English
cross
see also: Cross
Etymology

From Middle English cross, cros, from Old English cros, perhaps from Old Irish cros (compare Welsh croes, Irish crois), perhaps from Latin crux (cruci).

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.

  • Old Norse kross
  • Icelandic kross
  • Faroese krossur
  • Danish kors
  • Swedish kors
  • German Kreuz
  • Dutch kruis
Pronunciation
  • (RP, Canada) IPA: /kɹɒs/
  • (America, AuE) enPR: krôs, IPA: /kɹɔs/
  • (cot-caught) enPR: krŏs, IPA: /kɹɑs/
Noun

cross (plural crosses)

  1. 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.
  2. (heraldiccharge) Any geometric figure having this or a similar shape, such as a cross of Lorraine or a Maltese cross.
  3. 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.
  4. (Christianity) Alternative form of Cross The Crucifix, the cross on which Christ was crucified.
    • 1811, Walter Scott, The Vision of Don Roderick; a Poem, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for John Ballantyne and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC ↗, stanza XXVII, page 31 ↗:
      From the dim landscape roll the clouds away— / The Christians have regained their heritage; / Before the Cross has waned the Crescent's ray, / And many a monastery decks the stage, / And lofty church, and low-brow'd hermitage.
  5. (Christianity) A hand gesture made in imitation of the shape of the Cross; sign of the Cross.
    She made the cross after swearing.
  6. (Christianity) Any representation of the Crucifix, as in religious architecture, burial markers, jewelery, etc.
    She was wearing a cross on her necklace.
  7. (figurative, from Christ's bearing of the cross) A difficult situation that must be endured.
    It's a cross I must bear.
    • 1641, Ben Jonson, Timber:
      Heaven prepares good men with crosses.
  8. The act of going across; the act of passing from one side to the other
    A quick cross of the road.
  9. (biology) An animal or plant produced by crossbreeding or cross-fertilization.
  10. (by extension) A hybrid of any kind.
    • 1856, Lord Dufferin, Letters from High Latitudes:
      Toning down the ancient Viking into a sort of a cross between Paul Jones and Jeremy Diddler
  11. (boxing) A hook thrown over the opponent's punch.
  12. (football) A pass in which the ball is kicked from a side of the pitch to a position close to the opponent’s goal.
  13. A place where roads intersect and lead off in four directions; a crossroad (common in UK and Irish place names such as Gerrards Cross).
  14. A monument that marks such a place. (Also common in UK or Irish place names such as Charing Cross)
  15. (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.
    • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene iv]:
      I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse.
  16. (obsolete, Ireland) Church lands.
    • 1612, John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued:
      the church-lands lying within the same, which were called the Cross
  17. A line across or through another line.
  18. (surveying) An instrument for laying of offsets perpendicular to the main course.
  19. A pipe-fitting with four branches whose axes usually form a right angle.
  20. (Rubik's Cube) Four edge cubies of one side that are in their right places, forming the shape of a cross.
  21. (cartomancy) The thirty-sixth Lenormand card.
  22. (slang) Crossfire.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Adjective

cross (comparative crosser, superlative crossest)

  1. Transverse; lying across the main direction.
    At the end of each row were cross benches which linked the rows.
    • 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC ↗:
      the cross refraction of the second prism
  2. (archaic) Opposite, opposed to.
    His actions were perversely cross to his own happiness.
  3. (now, rare) Opposing, adverse; being contrary to what one would hope or wish for.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗:
      , 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.
    • c. 1650, Jeremy Taylor, Of Contentedness:
      a cross fortune
    • 1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC ↗:
      the cross and unlucky issue of my designs
    • 1694, Robert South, Christianity Mysterious, and the Wisdom of God in Making it So (sermon preached at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 1694)
      The article of the resurrection seems to lie marvellously cross to the common experience of mankind.
    • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the page number):
      We are both love's captives, but with fates so cross, / One must be happy by the other's loss.
  4. (chiefly, British, Ottawa Valley) 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.
    • 1650/1651, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living
      He had received a cross answer from his mistress.
  5. 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
  6. (nautical) Of the sea, having two wave systems traveling at oblique angles, due to the wind over shifting direction or the waves of two storm systems meeting.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Preposition
  1. (archaic) Across.
    She walked cross the mountains.
    • 1692, Roger L'Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC ↗:
      A fox was taking a walk one night cross a village.
  2. The cross product of the previous vector and the following vector.
    The Lorentz force is q times v cross B.
Related terms Translations
  • Portuguese: produto vetorial
Verb

cross (crosses, present participle crossing; simple past and past participle crossed)

