▪ I. crystal, n. and a.
(ˈkrɪstəl)
Forms: α. [1 cristalla], 3–7 cristal(l, (4 crestal, -el, kristall, cristale, -talle); β. 5 crystalle, 5–7 crystall, 7– crystal; γ. 6–7 christal(l, 7 chrystall, 7–9 chrystal.
[a. OF. cristal (11th c. in Littré) = Pr. and Sp. cristal, It. cristallo, ad. L. crystallum, ad. Gr. κρύσταλλος clear ice, (rock-)crystal, deriv. of κρυσταίν-ειν to freeze, congeal with frost, κρύος frost. Between the 15th and the 17th c. the Eng. spelling was gradually changed after L. to crystal (against the practice of the Romanic langs.), and in the 16th c. an erroneous spelling with chr- (app. after chrysolite, etc.) became frequent.]
A. n.
† 1. Ice, clear ice. Obs. (chiefly a literalism of translation from the Vulgate).
| c 1000 Ags. Ps. cxlvii. 6 He his cristallum cynnum sendeð. a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxlvii. 6 He sendis his kristall as morcels. 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xliii. 22 The cristal freesede fro the watyr. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xvii. 79 Þe water congelez in to cristall. 1535 Coverdale Ecclus. xliii. 20 Whan the colde northwynde bloweth, harde Christall commeth of the water. |
2. a. A mineral, clear and transparent like ice;
esp. a form of pure quartz having these qualities. Now more particularly distinguished from other senses as
rock-crystal, formerly also
crystal of the mountains.
Iceland crystal: old name of Iceland spar.
(By the ancients and in the Middle Ages (rock-)crystal was supposed to be congealed water or ice ‘petrified’ by some long-continued natural process. There was thus no transfer of sense in applying to it the same name as to clear ice, of which it was viewed as merely another state.)
| c 1000 ælfric Num. xi. 7 Swilce coryandran sæd, hwites bleos swa cristalla [Vulg. coloris bdellii]. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. 228/318 Weued and chaliz and Cruettes þoruȝ-out cler cristal. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xxx. (1495) 562 Crystall is a bryght stone and clere wyth watry colour. Men trowe that snowe or yse is made hard in space of many yeres; therfore the Grekys yaue this name therto. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 103 Crystalle, stone, cristallus. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 5 b, The Cristall is one of those stones that shyneth in euerie part, and is in colour watrie. Isidore saith, that it is nothing else then a congeled Ise by continuance frosen whole yeares. 1611 Bible Rev. iv. 6 A sea of glasse like vnto Chrystall. 1647 Cowley Mistress, Coldness iii, Though Heat dissolve the Ice again, The Chrystal solid does remain. 1750 tr. Leonardus' Mirr. Stones 84 Crystal, is a Stone like Ice, both in Colour and Transparency, with a pretty good Hardness. 1861 C. W. King Ant. Gems (1866) 93 Crystal is found in very large masses; the largest known to the Romans weighed 50 pounds. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. vi. 85 Of iron, or of bone, stone, crystal, or some other hard substance. |
b. The standard type of clearness or transparency, in the phrase ‘as clear as crystal’ (
clear a. 3).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 376 (Fairf.) Water clere als cristale. c 1440 York Myst. xxxii. 24 My coloure as cristall is clere. 1647 Cowley Mistress, My Heart Discov., Clear as fair Crystal to the View. |
