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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