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Cross

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cross¹

  • /kɹɒs/ Northern England, UK
  • /kɹɔs/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /kɾɒs/ Wales
  • /kɾɔs/ Scotland
  • /kɹɔs/
  • /kɹɑs/ cot caught merger
  • /kɹɒs/ Eastern New England
  • /kɹɒs/ Canada
  • /kɹɔs/ Australia
  • /kɹɒs/ New Zealand
  • [kɹɔ̟s] ~ [kɹɞ̠s] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɒs, -ɔːs

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-der.?

Proto-Italic *kruks /*krukis

Latin cruxbor.

Old Irish crosbor.

Old Norse krossbor.

Old English cros

Middle English cross

English cross

From Middle English cross, cros, from Old English cros (“rood, cross”), from Old Norse kross, from Old Irish cros, from Latin crux (crucī). In this sense displaced native Middle English rode, from Old English rōd (“cross”); see English rood. Doublet of crouch (“cross”) and crux. Compare Welsh croes, Irish crois.

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.

Cognates

*Icelandic kross (“cross”)

*Faroese krossur (“cross”)

*Norwegian Nynorsk kross, kors (“cross”)

*Danish kors (“cross”)

*Swedish kors (“cross”)

*North Frisian kross, korss (“cross”)

*Saterland Frisian Krjuus, Kjus (“cross”)

*West Frisian krús (“cross”)

*Dutch kruis (“cross”)

*German Low German Krüüz (“cross”)

*German Kreuz (“cross”)

noun 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. 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. Alternative letter-case form of Cross (“the Crucifix, the cross on which Christ was crucified”).Cross True Cross
  5. A hand gesture made in imitation of the shape of the Cross; sign of the cross. She made the cross after swearing.
  6. Any representation of the crucifix, as in religious architecture, burial markers, jewelry, etc. She was wearing a cross on her necklace.
  7. figuratively A difficult situation that must be endured. It's a cross I must bear.
  8. The act of going across; the act of passing from one side to the other A quick cross of the road.
  9. An animal or plant produced by crossbreeding or cross-fertilization.
  10. One element of a hybrid species or type. The native Amboynese who reside in the city are a strange half-civilized, half-savage lazy people, who seem to be a mixture of at least three races - Portuguese, Malay, and Papuan or Ceramese, with an occasional cross of Chinese or Dutch.
  11. broadly A hybrid of any kind. Toning down the ancient Viking into a sort of a cross between Paul Jones and Jeremy Diddler
  12. A hook thrown over the opponent's punch.
  13. A pass in which the ball is kicked from a side of the pitch to a position close to the opponent’s goal. And Stamford Bridge erupted with joy as Florent Malouda slotted in a cross from Drogba, who had stayed just onside.
  14. A place where roads intersect and lead off in four directions; a crossroad (common in UK and Irish place names such as Gerrards Cross).
  15. A monument that marks such a place. (Also common in UK or Irish place names such as Charing Cross)
  16. 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. I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse.
  17. Ireland, obsolete Church lands. the church-lands lying within the same, which were called the Cross
  18. A line across or through another line.
  19. An instrument for laying of offsets perpendicular to the main course.
  20. A pipe-fitting with four branches whose axes usually form a right angle.
  21. Four edge cubies of one side that are in their right places, forming the shape of a cross.
  22. The thirty-sixth Lenormand card.
  23. archaic A betrayal; dishonest practices, especially deliberately losing a sporting contest.
  24. slang Crossfire.

adjective crosser · crossest

  1. Transverse; lying across the main direction. At the end of each row were cross benches which linked the rows.
  2. archaic Opposite, opposed to. His actions were perversely cross to his own happiness.
  3. archaic Opposing, adverse; being contrary to what one would hope or wish for. As a fat body is more subject to diseases, so are rich men to absurdities and fooleries, to many casualties and cross inconveniences.
  4. UK (of someone) Bad-tempered, angry, annoyed; (of words) tinged with anger. They exchanged a few cross words.
  5. Made in an opposite direction, or an inverse relation; mutually inverse; interchanged. cross interrogatories
  6. 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. As my father remarked to me when I stole on deck to view the state of affairs, the sea was a "cross one," and very difficult to steer against.
  7. archaic Dishonest.

