COURTS. At the English universities, the squares or acres into which each college is divided. Called also quadrangles, abbreviated quads. All the colleges are constructed in quadrangles or _courts_; and, as in course of years the population of every college, except one,[18] has outgrown the original quadrangle, new courts have been added, so that the larger foundations have three, and one[19] has four courts.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 2. CRACKLING. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., in common parlance, the three stripes of velvet which a member of St. John's College wears on his sleeve, are designated by this name. Various other gowns are to be discerned, the Pembroke looped at the sleeve, the Christ's and Catherine curiously crimped in front, and the Johnian with its unmistakable "_Crackling_"--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 73. CRAM. To prepare a student to pass an examination; to study in view of examination. In the latter sense used in American colleges. In the latter [Euclid] it is hardly possible, at least not near so easy as in Logic, to present the semblance of preparation by learning questions and answers by rote:--in the cant phrase of undergraduates, by getting _crammed_.--_Whalely's Logic, Preface_. For many weeks he "_crams_" him,--daily does he rehearse. _Poem before the Iadma of Harv. Coll._, 1850. A class of men arose whose business was to _cram_ the candidates. --_Lit. World_, Vol. XII. p. 246. In a wider sense, to prepare another, or one's self, by study, for any occasion. The members of the bar were lounging about that tabooed precinct, some smoking, some talking and laughing, some poring over long, ill-written papers or large calf-bound books, and all big with the ponderous interests depending upon them, and the eloquence and learning with which they were "_crammed_" for the occasion.--_Talbot and Vernon_. When he was to write, it was necessary to _cram_ him with the facts and points.--_F.K. Hunt's Fourth Estate_, 1850. CRAM. All miscellaneous information about Ancient History, Geography, Antiquities, Law, &c.; all classical matter not included under the heads of TRANSLATION and COMPOSITION, which can be learned by CRAMMING. Peculiar to the English Universities.--_Bristed_. 2. The same as CRAMMING, which see. I have made him promise to give me four or five evenings of about half an hour's _cram_ each.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 240. It is not necessary to practise "_cram_" so outrageously as at some of the college examinations.--_Westminster Rev._, Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 237. 3. A paper on which is written something necessary to be learned, previous to an examination. "Take care what you light your cigars with," said Belton, "you'll be burning some of Tufton's _crams_: they are stuck all about the pictures."--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 223.