1. [n]  the act of mixing different breeds of animals
2. [n]  a cross as an emblem of Christianity; used in heraldry
3. [n]  a wooden structure consisting of an upright post with a transverse piece
4. [n]  marking consisting of crossing lines
5. [n]  any affliction that causes great suffering; "that is his cross to bear"; "he bears his afflictions like a crown of thorns"
6. [adj]  perversely irritable
7. [v]  breed animals or plants using parents of different races and varieties; "cross a horse and a donkey"; "Mendel tried crossbreeding"; "these species do not interbreed"
8. [v]  trace a line through or across; "cross your 't'"
9. [v]  travel across or pass over; "The caravan covered almost 100 miles each day"
10. [v]  meet and pass; "the trains crossed"
11. [v]  fold so as to resemble a cross; "she crossed her legs"
12. [v]  meet at a point
13. [v]  hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of; "What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge"; "foil your opponent"
14. [v]  to cover a wide area; "Rivers traverse the valley floor", "The parking lot spans 3 acres"

1. \Cross\ (kr[o^]s; 115), n. [OE. crois, croys, cros; the
   former fr. OF. crois, croiz, F. croix, fr. L. crux; the
   second is perh. directly fr. Prov. cros, crotz. fr. the same
   L. crux; cf. Icel. kross. Cf. {Crucial}, {Crusade}, {Cruise},
   {Crux}.]
   1. A gibbet, consisting of two pieces of timber placed
      transversely upon one another, in various forms, as a T,
      or +, with the horizontal piece below the upper end of the
      upright, or as an X. It was anciently used in the
      execution of criminals.
   
            Nailed to the cross By his own nation. --Milton.
   
   2. The sign or mark of the cross, made with the finger, or in
      ink, etc., or actually represented in some material; the
      symbol of Christ's death; the ensign and chosen symbol of
      Christianity, of a Christian people, and of Christendom.
   
            The custom of making the sign of the cross with the
            hand or finger, as a means of conferring blessing or
            preserving from evil, is very old.    --Schaff-Herzog
                                                  Encyc.
   
            Before the cross has waned the crescent's ray. --Sir
                                                  W. Scott.
   
            Tis where the cross is preached.      --Cowper.
   
   3. Affiction regarded as a test of patience or virtue; trial;
      disappointment; opposition; misfortune.
   
            Heaven prepares a good man with crosses. --B.
                                                  Jonson.
   
   4. A piece of money stamped with the figure of a cross, also,
      that side of such a piece on which the cross is stamped;
      hence, money in general.
   
            I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I
            think you have no money in your purse. --Shak.
   
   5. An appendage or ornament or anything in the form of a
      cross; a badge or ornamental device of the general shape
      of a cross; hence, such an ornament, even when varying
      considerably from that form; thus, the Cross of the
      British Order of St. George and St. Michael consists of a
      central medallion with seven arms radiating from it.
   
   6. (Arch.) A monument in the form of a cross, or surmounted
      by a cross, set up in a public place; as, a market cross;
      a boundary cross; Charing Cross in London.
   
            Dun-Edin's Cross, a pillared stone, Rose on a turret
            octagon.                              --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
   
   7. (Her.) A common heraldic bearing, of which there are many
      varieties. See the Illustration, above.
   
   8. The crosslike mark or symbol used instead of a signature
      by those unable to write.
   
            Five Kentish abbesses . . . .subscribed their names
            and crosses.                          --Fuller.
   
   9. Church lands. [Ireland] [Obs.] --Sir J. Davies.
   
   10. A line drawn across or through another line.
   
   11. Hence: A mixing of breeds or stock, especially in cattle
       breeding; or the product of such intermixture; a hybrid
       of any kind.
   
             Toning down the ancient Viking into a sort of a
             cross between Paul Jones and Jeremy Diddler. --Lord
                                                  Dufferin.
   
   
   
   12. (Surveying) An instrument for laying of offsets
       perpendicular to the main course.
   
   13. (Mech.) A pipe-fitting with four branches the axes of
       which usually form's right angle.
   
   {Cross and pile}, a game with money, at which it is put to
      chance whether a coin shall fall with that side up which
      bears the cross, or the other, which is called pile, or
      reverse; the game called heads or tails.
   
