crown
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɹaʊn/
rhymes: -aʊn
homophone: crayon (some pronunciations)
Forms: form: crowns
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: Before so many of Europe's crowns came tumbling off the heads of their royal owners, Continental Europe could show a rich variety in the matter of royal trains.
ref: 1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 250:
topics: business
clothing
fashion
government
lifestyle
manufacturing
monarchy
politics
textiles
synonyms: coronet
diadem
glosses: A royal, imperial or princely headdress; a diadem.
synonyms: garland
wreath
glosses: A wreath or band for the head, especially one given as reward of victory or a mark of honor.
examples: text: the martyr’s crown
synonyms: award
garland
honor
prize
wreath
glosses: Any reward of victory or mark of honor.
synonyms: monarchy
royalty
glosses: Imperial or regal power, or those who wield it.
examples: text: A parliament may be diſſolved by the demiſe of the crown.
ref: 1765, William Blackstone, “Of the Parliament”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 181:
glosses: The sovereign (in a monarchy), as head of state.
examples: text: Treasure recovered from shipwrecks automatically becomes property of the Crown.
text: Large arrears of pay were due to the civil and military servants of the crown; and only forty thousand pounds remained in the Exchequer.
ref: 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter X, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 597:
glosses: The state, the government (headed by a monarch).
raw_tags: in law
qualifier: old slang
glosses: The police (referring to Crown Victoria police cars).
examples: text: [...]if he awake, / From toe to crowne hee'l fill our skin with pinches, / Make vs ſtrange ſtuffe.
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 16, column 1:
text: In more than twenty things, which I ſet down; / This done, I twenty more had in my Crown, / And they again began to multiply, / Like ſparks that from the coals of fire do fly.
ref: 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC:
glosses: The top part of something:
The topmost part of the head.
synonyms: apex
top
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: The top part of something:
The topmost part of the head.
During childbirth, the appearance of the baby's head from the mother's vagina.
synonyms: apex
top
topics: lifestyle
religion
glosses: The top part of something:
The topmost part of the head.
A round spot shaved clean on the top of the head, as a mark of the clerical state; the tonsure.
synonyms: apex
top
examples: text: Huge Trunks of Trees, fell'd from the ſteepy Crown / Of the bare Mountains, rowl with Ruin down.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 370, lines 267–268:
text: We walk’d together on the crown/Of a high mountain which look’d down/Afar from its proud natural towers/Of rock and forest, on the hills—/The dwindled hills! begirt with bowers/And shouting with a thousand rills.
ref: 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:
text: So we continue climbing to the saddle of the Kleine Scheidegg, where ahead there comes into view the wide expanse of the Grindelwald valley, backed by the snowy crown of the Wetterhorn.
ref: 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:
glosses: The top part of something:
The highest part of a hill.
synonyms: apex
crest
hillcrest
peak
summit
top
antonyms: base
bottom
foot
glosses: The top part of something:
The top section of a hat, above the brim.
examples: text: Watt was beginning to tire of running his eyes up and down this highway, when a figure, human apparently, advancing along its crown, arrested, and revived, his attention.
ref: 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
glosses: The top part of something:
The raised centre of a road.
examples: text: The arch failed first at the crown, then at the quarterings, and finally at the springings.
ref: 1941 February, “Bridge demolition by lifting”, in Railway Magazine, page 74:
glosses: The top part of something:
The highest part of an arch.
glosses: The top part of something:
The upper range of facets in a rose diamond.
glosses: The top part of something:
The dome of a furnace.
glosses: The top part of something:
The upper part of certain fruits, as the pineapple or strawberry, that is removed before eating.
examples: Holonym: canopy
topics: business
forestry
glosses: The top part of something:
The top of a tree.
topics: architecture
glosses: A kind of spire or lantern formed by converging flying buttresses.
examples: text: […] happie in our mutual help/ And mutual love, the Crown of all our bliſs/ Ordain'd by thee, […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 727–729:
synonyms: completion
culmination
finish
splendor
glosses: Splendor; culmination; acme.
glosses: Any currency (originally) issued by the crown (regal power) and often bearing a crown (headdress); (translation) various currencies known by similar names in their native languages, such as the korona, koruna, krona, króna, krone.
examples: text: Half-a-crown is known as an alderman, half a bull, half a tusheroon, and a madza caroon; whilst a crown piece, or five shillings, may be called either a bull, or a caroon, or a cartwheel, or a coachwheel, or a thick-un, or a tusheroon.
