ˈcross-tree
[cross- 3, 4.]
1. Naut. (pl.) Two horizontal cross-timbers supported by the cheeks and trestle-trees at the head of the lower and top masts, to sustain the tops on the lower mast, and to spread the top-gallant rigging at the top mast head; affording also a standing-place for seamen.
Formerly sometimes used to include the trestle-trees.
| 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 12 The trussell trees or crosse trees. 1627 ― Seaman's Gram. iii. 16 The Crosse-trees are also at the head of the Masts, one let into another crosse, and strongly bolted with the Tressell trees. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Cross-trees, They are four in number..but strictly speaking only those which go thwart ships, are called cross-trees. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xiii. 41. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Science (ed. 6) I. vi. 214, I climbed the mainmast, and standing on the cross-trees, saw the sun set. |
2. a. A gallows; b. A cross.
| 1638 Ford Fancies i. ii, Not so terrible as a cross-tree that never grows, to a wag-halter page. 1648 Herrick Noble Numbers Poems (1885) 317 This Cross-tree Here Doth Jesus Bear. a 1889 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1948) 265 And where I see the sweet cross-tree I in an instant would be gone. 1934 Dylan Thomas 18 Poems 29 The blood that touched the crosstree and the grail Touched the first cloud and left a sign. 1956 E. Muir Coll. Poems (1960) 228 The archaic peoples in their ancient awe, In ignorant wonder saw The wooden cross-tree on the bare hillside. |
† 3. A whipple-tree. Obs.
| 1765 Dickson Agric. ii. 258 Instead of using a soam, and cross-trees for the second pair, as is commonly done in a four horse plough. |
4. attrib. † cross-tree bar (cf. 3); † cross-tree yard, a cross-jack yard.
| 1692 in Capt. Smith's Seaman's Gram. i. xiv. 63 The Cross-tree yard, Cross-tree Braces. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Cross-tree-yard, a yard standing square just under the mizen top. 1787 Winter Syst. Husb. 310 A cross-tree bar must be fixed to the fore standards. |