   {Cross}
   
   {bottony or botton['e]}. See under {Bottony}.
   
   {Cross estoil['e]} (Her.). a cross, each of whose arms is
      pointed like the ray of a star; that is, a star having
      four long points only.
   
   {Cross of Calvary}. See {Calvary}, 3.
   
   {Southern cross}. (Astron.) See under {Southern}.
   
   {To do a thing on the cross}, to act dishonestly; -- opposed
      to acting on the square. [Slang]
   
   {To take up the cross}, to bear troubles and afflictions with
      patience from love to Christ.
   
   

2. \Cross\ (kr[o^]s), a.
   1. Not parallel; lying or falling athwart; transverse;
      oblique; intersecting.
   
            The cross refraction of the second prism. --Sir I.
                                                  Newton.
   
   2. Not accordant with what is wished or expected;
      interrupting; adverse; contrary; thwarting; perverse. ``A
      cross fortune.'' --Jer. Taylor.
   
            The cross and unlucky issue of my design.
                                                  --Glanvill.
   
            The article of the resurrection seems to lie
            marvelously cross to the common experience of
            mankind.                              --South.
   
            We are both love's captives, but with fates so
            cross, One must be happy by the other's loss.
                                                  --Dryden.
   
   3. Characterized by, or in a state of, peevishness,
      fretfulness, or ill humor; as, a cross man or woman.
   
            He had received a cross answer from his mistress.
                                                  --Jer. Taylor.
   
   4. Made in an opposite direction, or an inverse relation;
      mutually inverse; interchanged; as, cross interrogatories;
      cross marriages, as when a brother and sister marry
      persons standing in the same relation to each other.
   
   {Cross action} (Law), an action brought by a party who is
      sued against the person who has sued him, upon the same
      subject matter, as upon the same contract. --Burrill.
   
   {Cross aisle} (Arch.), a transept; the lateral divisions of a
      cruciform church.
   
   {Cross axle}.
      (a) (Mach.) A shaft, windlass, or roller, worked by levers
          at opposite ends, as in the copperplate printing
          press.
      (b) A driving axle, with cranks set at an angle of 90[deg]
          with each other.
   
   {Cross bedding} (Geol.), oblique lamination of horizontal
      beds.
   
   {Cross bill}. See in the Vocabulary.
   
   {Cross bitt}. Same as {Crosspiece}.
   
   {Cross bond}, a form of bricklaying, in which the joints of
      one stretcher course come midway between those of the
      stretcher courses above and below, a course of headers and
      stretchers intervening. See {Bond}, n., 8.
   
   {Cross breed}. See in the Vocabulary.
   
   {Cross breeding}. See under {Breeding}.
   
   {Cross buttock}, a particular throw in wrestling; hence, an
      unexpected defeat or repulse. --Smollet.
   
   {Cross country}, across the country; not by the road. ``The
      cross-country ride.'' --Cowper.
   
   {Cross fertilization}, the fertilization of the female
      products of one physiological individual by the male
      products of another, -- as the fertilization of the ovules
      of one plant by pollen from another. See {Fertilization}.
   
   
   {Cross file}, a double convex file, used in dressing out the
      arms or crosses of fine wheels.
   
   {Cross fire} (Mil.), lines of fire, from two or more points
      or places, crossing each other.
   
   {Cross forked}. (Her.) See under {Forked}.
   
   {Cross frog}. See under {Frog}.
   
   {Cross furrow}, a furrow or trench cut across other furrows
      to receive the water running in them and conduct it to the
      side of the field.
   
   {Cross handle}, a handle attached transversely to the axis of
      a tool, as in the augur. --Knight.
   
   {Cross lode} (Mining), a vein intersecting the true or
      principal lode.
   
   {Cross purpose}. See {Cross-purpose}, in the Vocabulary.
   
   {Cross reference}, a reference made from one part of a book
      or register to another part, where the same or an allied
      subject is treated of.
   
   {Cross sea} (Naut.), a chopping sea, in which the waves run
      in contrary directions.
   
   {Cross stroke}, a line or stroke across something, as across
      the letter t.
   
   {Cross wind}, a side wind; an unfavorable wind.
   
   {Cross wires}, fine wires made to traverse the field of view
      in a telescope, and moved by a screw with a graduated
      head, used for delicate astronomical observations; spider
      lines. Fixed cross wires are also used in microscopes,
      etc.
   