ref: 1859, J.C. Hotten, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words:
synonyms: caser
tusheroon
tush
tosheroon
tosh
bull
bullseye
caroon
thick-un
coachwheel
cartwheel
glosses: A former predecimalization British coin worth five shillings.
examples: text: There is no difficulty getting married in Jamaica, is there? No, it only costs half a crown.
ref: 1866, Jamaica. Report of the Royal Jamaica Commission, 1866. Part II: Minutes of Evidence and Appendix, H.M.Stationery Office, page 558:
text: Maggie Murphy had some knickers that she bought in Bagenalstown, an interlock of knickers that she got for a half a crown.
ref: 2009, “Maggie Murphy's Knickers” (track 8), in Stay Wut Her Johnny, performed by Richie Kavanagh:
glosses: A coin or note worth five shillings in various countries that are or were in the British Commonwealth, such as Ireland or Jamaica.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: The part of a plant where the root and stem meet.
topics: anatomy
dentistry
medicine
sciences
synonyms: corona
glosses: The part of a tooth above the gums.
topics: dentistry
medicine
sciences
synonyms: dental crown
dental cap
glosses: A prosthetic covering for a tooth.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A knot formed in the end of a rope by tucking in the strands to prevent them from unravelling.
examples: text: The honest, rough piece of iron, so simple in appearance, has more parts than the human body has limbs: the ring, the stock, the crown, the flukes, the palms, the shank. All this, according to the journalist, is “cast” when a ship arriving at an anchorage is brought up.
ref: 1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: The part of an anchor where the arms and the shank meet.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: The rounding, or rounded part, of the deck from a level line.
qualifier: paper
glosses: A standard size of printing paper measuring 20 × 15 inches.
qualifier: paper
glosses: A standard size of writing paper measuring 19 × 15 inches.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A monocyclic ligand having three or more binding sites, capable of holding a guest in a central location.
topics: engineering
firearms
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: A rounding or smoothing of the barrel opening.
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: The area enclosed between two concentric perimeters.
examples: text: When these TV chefs show you that they can cook a turkey crown in less than two hours; they aren't magicians or have secret turkey suppliers. The twenty minute per pound rule is based on our grandparents' ovens.
ref: 2012, Paul Treyvaud, The Hooker in the Lobby:
glosses: A whole bird with the legs and wings removed to produce a joint of white meat.
examples: text: "His [Barack Obama's] unofficial slogan 'fired up and ready to go!' was borrowed from an 'old lady in a church crown [Sunday best hat]."
ref: 2013, Adam Boulton, Tony's Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration:
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: A formal hat worn by women to Sunday church services; a church crown.
topics: hobbies
horology
lifestyle
glosses: The knurled knob or dial, on the outside of a watch case, used to wind it or adjust the hands.
Derived terms: 12-crown-4
15-crown-5
18-crown-6
Advent crown
antique crown
astral crown
becrown
blockade crown
blossomcrown
Blue Crown
bridal crown
celestial crown
civic crown
copple-crown
crownable
crown achievement
crown agent
crown and anchor
crown antler
crown bar
crown cactus
crown cap
crown clade
crown colony
crown cork
crown corporation
Crown Court
crown daisy
crown dependency
crowned pigeon
crown estate
crown ether
crown fire
crown flash
crown flower
crown gall
crown glass
crown gold
crown grafting
crown graph
crowngrass
crown green
crown green bowls
crown group
crown immunity
crown imperial
crown jewel
crown jewels
Crown Jewels
crown land
crown lands
crown lease
crownless
crownlet
crown-like
crownlike
crownmaker
crown mammal
crownment
crown molding
crown of aberration
crown-of-the-field
crown of thorns
crown-of-thorns starfish
crownophane
crownpiece
Crown Point
crownpost
crown prince
crown princess
crown prosecutor
crown roast
crown saw
crown scab
crown sheet
crown shyness
crown virus
crownward
crown ward
crownwards
crown wheel
crown witness
crownwork
de-crown
decrown
discrown
eastern crown
firecrown
flower crown
forecrown
grass crown
half-crown
hindcrown
imperial crown
jewel in the crown
jewel in the Liberal crown
mural crown
nanocrown
naval crown
obsidional crown
olive crown
plea of the crown
plushcrown
raspberry crown borer
Raven Crown
Red Crown
royal crown
Steinbach's crown cactus
thistle crown
triple crown
uneasy lies the head that wears a crown
vallar crown
White Crown
yellowcrown