Word: cross Part of Speech: verb 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. 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”) Pronunciation: /kɹɒs/, /kɹɔs/, /kɹɑs/, [kɹɔ̟s] 1. To make or form a cross. Example: She frowned and crossed her arms. 2. To make or form a cross. Example: to cross the letter t 3. To make or form a cross. Example: Cross the box which applies to you. 4. To make or form a cross. Example: 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. To make or form a cross. Labels: reflexive Example: Again Beatrice crossed herself and sighed heavily as she bent over the dead insect. 6. To make or form a cross. Labels: transitive Example: "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. To make or form a cross. Labels: UK, obsolete, slang, transitive Example: 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. To move relatively. Labels: transitive Example: Why did the chicken cross the road? Example: You need to cross the street at the lights. 9. To move relatively. Labels: intransitive Example: Ships crossing from starboard have right-of-way. 10. To move relatively. Labels: transitive Example: November 4, 1866, James David Forbes, letter to E. C. Batten Esq. Your kind letter crossed mine. 11. To move relatively. 12. To move relatively. Example: He crossed the ball into the penalty area. 13. To move relatively. Example: England cut loose at the end of the half, Ashton, Mark Cueto and Mike Tindall all crossing before the break. 14. To oppose. Labels: transitive Example: "You'll rue the day you tried to cross me, Tom Hero!" bellowed the villain. Example: 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. 15. To oppose. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: to cross me from the golden time I look for 16. To oppose. 17. To cross-fertilize or crossbreed. Example: They managed to cross a sheep with a goat. Example: Question: What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino? Answer : El-if-I-no. 18. 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. Labels: transitive Example: The English practice of crossing checks so that payment may be made to the bank account or to order is prevalent.