   
   
   Syn: Fretful; peevish. See {Fretful}.
   
   

3. \Cross\, prep.
   Athwart; across. [Archaic or Colloq.]
   
         A fox was taking a walk one night cross a village.
                                                  --L'Estrange.
   
   {To go cross lots}, to go across the fields; to take a short
      cut. [Colloq.]
   
   

4. \Cross\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Crossed} (kr?st; 115); p.
   pr. & vb. n. {Crossing}.]
   1. To put across or athwart; to cause to intersect; as, to
      cross the arms.
   
   2. To lay or draw something, as a line, across; as, to cross
      the letter t.
   
   3. To pass from one side to the other of; to pass or move
      over; to traverse; as, to cross a stream.
   
            A hunted hare . . . crosses and confounds her former
            track.                                -- I. Watts.
   
   4. To pass, as objects going in an opposite direction at the
      same time. ``Your kind letter crossed mine.'' --J. D.
      Forbes.
   
   5. To run counter to; to thwart; to obstruct; to hinder; to
      clash or interfere with.
   
            In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing.
                                                  --Shak.
   
            An oyster may be crossed in love.     -- Sheridan.
   
   6. To interfere and cut off; to debar. [Obs.]
   
            To cross me from the golden time I look for. --Shak.
   
   7. To make the sign of the cross upon; -- followed by the
      reflexive pronoun; as, he crossed himself.
   
   8. To cancel by marking crosses on or over, or drawing a line
      across; to erase; -- usually with out, off, or over; as,
      to cross out a name.
   
   9. To cause to interbreed; -- said of different stocks or
      races; to mix the breed of.
   
   {To cross one's path}, to oppose one's plans. --Macaulay.
   
   

5. \Cross\, v. i.
   1. To lie or be athwart.
   
   2. To move or pass from one side to the other, or from place
      to place; to make a transit; as, to cross from New York to
      Liverpool.
   
   3. To be inconsistent. [Obs.]
   
            Men's actions do not always cross with reason. --Sir
                                                  P. Sidney.
   
   4. To interbreed, as races; to mix distinct breeds.
   
            If two individuals of distinct races cross, a third
            is invariably produced different from either.
                                                  --Coleridge.
   
   

6. \Cross\, v. t.
   
   {To cross a check} (Eng. Banking), to draw two parallel
      transverse lines across the face of a check, with or
      without adding between them the words ``and company'',
      with or without the words ``not negotiable'', or to draw
      the transverse lines simply, with or without the words
      ``not negotiable'' (the check in any of these cases being
      crossed generally). Also, to write or print across the
      face of a check the name of a banker, with or without the
      words ``not negotiable'' (the check being then crossed
      specially). A check crossed generally is payable only when
      presented through a bank; one crossed specially, only when
      presented through the bank mentioned. Cross-buttock
   

in the New Testament the instrument of crucifixion, and hence used for the crucifixion of Christ itself (Eph. 2:16; Heb. 12:2; 1 Cor. 1:17, 18; Gal. 5:11; 6:12, 14; Phil. 3:18). The word is also used to denote any severe affliction or trial (Matt. 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; 10:21).

The forms in which the cross is represented are these:

1. The crux simplex (I), a "single piece without transom."

2. The crux decussata (X), or St. Andrew's cross.

3. The crux commissa (T), or St. Anthony's cross.

4. The crux immissa (t), or Latin cross, which was the kind of cross on which our Saviour died. Above our Lord's head, on the projecting beam, was placed the "title." (See CRUCIFIXION.)

After the conversion, so-called, of Constantine the Great (B.C. 313), the cross first came into use as an emblem of Christianity. He pretended at a critical moment that he saw a flaming cross in the heavens bearing the inscription, "In hoc signo vinces", i.e., By this sign thou shalt conquer, and that on the following night Christ himself appeared and ordered him to take for his standard the sign of this cross. In this form a new standard, called the Labarum, was accordingly made, and borne by the Roman armies. It remained the standard of the Roman army till the downfall of the Western empire. It bore the embroidered monogram of Christ, i.e., the first two Greek letters of his name, X and P (chi and rho), with the Alpha and Omega. (See A.)