▪ I. crossing, vbl. n.
(ˈkrɒsɪŋ, ˈkrɔːs-)
[f. cross v.]
1. The marking with or making the sign of the cross.
| 1530 Palsgr. 211/1 Crossyng, croisee. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Offices 37 As touching kneeling, crossing..and other gestures. 1884 Evangelical Mag. Jan. 9 As many genuflexions..and as many crossings as ever. |
2. The action of drawing lines across; striking out, erasure; writing across other writing.
crossing off or
crossing out: striking off (an item), striking out (a word or entry) by drawing a cancelling line across it.
| a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. vii. 366 By procuring the crossing of all the debt-books of our sins. 1822 Shelley Let. 18 June (1964) II. 715, I intend to indulge myself in plenty of paper and no crossings. 1848 Clough Bothie iv. 178 Your letter..was written in scraps with crossings and counter-crossings. 1866 Crump Banking iv. 90 The alteration or erasure of a crossing [of a cheque] is a forgery. |
3. a. The action of passing across; intersecting; traversing; passage across the sea, a river, etc.
| 1575 Turberv. Venerie 123 The crossings and doublings of the deare. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. of Nat. (1851) I. 76 To follow..all the twistings, and crossings, and entanglements in those intricate subjects. 1805 Southey Madoc in Azt. xxi, The complex crossings of the mazy dance. 1891 J. E. H. Thomson Bks. wh. influenced our Lord ii. i. 271 The crossing of the great and wide sea. |
b. The action of crossing the path of another rider so as to obstruct him. Also
fig. Cf. cross and jostle in
cross- B.
| 1796 Hull Advertiser 23 Apr. 3/3 All the crossings and jostlings which the barrack-master..experienced. 1891 Daily News 5 Nov. 3/3 May Rose, whose jockey..for boring and crossing, was suspended for the remainder of the meeting. |
4. The place where two lines, tracks, bands, or the like, cross; intersection.
| 1828 Scott Jrnl. (1890) II. 163 The ceiling..is garnished, at the crossing and combining of the arches, with the recurring heads of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. iv. 61 A ring, placed at the crossing of the two strengthening bands. |
5. spec. a. The intersection of two streets, roads, lines of railway, etc.
level crossing: the intersection of a road and a railway, or of two railways, on the same level.
| 1695 Dryden Observ. Painting. Wks. 1808 XVII. 401 Statues..in the crossing of streets, or in the squares. 1700 S. L. tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 179, I was always upon my guard at Turnings and Crossings of Streets. 1840 F. Whishaw Railways Gt. Brit. 24 Where gates are fixed at the level road crossings. 1889 G. Findlay Eng. Railway 51 The intersection of one rail with another at any angle is termed a ‘crossing’, and these crossings are so constructed with wing rails and check rails as to guide the flange of the wheel, and ensure its taking the required direction. |
b. Eccl. Arch. That part of a cruciform church where the transepts cross the nave.
| 1835 Whewell Archit. Notes German Ch. i. 45 note, The portion of the building..over that space in the ground plan where the transept crosses the nave is called the crossing. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 13 If the pulpit be in the crossing. |
6. The place at which a street, river, etc. is crossed by passengers.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. (1682) 426 Giving back to Toledo, I crossed the crossing Siera de Morada. 1763 Johnson 28 July in Boswell, Sweeping crossings in the streets. 1869 Trollope He Knew xxvi. (1878) 145 The fellow that sweeps the crossing. |
7. Venery. (See
quot.)
| 1611 Cotgr., Salade..the young head of a Deere (long, tender, woollie, and but beginning to braunch) tearmed by our Woodmen, the crossing. |
8. A thwarting, opposing, or contravening.
| 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 377 Y⊇ iarres and crossings of friends. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 36 Cousin: of many men I doe not beare these crossings. 1669 Woodhead St. Teresa i. Pref. (1671) 20 Macerations of the Body, and crossings of the Will. 1692 Ray Dissol. World ii. ii. (1732) 83 It is a Crossing of Proverbs making Rivers to ascend to their Fountains. |
9. The raising of animals or plants from individuals of different races; cross-breeding.
| 1851 Beck's Florist 170 We commenced a series of ‘crossings’, with the view of remedying the..earliness of blooming and susceptibility to frost. 1879 tr. De Quatrefages' Hum. Spec. 63 This crossing..is differently named according to whether it takes place between different races or different species. |
10. Cheating, dishonest practice: see
cross n. 29.
| 1592 Greene Def. Conny Catch. (1859) 18 Is our crossing at cardes more perillous to the commonwelth than this cossenage for land? |
11. Comb., as
crossing-keeper,
crossing-place;
crossing-gate, a gate at a level crossing which is closed to road traffic when a train is due;
crossing-over Biol., the formation of a genotype exhibiting characters derived from both parents when the characters are known to be linked; hence also, the interchange of segments between chromatids of homologous pairs of chromosomes which causes this breakdown of linkage;
crossing-sweeper, a person who sweeps a (street-) crossing.
| 1929 Star 21 Aug. 7/2 The railway crosses the road in several places without *crossing-gates. |
| 1921 D. H. Lawrence Sea & Sardinia iv. 128 At a level crossing the woman *crossing-keeper darted out vigorously with her red flag. |
| 1912 T. H. Morgan & E. Cattell in Jrnl. Exper. Zoöl. XIII. 79 In certain combinations, the relation between linkage and breaking of the linkage (‘*crossing-over’ as we shall call it) is shown at once. Ibid. 91 There were seven cases of crossing-over in color, all males, in a total of 872 males. 1937, 1949 Crossing-over [see asynapsis]. |
| 1786 Francis II. 43 Employed in procuring a clean *crossing-place at the head of the Haymarket. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. V. xiii. 471 His forces..guarded the crossing-places from the falls at Trenton to below Bristol. |
| 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xix, Making himself as cheap as *crossing-sweepers. |
▪ II. ˈcrossing, ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ing2.] That crosses, in various senses: see the verb.
| 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1292/1 By meane of some crossing causes in the citie. 1626 W. Sclater Exp. 2 Thess. (1629) 185 Onely consider how crossing to the whole Counsell of God..that proud dreame is. 1718 Pope Iliad xx. 479 The crossing belts unite behind. 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pock. Bk. iii. (ed. 2) 64 Whenever a green light is opposed to a red light..the ships carrying the lights are crossing ships. |