3. Poetically applied to pure limpid water, or other clear transparent substance.
| 1594 Barnfield Aff. Sheph. i. xxii, Within the Christall of a Pearle-bright brooke. 1643 Denham Cooper's H. 322 Proud of his wound to it resigns his blood And stains the crystal with a purple flood. 1767 Sir W. Jones Seven Fount. Poems (1777) 43 Birds that..from the brink the liquid crystal sip. 1885 Mrs. H. Ward tr. Amiel's Jrnl. 255 The glacier throws off the stones and fragments fallen into its crevasses that it may remain pure crystal. |
4. a. (with
a and
pl.) A piece of rock-crystal or similar mineral;
esp. one used in magic
art.| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 112 A cristall is that one, Which that corone is set upon. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 474 Blandit with Beriallis and Cristallis cleir. 1597 Jas. I. Demonol. (in Brand Pop. Ant. III. 108) The Seer looks into a Chrystal or Berryl, wherein he will see the answer, represented either by Types or Figures. 1669 Phil. Trans. IV. 983 At the foot of these mountains are with great labour digg'd out Chrystals. 1769 Sir W. Jones Pal. Fortune Poems (1777) 16 She..in th' enchanted crystal sees A bower o'er-canopied with tufted trees. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxiii, You have used neither..crystal, pentacle, magic-mirror, nor geomantic figure. 1882 Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 110 The gardener..hastily drew together the..jewels..The touch of these costly crystals sent a shiver..through the man's frame. |
b. fig. Applied to the eyes.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 963 Her eye seene in the teares, teares in her eye, Both christals, where they viewd ech others sorrow. 1509 ― Hen. V, ii. iii. 56 Goe cleare thy Chrystalls. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Cust. County i. ii, Bid the coy wench..out-blush damask roses, And dim the breaking East with her bright crystals. |
c. fig. Esp. a prophecy derived from crystal-gazing. Now
rare.
| 1902 Westm. Gaz. 6 Nov. 2/3 The Cleveland by-election will always be memorable if only for the fact that the crystal has had a new form given to it. 1914 Concise Oxf. Dict. Add., Crystal colloq., view of the future thus obtained [i.e. by crystal-gazing], prophetic utterance. 1931 H. G. Wells Work, Wealth & Happiness of Mankind (1932) xii. 596 Favours, buttons, crystal and claptrap: these are the forces that bring the politicians of the great powers of the world to office. |
5. Short for
crystal-glass: a quality of glass having a high degree of transparency, usually due to its containing a large proportion of oxide of lead; also often a synonym for fine cut glass; hence, glass vessels, decanters, wine glasses, etc. of this quality collectively. [
Ger. krystallglas.]
| 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. Ep. to Rdr., Humors in the eyes, as it were the christall glasse set in the windowes. c 1645 Howell Lett. i. xxvii. 53, I was..in Murano, a little Island, wher Crystall-Glasse is made. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts II. 659 English manufacturers..in improving the brilliancy of crystal-glass..have injured its fitness for constructing optical lenses. |
| 1668 Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 10 The King..hath lately made a closet which they call a cabinet of cristall and philigrin. 1735 Dict. Polygraph, Crystal is also a name given to a factitious body cast in the glass-houses, also call'd crystal-glass..Of this fritt, you may make common glass, and also Crystal. 1831 Brewster Optics viii. 75 Let us take another [prism] of flint glass or white crystal. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes II. 294 Eyeing the plate and crystal. |
6. (with
a and
pl.) A vessel or other article made of this glass;
orig. called
a crystal glass;
esp. the glass of a watch-case. Also
fig. applied to the eyes.
| 1613 Heywood Braz. Age ii. ii. Wks. 1874 III. 184 Looke on me Adon with a stedfast eye, That in these Christall glasses I may see My beauty. 1656 Sanderson Serm. (1689) 370 The breaking of a Christal glass or China dish. |
| 1651 Devenant Gondibert vi. xiii, And thence..In a small Christall he a Cordiall drew. 1678 Lond. Gaz. No. 1292/4 A Picture of a Lady in Little, in a black Shagrine Case..with a Christal over the Picture. 1873 Morley Rousseau II. 43 Tall crystals laden with flowers. |
† 7. The crystalline lens of the eye.
Obs. rare.
| 1694 Acc Sev. late Voy. ii. 135 The Crystal of the Eye is not much bigger than a Pea. |
† 8. pl. Transparent vesicular eruptions or pustules appearing in certain diseases.
