▪ I. criss-cross, n.
(ˈkrɪskrɒs, -ɔː-)
[A phonetic reduction of Christs-cross: but in some late senses used with unconsciousness of the origin, and treated merely as a reduplication of cross; cf. mish-mash, tip-top, zig-zag, etc.]
1. = Christ-cross, in various senses, q.v.
2. a. [f. criss-cross v.] A transverse crossing.
| 1876 R. F. Burton Gorilla L. I. 2 When the current, setting to the north-west, meets a strong sea-breeze from the west, there is a criss-cross, a tide-rip. |
b. A network of intersecting lines.
| 1881 C. De Kay Vision of Nimrod x. 179 The country gleaming With silvery crisscross of canals. 1901 Daily Express 28 Aug. 4/6 A great boulevard..hemmed in all round by the criss-cross of narrower streets. 1928 A. Bennett Strange Vanguard xxxii. 214 A criss-cross of streets dotted with a thousand towers. 1944 S. Putnam tr. E. da Cunha's Rebellion in Backlands i. 8 An irregular line of low hills..forms a confused crisscross over the entire breadth of the Campos. |
c. fig. The state of being at cross-purposes.
| 1907 Daily Chron. 23 Feb. 3/1 The practice of one manufacturing country assisting another with the sinews of war was described by Mr. Zangwill as ‘a topsy turvy criss-cross, and Gilbertian’. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 20 Sept. 2/3 The absurd criss-cross of the authorities who look after us at playtime. |
3. U.S. (See quot.)
| 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Criss-cross, a game played on slates by children at school; also called Fox and Geese. |
Hence criss-cross-row: see Christ-cross-row.
▪ II. criss-cross, a. and adv.
(ˈkrɪskrɒs, -ɔː-)
[See prec.; now treated as a mere reduplication of cross; cf. zig-zag.]
A. adj. Arranged or placed in crossing lines, crossing, crossed; marked by crossings or intersections. B. adv. In the manner of crossing lines, crosswise; fig. in a contrary way, awry, askew.
| 1846 Hawthorne Mosses i. vii. 132 His puckered forehead unravels its entanglement of criss-cross wrinkles. 1864 Thoreau Maine W. iii. 244 Others prostrate and criss-across. 1879 C. R. Conder Tentwork Pal. 352 A regular criss-cross pattern, never seen in the later masonry. |
▪ III. criss-cross, v.
(ˈkrɪskrɒs, -ɔː-)
[See prec.]
1. trans. To mark with crossing lines, to cross repeatedly; to trace in crossing lines.
| 1818 Keats in Life & Lett. I. 112 To criss-cross the letter. 1871 Le Fanu Ten. Malory lxvii. 391 A pretty portrait..criss-crossed over with little cracks. 1883 Harper's Mag. 826/2 The passing vessels criss-cross the white lines of their wakes upon it like pencil-marks on the slate. |
2. intr. To intersect or cross repeatedly; also fig.
| 1953 G. E. M. Anscombe tr. Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations i. §66, We see a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing. Ibid., The various resemblances between members of a family..overlap and criss-cross in the same way. |