’s resolzttion). Curb implies the
use of a means such as a chain or strap,-a frame,
or a wall, to guide or control or to force to
stay within limits. Repress formerly meant only
suppress, but now it also implies the prevention
of an action or development which might
naturally be expected (A child should not be
repressed when he wants to express himself).
Restrain implies the use of force to put someone
or something under control, and chiefly to
hold back (In his paroxysms two attendants
could scarcely restrain him from doing himself
harm).
In New York City curb as a verb has acquired
-through a combination of a city ordinance,
euphemism, and a pun-a special meaning.
Curb your dog, which is enjoined upon the citizens
at almost every lamppost, means not only
that the dog must be kept curbed by a leash but
that it must be led to the curb (the edge of the
sidewalk) to defecate into the gutter. The injunction
hidden under the double meaning would
not be understood in England where in this
meaning the word is spelled kerb.
checkers. The game which is America is called
checkers is in England called draughts, where
checker, spelled chequer, is an obsolete name
for chess.
When used as the name of a game, checkers
takes a singular verb, as in checkers is played by
two persons. A single piece is called a man and
not a checker. But the singular form checker is
preferred as the first element in a compound,
as in checkerboard.
cheek by jowl. Since the commonest meaning of
jowl is now a fold of flesh hanging from the
jaw, especially of the aged corpulent and the
shrunken fat, cheek by jowl no longer conveys
the sense of jolly intimacy that it did when jowl
meant cheek. It is not only a clich6 but a misleading
one and should be avoided.
cheeky. See impertinent.
cheerful; cheery. The cheerful man feels full of
cheer. The cheery man acts as if he did and
attempts to promote cheer among others. Cheerfulness
is internal and may not show. Cheeriness
is external and, sometimes, may show what is
not felt. Cheeriness of manner has become such
an adjunct of salesmanship that the public has
become wary of it and the word has acquired a
tinge of disrepute (He was a cheery bird, enough
to make the most cheerful man downhearted).