Obs.| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 327 Hereto belong the crystals, tubercles, rubeols, and rossals. [1882 Syd. Soc. Lex., Crystalli, old name applied to the transparent vesicular eruption of pemphigus; also, to that of varicella.] |
9. a. Chem. and
Min. A form in which the molecules of many simple elements and their natural compounds regularly aggregate by the operation of molecular affinity: it has a definite internal structure, with the external form of a solid enclosed by a number of symmetrically arranged plane faces, and varying in simplicity from a cube to much more complex geometrical bodies.
So called because of the resemblance in colour, transparency, and regularity of shape, between native specimens of (rock-) crystal and the forms assumed by salts, etc., in the process of crystallization from a solution, aided by the ancient notion that rock-crystal was itself a substance like ice produced by some process from water.
| a 1626 Bacon (J.), If the menstruum be overcharged, within a short time the metals will shoot into certain crystals. 1672 P. F. Lana in Phil. Trans. Abr. I. 720 (title), Reflections on an Observation of Signior M. Antonio Castagna concerning the Formation of Crystals. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn., Chrystallization..by which the Salts dissolved in any Liquor are made to shoot into little prettily figured Lumps or Fragments which they call Chrystals, from their being pellucid or clear like Chrystal. 1876 Page Adv. Text Bk. Geol. vii. 126 Granite is composed of crystals of felspar, quartz, and mica. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 59 The term ‘crystal’ is now applied to all symmetrical solid shapes assumed spontaneously by lifeless matter. |
† b. Used in the old names of various chemical salts of crystalline form, as
crystals of alum,
copper,
Mars (
= iron),
silver,
tartar,
Venus (
= copper), etc. Now mostly
Obs.| 1662 R. Mathew Unl. Alch. § 101. 172 Chrystal of Tartar..to be had at any Druggist. 1706 Phillips, Crystals of Silver..Silver reduc'd into the Form of a Salt by the sharp Points of Spirit of Nitre: These Crystals are us'd by Surgeons to make an Eschar. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Crystals of Mars..iron reduced into a salt by an acid liquor; used in diseases arising from obstructions. 1730–6 Bailey (folio), Crystals of Copper, is a solution of copper in spirit of nitre, evaporated and crystallized to gain the salt; those crystals are used as caustics. 1811 A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) 501 Take of..crystals of tartar, rubbed to a very fine powder, two ounces. 1882 Syd. Soc. Lex., Crystals of Venus, crystallised neutral acetate of copper. |
c. crystals: a particular quality of refined crystallized sugar.
| 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 943 There are three classes of sugar-refineries in this country, the chief productions of which are, respectively:—1st Loaf-sugar. 2nd Crystals (i.e. large, well-formed, dry white crystals of sugar). 3rd Crushed sugar. 1886 Daily News 15 Sept. 2/4 Sugar..Russian crystals continue active. |
d. spec. in
Electronics, a crystalline piece of a semiconductor (such as germanium, silicon, or galena) used in a device on account of its properties of electrical conduction;
crystal detector, a detector (sense 3 f) in which a crystal diode is employed to rectify a high-frequency current; a crystal diode used as a detector;
crystal diode, a semiconductor diode,
esp. one comprising a semiconductor crystal with which a thin metal wire is in point contact; also called
crystal rectifier;
crystal receiver,
crystal set, a receiving set employing a crystal detector.
