crest
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɹɛst/
rhymes: -ɛst
Forms: form: crests
Etymology: From Middle English creste, from Old French creste (modern French crête) and perhaps continuing Old English cræsta (“crest, tuft, plume”); both ultimately from Vulgar Latin *cresta, from Latin crista. Doublet of crista.
The informal meaning “design, logo” (sense 11) stems from a misinterpretation of the heraldic sense 4, which specifically refers to the object placed on top of the helm.
Senses: glosses: The summit of a hill or mountain ridge.
glosses: A tuft, or other natural ornament, growing on an animal's head, for example the comb of a cockerel, the swelling on the head of a snake, the lengthened feathers of the crown or nape of bird, etc.
glosses: The plume of feathers, or other decoration, worn on or displayed on a helmet; the distinctive ornament of a helmet.
examples: text: I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: A bearing worn, not upon the shield, but usually on a helmet above it, sometimes (as for clerics) separately above the shield or separately as a mark for plate, in letterheads, and the like.
glosses: The upper curve of a horse's neck.
glosses: The ridge or top of a wave.
glosses: The helm or head, as typical of a high spirit; pride; courage.
glosses: The ornamental finishing which surmounts the ridge of a roof, canopy, etc.
glosses: The top line of a slope or embankment.
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
glosses: A ridge along the surface of a bone.
examples: text: Hungry for fame and the approval of rare-animal collector Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), Darwin deceives the Captain and his crew into believing they can get enough booty to win the pirate competition by entering Polly in a science fair. So the pirates journey to London in cheerful, blinkered defiance of the Queen, a hotheaded schemer whose royal crest reads simply “I hate pirates.”
ref: 2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits :”, in The Onion AV Club:
glosses: A design or logo, especially one of an institution, sports club, association or high-class family.
glosses: Any of several birds in the family Regulidae, including the goldcrests and firecrests.
Synonyms: sense: skin on head of birds
word: comb
sense: skin on head of birds
word: cockscomb
Coordinate terms: sense: skin on head of birds
word: caruncle
sense: skin on head of birds
word: snood
sense: skin on head of birds
word: wattle
Derived terms: crestal
crest cloud
crestfallen
crestfish
crestie
crestless
crestlike
crestline
crest-tailed mulgara
crest tile
cresyl
flamecrest
great crest
helmetcrest
hillcrest
iliac crest
increst
infratemporal crest
interior crest
neural crest
neural crest syndrome
neurocrest
Pacific Crest
plovercrest
ride the crest of the wave
sagittal crest
Scotch crest
undercrest