cross
English
Alternative forms
- Cross (sometimes for the historical cross of Christ)
Etymology
From Middle English cross, cros, from Old English cros (“rood, cross”), from Old Norse kross (“cross”), perhaps from Old Irish cros (compare Welsh croes, Irish crois), from Latin crux (cruci). Cognate with Icelandic kross (“cross”), Faroese krossur (“cross”), Danish kors (“cross”), Swedish kors (“cross”). Displaced native Middle English rood (“rood, cross”), from Old English rōd (“cross, rood, crucifix, pole”); see rood. The sense of "two intersecting lines drawn or cut on a surface; two lines intersecting at right angles" without regard to religious signification develops from the late 14th century.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kɹɒs/ (also, especially formerly enPR: krôs, IPA(key): /kɹɔːs/)
- (General American) IPA(key): /kɹɔs/
- (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA(key): /kɹɑs/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) Audio (file) - Rhymes: -ɒs, -ɔːs
Noun
cross (plural crosses)
- A geometrical figure consisting of two straight lines or bars intersecting each other such that at least one of them is bisected by the other.
- Put a cross for a wrong answer and a tick for a right one.
- (heraldry) Any geometric figure having this or a similar shape, such as a cross of Lorraine or a Maltese cross.
- A wooden post with a perpendicular beam attached and used (especially in the Roman Empire) to execute criminals (by crucifixion).
- Criminals were commonly executed on a wooden cross.
- (usually with the) The cross on which Christ was crucified.
- (Christianity) A hand gesture made in imitation of the shape of the Cross.
- She made the cross after swearing.
- Sir Walter Scott
- Before the cross has waned the crescent's ray.
- Cowper
- 'Tis where the cross is preached.
- (Christianity) A modified representation of the crucifixion stake, worn as jewellery or displayed as a symbol of religious devotion.
- She was wearing a cross on her necklace.
- (figurative, from Christ's bearing of the cross) A difficult situation that must be endured.
- It's a cross I must bear.
- Ben Jonson
- Heaven prepares a good man with crosses.
- The act of going across; the act of passing from one side to the other
- A quick cross of the road.
- (biology) An animal or plant produced by crossbreeding or cross-fertilization.
- (by extension) A hybrid of any kind.
- Lord Dufferin
- Toning down the ancient Viking into a sort of a cross between Paul Jones and Jeremy Diddler
- Lord Dufferin
- (boxing) A hook thrown over the opponent's punch.
- (soccer) A pass in which the ball travels from by one touchline across the pitch.
- A place where roads intersect and lead off in four directions; a crossroad (common in UK and Irish place names such as Gerrards Cross).
- A monument that marks such a place. (Also common in UK or Irish place names such as Charing Cross)
- (obsolete) A coin stamped with the figure of a cross, or that side of such a piece on which the cross is stamped; hence, money in general.
- Shakespeare
- I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse.
- Shakespeare
- (obsolete, Ireland) Church lands.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir J. Davies to this entry?)
- A line drawn across or through another line.
- (surveying) An instrument for laying of offsets perpendicular to the main course.
- A pipe-fitting with four branches whose axes usually form a right angle.
- (Rubik's Cube) Four edge cubies of one side that are in their right places, forming the shape of a cross.
- (cartomancy) The thirty-sixth Lenormand card.
Synonyms
- (production of cross-breeding or -fertilization): hybrid
- (cross on which Christ was crucified): True Cross
Derived terms
- altar cross
- Celtic cross
- Charing Cross
- cross bearer
- Cross City
- cross of Lorraine
- crossroads
- cross-stitch
- double cross
- fiery cross
- George Cross
- Greek cross
- Iron Cross
- Latin cross
- left cross
- Maltese cross
- New Cross
- patriarchal cross
- Red Cross
- right cross
- Saint Andrew's cross
- Saint George's cross
- sign of the cross
- Southern Cross
- Tau Cross
- True Cross
- Victoria Cross
- Waltham Cross
Descendants
- → Japanese: クロス (kurosu)
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Adjective
cross (comparative crosser, superlative crossest)
- Transverse; lying across the main direction.
- At the end of each row were cross benches which linked the rows.
- Isaac Newton
- the cross refraction of the second prism
- (archaic) Opposite, opposed to.
- His actions were perversely cross to his own happiness.
- (now rare) Opposing, adverse; being contrary to what one would hope or wish for.