preposition

  1. archaic Across. She walked cross the mountains.
  2. The cross product of the previous vector and the following vector. The Lorentz force is q times v cross B.

verb crosses · crossing · crossed · 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 on WikipediaWikipedia ) 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 make the sign of the cross over oneself. Again Beatrice crossed herself and sighed heavily as she bent over the dead insect.
  6. transitive To make the sign of the cross over (something or someone). "Well, no! that's what I cannot make out either," said the mother quite innocently, "for I've had castor in the cradle, - I have crossed him, and I put a silver brooch in his shirt, and I stuck a knife in the beam over the door, so I don't know how they could have managed to change him."
  7. UK, obsolete, slang, 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.
  8. transitive To go from one side of (something) to the other. Why did the chicken cross the road?
  9. intransitive To travel in a direction or path that will intersect with that of another. Ships crossing from starboard have right-of-way.
  10. 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.
  11. Of both batsmen, to pass each other when running between the wickets in order to score runs.
  12. To pass the ball from one side of the pitch to the other side. He crossed the ball into the penalty area.
  13. To score a try. England cut loose at the end of the half, Ashton, Mark Cueto and Mike Tindall all crossing before the break.
  14. transitive To contradict (another) or frustrate the plans of. "You'll rue the day you tried to cross me, Tom Hero!" bellowed the villain.
  15. obsolete, transitive To interfere and cut off ; to debar. to cross me from the golden time I look for
  16. To conduct a cross examination; to question a hostile witness.
  17. To cross-fertilize or crossbreed. They managed to cross a sheep with a goat.
  18. 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. The English practice of crossing checks so that payment may be made to the bank account or to order is prevalent.

Cross²

  • /kɹɒs/ Canada, UK
  • /kɹɔs/ Australia, US
  • /kɹɑs/ cot caught merger

Rhymes with -ɒs, -ɔːs

Where it comes from

* As an English surname, from the noun cross, as in crossroads. Also a calque of this word in various European languages, such as French Lacroix, German Kreutz, Serbo-Croatian Križ. Compare Crouch, Crozier, Kriz.

* As an Irish surname, shortened from McCrossen.

* As a German surname, Americanized from Kross, from Middle Low German krus (“pitcher, vessel”), which is possibly an old Germanic borrowing of Ancient Greek κρωσσός (krōssós, “pitcher, pail, urn”). Also a variant of Kress.

proper noun

  1. The cross on which Jesus died and, in metonymical uses, such as to refer to Christ's suffering in general.
  2. A settlement on the Isle of Lewis, Western Isles council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NB5062).
  3. A hamlet in St Dominick parish, east Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SX4067)
  4. A hamlet in Georgeham parish, North Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SS4539).
  5. A hamlet in Goodleigh parish, North Devon district, Devon (OS grid ref SS6034).
  6. A hamlet in Ellesmere Rural parish and Ellesmere Urban parish, north of Ellesmere, Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SJ3936).
  7. A village in Compton Bishop parish, Somerset, England, previously in Sedgemoor district (OS grid ref ST4154).
  8. A village and townland in County Clare, Ireland, Irish spelling An Chrois.
  9. A village in County Mayo, Ireland, Irish spelling An Chrois.
  10. An unincorporated community in Berkeley County, South Carolina, United States.
  11. An unincorporated community in Mineral County, West Virginia, United States.
  12. A town in Buffalo County, Wisconsin, United States.
  13. A barangay of Glan, Sarangani, Philippines.

proper noun

  1. A topographic surname from Middle English for someone who lived near a stone cross on a road. Max Cross cut a fine figure as the Colonel, Percy Penny was a somewhat unducal Duke, while Edgar McHale gave a particularly good rendering of the Major.

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