cross
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: krŏs
ipa: /kɹɒs/
note: dialects of the US, lot–cloth split
enpr: krôs
ipa: /kɹɔs/
note: dialects of the US, lot–cloth split
note: of Canada
enpr: krŏs
ipa: /kɹɑs/
note: of Canada
note: of the US
ipa: /kɹɒs/
ipa: /kɹɔs/
ipa: /kɹɒs/
ipa: /kɹɔ̟s/
rhymes: -ɒs
rhymes: -ɔːs
Forms: form: crosses
form: crossing
form: crossed
form: crossed
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: cross
form: cross
form: crossed
form: cross
form: crossest
form: crossed
form: crossedst
form: crosses
form: crosseth
form: crossed
form: cross
form: crossed
form: cross
form: crossed
form: cross
form: -
form: crossing
form: crossed
Etymology: 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. 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”)
Senses: examples: text: She frowned and crossed her arms.
glosses: To make or form a cross.
To place across or athwart; to cause to intersect.
examples: text: to cross the letter t
glosses: To make or form a cross.
To lay or draw something across, such as a line.
examples: text: Cross the box which applies to you.
glosses: To make or form a cross.
To mark with an X.
examples: text: 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’.
ref: 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part I, London: Collins, →ISBN:
glosses: To make or form a cross.
To write lines of text at right angles to and over the top of one another in order to save paper.ᵂ
examples: text: Again Beatrice crossed herself and sighed heavily as she bent over the dead insect.
ref: 1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Rappaccini's Daughter”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:
glosses: To make or form a cross.
To make the sign of the cross over oneself.
qualifier: to cross oneself
examples: text: "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."
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 298:
glosses: To make or form a cross.
To make the sign of the cross over (something or someone).
examples: 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.
glosses: To make or form a cross.
To mark a cross against the name of (a student) in the buttery or kitchen, so that they cannot get food there.
qualifier: Oxford University
examples: text: Why did the chicken cross the road?
text: You need to cross the street at the lights.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: Ukraine, however, will complain long and hard about a contentious second-half incident when Marko Devic's shot clearly crossed the line before it was scrambled away by John Terry, only for the officials to remain unmoved.
ref: 2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport:
text: Whatever the merits or otherwise of Scottish independence or a united UK, plenty of people cross the border every year.
ref: 2021 December 29, Philip Haigh, “Rail's role in unifying Great Britain and Northern Ireland”, in RAIL, number 947, page 24:
glosses: To move relatively.
To go from one side of (something) to the other.
examples: text: Ships crossing from starboard have right-of-way.
glosses: To move relatively.
To travel in a direction or path that will intersect with that of another.
examples: November 4, 1866, James David Forbes, letter to E. C. Batten Esq.
Your kind letter crossed mine.
glosses: To move relatively.
To pass, as objects going in an opposite direction at the same time.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To move relatively.
Relative movement by a player or of players.
Of both batsmen, to pass each other when running between the wickets in order to score runs.
examples: text: He crossed the ball into the penalty area.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
soccer
sports
glosses: To move relatively.
Relative movement by a player or of players.
To pass the ball from one side of the pitch to the other side.
examples: text: England cut loose at the end of the half, Ashton, Mark Cueto and Mike Tindall all crossing before the break.
ref: 2011 February 12, Mark Orlovac, “England 59-13 Italy”, in BBC:
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
rugby
sports
glosses: To move relatively.
Relative movement by a player or of players.
To score a try.
examples: text: "You'll rue the day you tried to cross me, Tom Hero!" bellowed the villain.
text: 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.
ref: 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
text: But I ain't never crossed a man that didn't deserve it / Me be treated like a punk, you know that's unheard of / You better watch how you talkin' and where you walkin' / Or you and your homies might be lined in chalk
ref: 1995, “Gangsta's Paradise”, in Artis Ivey, Jr., Karry Sanders, Doug Rasheed (lyrics), Gangsta's Paradise (CD), performed by Coolio and L.V., Tommy Boy, →OCLC:
qualifier: social
glosses: To oppose.
To contradict (another) or frustrate the plans of.
examples: text: to cross me from the golden time I look for
ref: 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]:
qualifier: social
glosses: To oppose.
To interfere and cut off ; to debar.
topics: law
qualifier: social
glosses: To oppose.
To conduct a cross examination; to question a hostile witness.
examples: text: They managed to cross a sheep with a goat.
text: Question: What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino?
Answer : El-if-I-no.
ref: 1978, Kim Applegate Peggs, Carpenter, volume 96, page 16:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: To cross-fertilize or crossbreed.
examples: text: The English practice of crossing checks so that payment may be made to the bank account or to order is prevalent.
ref: 1924, Commerce Reports, volume 1, number 13, page 849:
glosses: 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.
Synonyms: cross-fertilize
crossbreed
Hyponyms: crisscross
Derived terms: anticross
backcross
becross
bookcross
countercross
crossable
cross a bridge before one comes to it
cross-country
crossing
crossing loop
crossing number
cross my heart
cross my heart and hope to die
crossnumber
cross off
cross one's arms
cross oneself
cross one's fingers
cross one's heart
cross one's legs
cross out
crossover
cross over
cross paths
crosspoint
crossrow
cross someone's mind
cross someone's palm
cross someone's palm with silver
cross someone's path
cross someone's T
cross swords
crosstable
cross that bridge when one comes to it
cross the aisle
cross the floor
cross the line
cross the river
cross the Rubicon
cross the streams
cross the Styx
cross the Thames
cross the Tiber
cross the t's and dot the i's
cross the wires
crosstrack
crosstree
crossunder
cross up
crossvine
crosswalk
crosswall
crossway
crosswedge
cross wires
crosswise
crossword
dot the i's and cross the t's
double-cross
get one's wires crossed
incross
intercross
noncrossing
outcross
overcross
recross
uncross
uncrossability