Definitions for: Cross


[n] the act of mixing different breeds of animals
[n] a cross as an emblem of Christianity; used in heraldry
[n] a wooden structure consisting of an upright post with a transverse piece
[n] marking consisting of crossing lines
[n] any affliction that causes great suffering; "that is his cross to bear"; "he bears his afflictions like a crown of thorns"
[adj] perversely irritable
[v] breed animals or plants using parents of different races and varieties; "cross a horse and a donkey"; "Mendel tried crossbreeding"; "these species do not interbreed"
[v] trace a line through or across; "cross your 't'"
[v] travel across or pass over; "The caravan covered almost 100 miles each day"
[v] meet and pass; "the trains crossed"
[v] fold so as to resemble a cross; "she crossed her legs"
[v] meet at a point
[v] hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of; "What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge"; "foil your opponent"
[v] to cover a wide area; "Rivers traverse the valley floor", "The parking lot spans 3 acres"



Webster (1913) Definition: Cross (kr[o^]s; 115), n. [OE. crois, croys, cros; the
former fr. OF. crois, croiz, F. croix, fr. L. crux; the
second is perh. directly fr. Prov. cros, crotz. fr. the same
L. crux; cf. Icel. kross. Cf. Crucial, Crusade, Cruise,
Crux.]
1. A gibbet, consisting of two pieces of timber placed
transversely upon one another, in various forms, as a T,
or +, with the horizontal piece below the upper end of the
upright, or as an X. It was anciently used in the
execution of criminals.

Nailed to the cross By his own nation. --Milton.

2. The sign or mark of the cross, made with the finger, or in
ink, etc., or actually represented in some material; the
symbol of Christ's death; the ensign and chosen symbol of
Christianity, of a Christian people, and of Christendom.

The custom of making the sign of the cross with the
hand or finger, as a means of conferring blessing or
preserving from evil, is very old. --Schaff-Herzog
Encyc.

Before the cross has waned the crescent's ray. --Sir
W. Scott.

Tis where the cross is preached. --Cowper.

3. Affiction regarded as a test of patience or virtue; trial;
disappointment; opposition; misfortune.

Heaven prepares a good man with crosses. --B.
Jonson.

4. A piece of money stamped with the figure of a cross, also,
that side of such a piece on which the cross is stamped;
hence, money in general.

I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I
think you have no money in your purse. --Shak.

5. An appendage or ornament or anything in the form of a
cross; a badge or ornamental device of the general shape
of a cross; hence, such an ornament, even when varying
considerably from that form; thus, the Cross of the
British Order of St. George and St. Michael consists of a
central medallion with seven arms radiating from it.

6. (Arch.) A monument in the form of a cross, or surmounted
by a cross, set up in a public place; as, a market cross;
a boundary cross; Charing Cross in London.

Dun-Edin's Cross, a pillared stone, Rose on a turret
octagon. --Sir W.
Scott.

7. (Her.) A common heraldic bearing, of which there are many
varieties. See the Illustration, above.

8. The crosslike mark or symbol used instead of a signature
by those unable to write.

Five Kentish abbesses . . . .subscribed their names
and crosses. --Fuller.

9. Church lands. [Ireland] [Obs.] --Sir J. Davies.

10. A line drawn across or through another line.

11. Hence: A mixing of breeds or stock, especially in cattle
breeding; or the product of such intermixture; a hybrid
of any kind.

Toning down the ancient Viking into a sort of a
cross between Paul Jones and Jeremy Diddler. --Lord
Dufferin.



12. (Surveying) An instrument for laying of offsets
perpendicular to the main course.

13. (Mech.) A pipe-fitting with four branches the axes of
which usually form's right angle.

Cross and pile, a game with money, at which it is put to
chance whether a coin shall fall with that side up which
bears the cross, or the other, which is called pile, or
reverse; the game called heads or tails.

Cross

bottony or botton['e]. See under Bottony.

Cross estoil['e] (Her.). a cross, each of whose arms is
pointed like the ray of a star; that is, a star having
four long points only.

Cross of Calvary. See Calvary, 3.

Southern cross. (Astron.) See under Southern.

To do a thing on the cross, to act dishonestly; -- opposed
to acting on the square. [Slang]

To take up the cross, to bear troubles and afflictions with
patience from love to Christ.


Cross (kr[o^]s), a.
1. Not parallel; lying or falling athwart; transverse;
oblique; intersecting.

The cross refraction of the second prism. --Sir I.
Newton.

2. Not accordant with what is wished or expected;
interrupting; adverse; contrary; thwarting; perverse. ``A
cross fortune.'' --Jer. Taylor.

The cross and unlucky issue of my design.
--Glanvill.

The article of the resurrection seems to lie
marvelously cross to the common experience of
mankind. --South.

We are both love's captives, but with fates so
cross, One must be happy by the other's loss.
--Dryden.

3. Characterized by, or in a state of, peevishness,
fretfulness, or ill humor; as, a cross man or woman.

He had received a cross answer from his mistress.
--Jer. Taylor.

4. Made in an opposite direction, or an inverse relation;
mutually inverse; interchanged; as, cross interrogatories;
cross marriages, as when a brother and sister marry
persons standing in the same relation to each other.

Cross action (Law), an action brought by a party who is
sued against the person who has sued him, upon the same
subject matter, as upon the same contract. --Burrill.

Cross aisle (Arch.), a transept; the lateral divisions of a
cruciform church.

Cross axle.
(a) (Mach.) A shaft, windlass, or roller, worked by levers
at opposite ends, as in the copperplate printing
press.
(b) A driving axle, with cranks set at an angle of 90[deg]
with each other.

Cross bedding (Geol.), oblique lamination of horizontal
beds.

