cross action

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Cross \Cross\ (kr[o^]s), a.
   1. Not parallel; lying or falling athwart; transverse;
      oblique; intersecting.
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            The cross refraction of the second prism. --Sir I.
                                                  Newton.
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   2. Not accordant with what is wished or expected;
      interrupting; adverse; contrary; thwarting; perverse. "A
      cross fortune." --Jer. Taylor.
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            The cross and unlucky issue of my design.
                                                  --Glanvill.
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            The article of the resurrection seems to lie
            marvelously cross to the common experience of
            mankind.                              --South.
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            We are both love's captives, but with fates so
            cross,
            One must be happy by the other's loss. --Dryden.
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   3. Characterized by, or in a state of, peevishness,
      fretfulness, or ill humor; as, a cross man or woman.
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            He had received a cross answer from his mistress.
                                                  --Jer. Taylor.
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   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.
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   {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}.
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