  1. To make or form a cross.
    1. To place across or athwart; to cause to intersect.
      She frowned and crossed her arms.
    2. To lay or draw something across, such as a line.
      to cross the letter t
    3. To mark with an X.
      Cross the box which applies to you.
    4. To write lines of text at right angles to and over the top of one another in order to save paper.Crossed letter
      • 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’.
    5. (reflexive, to cross oneself) To make the sign of the cross over oneself.
    6. (transitive) To make the sign of the cross over (something or someone).
    7. (UK, Oxford University, slang, obsolete, transitive) To mark a cross against the name of (a student) in the buttery or kitchen, so that they cannot get food there.
      • 2022, Andrew Lang, Oxford
        The reign of Mary was scarcely more favourable to letters. No one knew what to be at in religion. In Magdalen no one could be found to say Mass, the fellows were turned out, the undergraduates were whipped — boyish martyrs — and crossed at the buttery.
  2. To move relatively.
    1. (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.
      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
        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.
    2. (intransitive) To travel in a direction or path that will intersect with that of another.
      Ships crossing from starboard have right-of-way.
    3. (transitive) To pass, as objects going in an opposite direction at the same time.
      • November 4, 1866, James David Forbes, letter to E. C. Batten Esq.
        Your kind letter crossed mine.
    4. (sports) Relative movement by a player or of players.
      1. (cricket, reciprocally) Of both batsmen, to pass each other when running between the wickets in order to score runs.
      2. (football) To pass the ball from one side of the pitch to the other side.
        He crossed the ball into the penalty area.
      3. (rugby) To score a try.
  3. (social) To oppose.
    1. (transitive) To contradict (another) or frustrate the plans of.
      "You'll rue the day you tried to cross me, Tom Hero!" bellowed the villain.
      • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC ↗:
        At length I begged him, with all the earnestness I felt, to tell me what had occurred to cross him so unusually, and to let me sympathize with him, if I could not hope to advise him.
    2. (transitive, obsolete) To interfere and cut off ; to debar.
      • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
        to cross me from the golden time I look for
    3. (legal) To conduct a cross examination; to question a hostile witness.
  4. (biology) To cross-fertilize or crossbreed.
    They managed to cross a sheep with a goat.
  5. (transitive) 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.
    • 1924, Commerce Reports, volume 1, number 13, page 849:
      The English practice of crossing checks so that payment may be made to the bank account or to order is prevalent.
Conjugation
Conjugation of cross

infinitive (to) cross
present tense past tense
1st-person singular cross crossed
2nd-person singular

 cross, crossest†

 crossed, crossedst†
3rd-person singular

 crosses, crosseth†

 crossed
plural

 cross

subjunctive

 cross

crossed
imperative

 cross

—
participles

 crossing

 crossed

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
Cross
Etymology
  • As an English surname, from the noun cross, as in crossroads.
  • As an Irish - surname, shortened from McCrossen.
  • As a German - surname, Americanized from Kross, from Middle Low German krus, which is possibly an old Germanic borrowing of Ancient Greek κρωσσός.
Proper noun
  1. (Christianity) The cross on which Jesus died and, in metonymical uses, such as to refer to Christ's suffering in general.
    Synonyms: Holy Cross, True Cross, Crucifix
  2. A number of places with the name "Cross":
    1. A settlement on the Isle of Lewis (OS grid ref NB5062).
    2. A hamlet in St Dominick, east (OS grid ref SX4067)
    3. A hamlet in Georgeham, North Devon (OS grid ref SS4539).
    4. A hamlet in Goodleigh, North Devon (OS grid ref SS6034).
    5. A hamlet north of Ellesmere (OS grid ref SJ3936).
    6. A village in Compton Bishop, Sedgemoor (OS grid ref ST4154).
    7. A village/and/townland in Clare, Ireland, Irish spelling An Chrois.
    8. A village in Mayo, Ireland, Irish spelling An Chrois.
    9. An unincorporated community in Berkeley County, South Carolina.
    10. An unincorporated community in Mineral County, West Virginia.
    11. A town in Buffalo County, Wisconsin.
Proper noun
  1. Surname for someone who lived near a stone cross on a road.


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