crown
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɹaʊn/
rhymes: -aʊn
homophone: crayon (some pronunciations)
Forms: form: crowns
form: crowning
form: crowned
form: crowned
Etymology: From Middle English coroune, from Anglo-Norman corone, from Latin corōna (“crown, wreath”), from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē). Doublet of corona, korona, koruna, krona, króna, and krone. Displaced native Old English corenbēag (“crown”); and Middle English kinehelm, kynehelm, from Old English cynehelm (“crown”).
* (paper size): So called because originally watermarked with a crown.
Senses: examples: text: The king of the Huns was crowned with steel, and rode a stallion red,/Saying: “Proud must my father’s spirit feel of me who crowned my head […]”
ref: 2012, Poul Anderson (lyrics), performed by Leslie Fish, “The Ballad of Three Kings” in Avalon is Risen, originally published (in variant form) in Poul Anderson, “Three Kings”, Amra, volume 2, number 64 (1975)
synonyms: coronate#Verb
glosses: To place a crown on the head of.
examples: text: Her, vvho faireſt does appear, / Crovvn her Queen of all the year.
ref: 1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 3:
synonyms: coronate#Verb
enthrone#Verb
antonyms: decrown#Verb
uncrown#Verb
dethrone#Verb
glosses: To formally declare (someone) a king, queen, emperor, etc.
examples: text: Thou […] hast crowned him with glory and honour.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 8:5:
glosses: To bestow something upon as a mark of honour, dignity, or recompense; to adorn; to dignify.
examples: text: the grove that crowns yon tufted hill
ref: 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza XLIX:
text: To crown the whole, came a proposition.
ref: 1856, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic:
glosses: To form the topmost or finishing part of; to complete; to consummate; to perfect.
examples: text: New Zealand were crowned world champions for the first time in 24 years after squeezing past an inspired France team by a single point.
ref: 2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To declare (someone) a winner.
examples: text: The mother was in the second stage of labor and the fetus had just crowned, prompting a round of encouragement from the midwives.
text: You will see the baby's head crowning during contractions, at which time you must prepare to assist the mother in the delivery of the baby.
ref: 2007, David Schottke, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, First Responder: Your First Response in Emergency Care, page 385
text: He's crowning . . . His head's coming through
ref: 2010, Scott Gallagher, Dancing Upon the Shore, page 157:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: Of a baby, during the birthing process; for the surface of the baby's head to appear in the vaginal opening.
glosses: To cause to round upward; to make anything higher at the middle than at the edges, such as the face of a machine pulley.
examples: text: ‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. We nearly crowned her we were so offended. She saw us but she didn't know us, did she?’.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
glosses: To hit on the head.
topics: video-games
glosses: To shoot an opponent in the back of the head with a shotgun in a first-person shooter video game.
examples: text: “Crown me!” I said, as I moved my checker to the back row.
qualifier: board games
glosses: In checkers, to stack two checkers to indicate that the piece has become a king.
glosses: Of a forest fire or bushfire, to spread to the crowns of the trees and thence move from tree to tree independent of the surface fire.
topics: engineering
firearms
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: To widen the opening of the barrel.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: To effect a lodgment upon, as upon the crest of the glacis, or the summit of the breach.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To lay the ends of the strands of (a knot) over and under each other.
examples: text: Where's the bathroom, I'm crowning here!
ref: 2020, Eddy Keymolen, amerikanischen Umgangssprache, page 148:
synonyms: grow a tail
glosses: To be on the point of defecating.
Derived terms: crowned
crowner
crown it all
recrown
uncrown
Related terms: coronation
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