ˈcross-bones, n. pl.
[cross- 4 c.]
A figure of two thigh-bones laid across each other in the form of the letter X, usually placed under the figure of a skull, as an emblem of death.
| 1798 Canning, etc. Anti-Jacobin, Rovers, A subterranean vault..with coffins, 'scutcheons, death's heads and cross-bones. 1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 898 She was a perpetual memento mori; a skull and cross-bones would hardly have been more efficacious. 1885 J. Runciman Skippers & Sh. 86 Half a score of us had been under the crossbones [i.e. pirate's flag]. |