- 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):, New York Review of Books, 2001, p.50:
- As a fat body is more subject to diseases, so are rich men to absurdities and fooleries, to many casualties and cross inconveniences.
- Jeremy Taylor
- a cross fortune
- Glanvill
- the cross and unlucky issue of my design
- South
- The article of the resurrection seems to lie marvellously cross to the common experience of mankind.
- Dryden
- We are both love's captives, but with fates so cross, / One must be happy by the other's loss.
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- Bad-tempered, angry, annoyed.
- She was rather cross about missing her train on the first day of the job.
- Please don't get cross at me. (or) Please don't get cross with me.
- Jeremy Taylor
- He had received a cross answer from his mistress.
- Made in an opposite direction, or an inverse relation; mutually inverse; interchanged.
- cross interrogatories
- cross marriages, as when a brother and sister marry persons standing in the same relation to each other
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
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Preposition
cross
- (archaic) across
- She walked cross the mountains.
- L'Estrange
- A fox was taking a walk one night cross a village.
- cross product of the previous vector and the following vector.
- The Lorentz force is q times v cross B.
Related terms
- dot
- × (the multiplication sign)
Translations
Verb
cross (third-person singular simple present crosses, present participle crossing, simple past and past participle crossed)
- To make or form a cross.
- To place across or athwart; to cause to intersect.
- She frowned and crossed her arms.
- To lay or draw something across, such as a line.
- to cross the letter t
- To mark with an X.
- Cross the box which applies to you.
- To write lines at right angles.W
- 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part I, London: Collins, →ISBN:
- An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.
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- (reflexive, to cross oneself) To make the sign of the cross over oneself.
- To place across or athwart; to cause to intersect.
- To move relatively.
- (transitive) To go from one side of (something) to the other.
- Why did the chicken cross the road?
- You need to cross the street at the lights.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:
- Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet: or anon we shot into a clearing, with a colored glimpse of the lake and its curving shore far below us.
- 2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport:
- Ukraine, however, will complain long and hard about a contentious second-half incident when Marko Devic's shot clearly crossed the line before it was scrambled away by John Terry, only for the officials to remain unmoved.
- (intransitive) To travel in a direction or path that will intersect with that of another.
- Ships crossing from starboard have right-of-way.
- (transitive) To pass, as objects going in an opposite direction at the same time.
- (Can we date this quote?) James David Forbes
- Your kind letter crossed mine.
- (Can we date this quote?) James David Forbes
- (sports) Relative movement by a player or of players.
- (cricket, reciprocally) Of both batsmen, to pass each other when running between the wickets in order to score runs.
- (soccer) To pass the ball from one side of the pitch to the other side.
- He crossed the ball into the penalty area.
- (rugby) To score a try.
- 2011 February 12, Mark Orlovac, “England 59-13 Italy”, in BBC:
- England cut loose at the end of the half, Ashton, Mark Cueto and Mike Tindall all crossing before the break.
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- (transitive) To go from one side of (something) to the other.
- (social) To oppose.
- (transitive) To contradict (another) or frustrate the plans of.
- "You'll rue the day you tried to cross me, Tom Hero!" bellowed the villain.
- (transitive, obsolete) To interfere and cut off; to debar.
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
- to cross me from the golden time I look for
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
- (law) To conduct a cross examination; to question a hostile witness.
- (transitive) To contradict (another) or frustrate the plans of.
- (biology) To cross-fertilize or crossbreed.
- They managed to cross a sheep with a goat.
- To stamp or mark a cheque in such a way as to prevent it being cashed, thus requiring it to be deposited into a bank account.
Synonyms
- (to cross-fertilize or crossbreed): cross-fertilize, crossbreed
Hyponyms
Related terms
Translations
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French
Etymology
From English.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kʁɔs/
Further reading
- “cross” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Italian
Etymology
From English.
Middle English
Etymology
From Old English cros, borrowed from Old Norse kross, borrowed from Old Irish cros, borrowed from Latin crux.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /krɔs/
Noun
cross (plural crosses)
- the Holy Cross; Christ's cross.
- A representation of the cross of Christ; the cross as a Christian symbol, including:
- The sign of the cross.
- A crucifix or crosier.
- (figuratively) The cross in Christian metaphors, such as:
- The cross as a symbol elsewhere, for example:
- gallows, gibbet
References
- “cros (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-03.