| 1907 G. W. Pierce in Physical Rev. XXV. 31 (title) On crystal rectifiers for..electric oscillations. Ibid. 50 Crystal rectifiers employed in the construction of alternating current measuring instruments. 1908 J. A. Fleming Elem. Man. Radiotelegr. 332 Crystal detectors. 1913 Year-Bk. Wireless Telegr. 419 Crystal Detector, a form of oscillation detector depending on the fact that certain crystals (e.g., carborundum) allow current to pass through them more readily in one direction than in the other. 1917 Wireless World June 168 The balanced crystal receiver, by keeping signals at a reasonable strength, enables the operator to receive in conditions which would otherwise make work impossible. 1923 J. A. Fleming Wireless Telegr. & Teleph. 20 The most generally used crystal is now galena (sulphide of lead). 1923 Hawkhead & Dowsett Techn. Instr. Wireless Telegr. (ed. 3) 129 A good commercial crystal detector..should rectify with very small changes in potential. Ibid. 223 Crystal Receiver. 1924 E. T. Larner (title) Crystal sets. 1926 J. A. Fleming Electr. Educator I. 379/2 This detector consists of two crystals, zincite and chalcopyrites, in contact. 1943 C. L. Boltz Basic Radio xiii. 209 Some years ago thousands of people regularly used crystal sets for listening to broadcast programmes. 1948 Gloss. Computer Terms (M.I.T. Servomechanisms Lab. Rep. R-138) 5 Crystal diode. Ibid., Crystal rectifier, a circuit component having almost unidirectional current-flow characteristics, usually consisting of a small piece of germanium in contact with a thin wire. 1955 Sci. News Let. 11 June 378/3 A crystal diode is a device similar to the transistor. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. XI. 475/1 The crystal detector..has found a new application in the field of radar where it is used at frequencies up to about 30,000 Mc/s. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. I. 359/2 Modern crystal rectifiers..represent the simplest and most sensitive of all rectifying devices. |
10. ‘A very fine wide Durant [a glazed woollen stuff], once an article of export for use in making nuns' veils. Invariably made white’ (Beck
Drapers' Dict.). [
Cf. Sp. cristal fine shining woollen stuff.]
11. Her. = Argent or pearl.
| 1830 Robson Brit. Heraldry III. Gloss., Crystal, used by some heralds instead of pearl, to express argent. |
B. attrib. and adj. 1. Composed of crystal:
a. of rock-crystal;
b. of crystal glass.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 159 A crystal clyffe ful relusaunt. 1569 tr. Bellay's Visions iv. in Theat. Worldlings, The chapters Alabaster, Christall frises. a 1631 Donne Poems (1650) 23 Hither with Crystall vials, lovers come, And take my teares. 1648 Boyle Seraph. Love xi. (1700) 59 Your Mistresses Picture, and its Chrystal Cover. 1858 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 371 Four bright crystal tumblers. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Behaviour Wks. (Bohn) II. 383 Geneva watches with crystal faces. |
2. a. Clear and transparent like crystal.
| 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. xii. 195 Besyde the riuer of a cristall welle. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. iv. xviii, Her crystall eyes full of lowlenes. c 1576 Thynne Ld. Burghley's Crest i. in Animadv. App. iv. (1865) 103 With cristalle starres twinklinge in azurd skye. a 1652 Brome Queen iv. iii, How black and fowl your Sin Is rendred by my Chrystal innocence. 1727–46 Thomson Summer 1245 The well⁓known pool, whose crystal depth A sandy bottom shows. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxx. (1856) 260 The crystal transparency of an icicle. |
† b. Sometimes with a reference to the crystalline heavens of old Astronomy.
Obs.| c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) i. 57 A-boue all kynges..vnder the Clowdys Cristall. 1718 Pope Iliad xi. 445 Shouts, as he past, the crystal regions rend. 1738 Wesley Psalms cxlvii. 2 Shine to his Praise, ye chrystal Skies, The Floor of his Abode. |
c. Comb., as
crystal-clear,
crystal-dropping,
crystal-flowing,
crystal-leaved,
crystal-like,
crystal-producing,
crystal-smooth,
crystal-streaming,
crystal-winged, etc.