Cross bill. See in the Vocabulary.

Cross bitt. Same as Crosspiece.

Cross bond, a form of bricklaying, in which the joints of
one stretcher course come midway between those of the
stretcher courses above and below, a course of headers and
stretchers intervening. See Bond, n., 8.

Cross breed. See in the Vocabulary.

Cross breeding. See under Breeding.

Cross buttock, a particular throw in wrestling; hence, an
unexpected defeat or repulse. --Smollet.

Cross country, across the country; not by the road. ``The
cross-country ride.'' --Cowper.

Cross fertilization, the fertilization of the female
products of one physiological individual by the male
products of another, -- as the fertilization of the ovules
of one plant by pollen from another. See Fertilization.


Cross file, a double convex file, used in dressing out the
arms or crosses of fine wheels.

Cross fire (Mil.), lines of fire, from two or more points
or places, crossing each other.

Cross forked. (Her.) See under Forked.

Cross frog. See under Frog.

Cross furrow, a furrow or trench cut across other furrows
to receive the water running in them and conduct it to the
side of the field.

Cross handle, a handle attached transversely to the axis of
a tool, as in the augur. --Knight.

Cross lode (Mining), a vein intersecting the true or
principal lode.

Cross purpose. See Cross-purpose, in the Vocabulary.

Cross reference, a reference made from one part of a book
or register to another part, where the same or an allied
subject is treated of.

Cross sea (Naut.), a chopping sea, in which the waves run
in contrary directions.

Cross stroke, a line or stroke across something, as across
the letter t.

Cross wind, a side wind; an unfavorable wind.

Cross wires, fine wires made to traverse the field of view
in a telescope, and moved by a screw with a graduated
head, used for delicate astronomical observations; spider
lines. Fixed cross wires are also used in microscopes,
etc.



Syn: Fretful; peevish. See Fretful.


Cross, prep.
Athwart; across. [Archaic or Colloq.]

A fox was taking a walk one night cross a village.
--L'Estrange.

To go cross lots, to go across the fields; to take a short
cut. [Colloq.]


Cross, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Crossed (kr?st; 115); p.
pr. & vb. n. Crossing.]
1. To put across or athwart; to cause to intersect; as, to
cross the arms.

2. To lay or draw something, as a line, across; as, to cross
the letter t.

3. To pass from one side to the other of; to pass or move
over; to traverse; as, to cross a stream.

A hunted hare . . . crosses and confounds her former
track. -- I. Watts.

4. To pass, as objects going in an opposite direction at the
same time. ``Your kind letter crossed mine.'' --J. D.
Forbes.

5. To run counter to; to thwart; to obstruct; to hinder; to
clash or interfere with.

In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing.
--Shak.

An oyster may be crossed in love. -- Sheridan.

6. To interfere and cut off; to debar. [Obs.]

To cross me from the golden time I look for. --Shak.

7. To make the sign of the cross upon; -- followed by the
reflexive pronoun; as, he crossed himself.

8. To cancel by marking crosses on or over, or drawing a line
across; to erase; -- usually with out, off, or over; as,
to cross out a name.

9. To cause to interbreed; -- said of different stocks or
races; to mix the breed of.

To cross one's path, to oppose one's plans. --Macaulay.


Cross, v. i.
1. To lie or be athwart.

2. To move or pass from one side to the other, or from place
to place; to make a transit; as, to cross from New York to
Liverpool.

3. To be inconsistent. [Obs.]

Men's actions do not always cross with reason. --Sir
P. Sidney.

4. To interbreed, as races; to mix distinct breeds.

If two individuals of distinct races cross, a third
is invariably produced different from either.
--Coleridge.


Cross, v. t.

To cross a check (Eng. Banking), to draw two parallel
transverse lines across the face of a check, with or
without adding between them the words ``and company'',
with or without the words ``not negotiable'', or to draw
the transverse lines simply, with or without the words
``not negotiable'' (the check in any of these cases being
crossed generally). Also, to write or print across the
face of a check the name of a banker, with or without the
words ``not negotiable'' (the check being then crossed
specially). A check crossed generally is payable only when
presented through a bank; one crossed specially, only when
presented through the bank mentioned. Cross-buttock

Synonyms: bad-tempered, baffle, bilk, cover, crabbed, crabby, crisscross, crossbreed, crossbreeding, crossing, crown of thorns, cut across, cut through, foil, frustrate, fussy, get across, get over, grouchy, grumpy, hybridisation, hybridise, hybridization, hybridize, hybridizing, ill-natured, ill-tempered, interbreed, interbreeding, mark, pass over, queer, scotch, span, spoil, sweep, thwart, track, traverse, traverse

Antonyms: uncross

See Also: affliction, breed, bridge, Calvary cross, Celtic cross, come across, conjugation, construction, coupling, cover, crisscross, cross, cross of Calvary, cross of Lorraine, crucifix, dash, decussate, disappoint, double cross, drive, emblem, encounter, extend, fold, fold up, forbid, ford, foreclose, forestall, go across, go through, Greek cross, hop, intersect, jaywalk, Jerusalem cross, Latin cross, let down, Lorraine cross, Maltese cross, marking, mating, meet, pairing, papal cross, pass, patriarchal cross, preclude, prevent, ran into, rood, rood-tree, ruin, run across, saltire, see, sexual union, short-circuit, St. Andrew's cross, St. Anthony's cross, stride, structure, take, tau cross, tramp, turn up, union, walk, write

Try our:
Scrabble Word Finder

Scrabble Cheat

Words With Friends Cheat

Hanging With Friends Cheat

Scramble With Friends Cheat

Ruzzle Cheat



Related Resources:
animlas that start with a
animals starting with a
e letter animals