adjs.;
crystal-wise adv.;
crystal ball, a crystal (sense 4 a) in the shape of a globe, also
fig.;
crystal clock, a quartz-crystal clock (see
quartz);
crystal-gazing, concentration of one's gaze on a ball of rock-crystal or the like in order to obtain a telepathic or hallucinatory picture; also
fig.; similarly
crystal-gaze v. intr.,
crystal-gazer (
cf. crystal-seer,
-seeing);
crystal-glass, see
crystal 5, 6;
crystal lattice (see
lattice n.);
crystal microphone, a microphone which depends for its action on the piezo-electric activity of a crystalline substance;
crystal palace: see
palace;
crystal-pulling [
cf. G.
kristallisations-geschwindigkeit used of a similar process by J. Czochralski 1918, in
Zeit. f. physikal. Chem. XCII. 219], a method of obtaining pure single crystals for use in a junction diode or a transistor by inserting a seed crystal in a melt of germanium or silicon and gradually withdrawing it; also
attrib.;
crystal-seer, one who professes to see secrets, etc., in pieces of crystal, so
crystal-seeing [
cf. Germ. krystallsehen, -seher];
† crystal-stone = A. 2 above;
crystal violet, a name of one of the aniline dyes;
crystal-vision, crystal-gazing, or the picture seen by this means.
| 1855 Browning Men & Women II. 31 The sights in a magic *crystal ball. 1964 J. Drummond Welcome, Proud Lady xii. 51 Did you see that in your crystal ball..or did Mrs. Dannhauser put you up to it? 1968 G. Butler Coffin Following i. 7 In the crystal ball the old woman could see it. |
| c 1520 Everyman (1890) 898 Now the soule is taken the body fro Thy rekenynge is *crystall clere. 1840 Lowell Irene in Poet. Wks. (1873) 3 Hers is a spirit deep, and crystal-clear. 1845 Browning Dram. Rom. & Lyrics 15 Glasses they'll blow you, crystal-clear. 1859 J. W. Carlyle Let. 20 Feb. in Geo. Eliot's Lett. (1954) III. 17 A crystal-clear, musical, Scotch stream. 1952 C. Day Lewis tr. Virgil's Aeneid xi. 245 The issue you ask our advice on Is crystal-clear and does not require our comments. |
| 1937 Discovery Jan. 18/2 A *crystal clock..will increase the accuracy of the gravity observations. |
| a 1650 May Old Couple ii. in Hazl. Dodsley XII. 30 Her *crystal-dropping eyes. |
| 1950 W. de la Mare Inward Companion 78 And do you rap? Or *crystal-gaze? |
| 1898 A. Lang Making of Religion v. 95 The *crystal-gazer. 1920 R. Macaulay Potterism iii. i. 108 Thought-readers, crystal-gazers, mediums and planchette-writers. |
| 1889 Proc. Soc. Psychical Res. V. 507 *Crystal-gazing. 1945 H. Read Coat Many Colours xxxi. 151 To ask people to begin looking for profound human emotions..in painted canvas or carved stone seems to me like asking them to indulge in a new kind of crystal-gazing. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 12 Jan. 63/1 A suitably cynical note on which to end a session of crystal-gazing. |
| 1926 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity xxvi. 218 The *crystal lattice has been traversed by about as many α-particles as there are uranium atoms contained in the lattice. |
| 1933 Chem. Abstr. XXVII. 1578 A practical application of the observed phenomena is a new *crystal microphone. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 247 Crystal microphone or gramophone pick-up. This generates a signal by means of a crystal bimorph. |
| 1952 Proc. Inst. Radio Engin. XL. 1339/2 (caption) High vacuum melting furnace showing *crystal pulling mechanism. 1960 Engineers' Digest XXI. xi. 125/1 Dislocation free single crystals of germanium can be produced by a special method of crystal-pulling. 1962 Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors iii. 39 Crystal pulling... During this process material from the melt freezes on the seed, building up new rows of atoms whose crystal axes are the same as those of the seed. |
| 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 5 b, The Diamond is..in colour almost *Christallike, but somewhat more resplendishing. |
| 1855 Smedley Occult Sci. 323 *Crystal-seeing has now become very common. |
| Ibid., Some *crystal-seers can discover nothing unless certain magical words are pronounced by the operator. |
| 1818 Keats Endymion iii. 382 How *crystal-smooth it felt. |
| c 1386 Chaucer Pard. Prol. 19 Thanne shewe I forth my longe *cristal stones. a 1490 Botoner Itin. (Nasmith 1778) 224 Lapides vocati cristalle-stonys. 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xv. xii. 344 To have a spirit inclosed into a christall stone or berill glasse. |
| 1889 Proc. Soc. Psychical Res. V. 486 Recent experiments in crystal-vision. 1898 A. Lang Making of Religion v. 90 Crystal visions, savage and civilised. |
| 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 103 Her fayer graye eies Shininge *christall wise. |
Add:
[B.] [2.] [c.] crystal healing, (the study or use of) the healing power supposed by some to emanate from crystals.
| 1985 Los Angeles Times (South Bay ed.) 25 Aug. ix. 2/3 He cited weekday programs such as..‘*Crystal Healing’ with Joan Sotkin, ‘The Astrology Hour’ with Farley Malorrus and ‘Octave Beyond’ with metaphysician Betty Finmark. 1987 Ibid. 29 May v. 4/5 For the esoteric set, crystal healing, extraterrestrials and transchanneling will be summer pursuits. 1989 S. Holbeche Power of Gems & Crystals vii. 95 When choosing crystals for bodywork—crystal healing and massage—it is more sensible to use stones of 7–12 cm. |
▸
slang (
orig. and chiefly
U.S.). Any of various narcotic drugs in crystalline or powdered form,
esp. an amphetamine in crystalline form. See also
crystal meth n. at Additions;
cf. ice n. Additions.
| 1964 News-Call Bull. (San Francisco) 17 Feb. 3/1 She believes crystals are a form of methedrine. 1970 Sunday Tel. 20 Dec. 6/6 ‘Have you ever shot speed?’ ‘Is that crystal? With a needle? I used it, and never came down.’ 1979 N. Mailer Executioner's Song (1980) i. xxi. 339 He had been over at a friend of his selling drugs, a little crystal, some speed, toked a couple, got blasted. 1989 R. Barr Roseanne (1990) i. xi. 99, I just used all their language—‘yeah, I was shooting crystal and meth’. 1996 P. H. Duesberg Inventing AIDS Virus viii. 281 But even ice cannot begin to compare with the devastating effects of ‘crystal’, the street name for methamphetamine. |
▸
crystal meth n. slang (
orig. and chiefly
N. Amer.) the drug methamphetamine in a powdered crystalline form, used illegally by injection, inhalation, oral absorption, etc., as a stimulant; (
occas. also) methamphetamine in the form of larger crystals that may be smoked (see
ice n. Additions).
| 1984 M. A. Jarman Dancing nightly in Tavern 98 All real pleasure demands decibels: *crystal meth out at Skelly's truckstop, V-8's, carnal screamers. 1990 Rolling Stone 22 Mar. 6/2, I used to shoot up crystal meth on a regular basis in high school. 2000 N. Griffiths Grits (2001) 51 What's ee on?—Christ, ee bombed abaht a gram av crystal meth yestaday, ee'l be aht av it fa days. |
▪ II. ˈcrystal, v. [f. prec.] To make into crystal; to crystallize.
to crystal over: to overlay with crystal. Hence
ˈcrystalled ppl. a.| 1674 Flatman Poems, Against Thoughts 6/3 The Chrystal'd streams. 1715 M. Davies Athen. Brit. i. 186 Its top is Crystal'd over with..a transparent and diaphonous Azure. 1848 Lowell Poems, Sir Launfal ii. Prelude, Diamond drops, That crystalled the beams of moon and sun, And made a star of every one. c 1860 ― Fam. Ep. to Friend Poems 417/1 Old sorrows crystalled into pearls. |