▪ I. crescent, n.
(ˈkrɛsənt)
Forms: α. 4–7 cressant, 5 cressaunt, 5–7 cressent, (8 cresent); β. 6–7 croissant, 7 croy-, croisant; γ. 7– crescent.
[ME. cressant, in 16th c. also croissant, a. OF. creissant, mod.F. croissant (:—L. crēscent-em), pr. pple. of OF. creistre, mod. croître:—L. crēscĕre to grow. In 17th c. assimilated to the L. spelling, already used in the adj.: see next.
L. crescens meant simply ‘growing, waxing’; Columella has luna crescens, the waxing moon, luna decrescens, the waning moon; but these words had no reference to shape; sense 2 was a mediæval development, app. in French.]
1. The waxing moon, during the period between new moon and full. [Cf. OF. creissant the waxing of the moon, the first half of the month.] Also fig.
| 1530 Palsgr. 210/2 Cressent, the newe mone as long as it is nat rounde, cressant. |
| 1620 Feltham Resolves xxviii. 88 Thus while he sinnes, he is a Decressant; when he repents, a Cressant. 1640 Fuller Joseph's Coat viii. (1867) 192 They are crescents in their waxing, full seas in their flowing. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV, ccxxvii, A worke 'bove Nature's power, To make his Crescent Orbed in an Hower. |
2. The convexo-concave figure of the waxing or the waning moon, during the first or last quarter, especially when very new or very old.
The crescent of the waxing moon has its horns to the spectator's left, that of the waning moon has them to his right.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. xxxi. 489 Turned rounde like a croissant or newe moone. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 246 Hee is no crescent, and his hornes are inuisible. 1611 Cotgr., Croissant, the halfe-moone; in Blazon, a Cressant. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 24 If the higher horne of the said croisant be more obscure and darke than the lower. 1726 Amherst Terræ Fil. xliv. 232 Phœbe's pale cresent. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 349 The bright crescent of the moon. 1842 Tennyson Audley Court, A moon, that, just In crescent, dimly rain'd about the leaf Twilights of airy silver. |
3. A representation or figure of this phase of the moon: a. as an ornament or embellishment. (App. the earliest sense in English.)
| 1399 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 132 Super feretrum Sancti Wilfridi de diversis ornamentis per dictum Johannem deauratis viz. j curc et j anulo et j cressant ex dono Willelmi Bedell. 1483 Cath. Angl. 81/1 A Cressent a bowte þe nek, torques, lunula. 1548 Hall Chron. 74 b, This cresant was couered with frettes and knottes made of Iue busshes. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 127 On his black shooe a silver cressent's worn. 1885 Bible (R.V.) Judg. viii. 21 Gideon..took the crescents that were on their camels' necks. |
b. Her. as a charge: see quot. 1882.
| 1486 Bk. St. Alban's, Her. B iij b, The ix. baage is Cressauntis that is to say halfe the moone. c 1500 Sc. Poem Heraldry 44 in Q. Eliz. Acad., etc. 95 The fader the hole [arms], the eldast son deffer[e]nt, quhiche a labelle; a cressent the secound; third a molet, etc. 1603 Drayton Bar. Wars ii. xxiv, The Noble Percy..With a bright Cressant in his Guide-home came. 1882 Cussans Her. 102 A Half-Moon, with the horns directed upwards, is a crescent..A Crescent with the horns directed towards the Dexter, is said to be Increscent; and if towards the Sinister, Decrescent. |
c. Adopted as a badge or emblem by the Turkish sultans, and used within their dominions as a military and religious symbol; hence fig. the Turkish power, and, as this has been to Christendom in recent times the most formidable and aggressive Muslim power, used rhetorically to symbolize the Muslim religion as a political force, and so opposed to the Cross as the symbol of Christianity.
The attribution of the crescent by modern writers to the Saracens of Crusading times and the Moors of Spain is a historical and chronological error.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. (Arb.) 117 Selim Emperour of Turkie gaue for his deuice a croissant or new moone, promising to himself increase of glory and enlargement of empire. 1614 Selden Titles Hon. 162 With the Mahumedan Turks, the Croissant..as a Religious symbole, is..commonly set on the top of their Meschits, Seraglias, Turrets and such like. 16.. Marvell Britannia & Raleigh, Her true Crusada shall at last pull down The Turkish crescent and the Persian sun. 1684 Scanderbeg Rediv. iv. 90 The Crescent gave way to the Cross, the Turks were broken to pieces. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 43 Why do you dress up one..with a turban and crescent? 1811 Scott Don Roderick i. xxvii, Before the Cross has waned the Crescent's ray. 1823 Lockhart Anc. Sp. Ball., Flight fr. Granada ii, Down from the Alhambra's minarets were all the crescents flung. 1855 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Hist. iv. 120 To raise the Christian banner, over the crescent of the Saracens. 1886 F. Harrison Choice Bks. (1888) 331 The Crescent was advancing steadily upon Europe. |
d. used as the badge of an order of knighthood or as a decorative order.
An order of the Crescent was instituted by Charles I of Naples and Sicily in 1268, and revived or reinstituted by René of Anjou in 1464. A Turkish decoration or order of the Crescent for foreigners was instituted by Sultan Selim after the Battle of Aboukir in 1799, being first conferred on Nelson.
4. A figure or outline of anything of this shape.
| [1572 Gascoigne Flowers (R.), The Christian crew came on in forme of battayle pight, And like a cressent cast themselues preparing for to fight. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xxiv. 88 A very fair Port..extending it self in the form of a Crescent.] 1672 Descr. Lake of Geneva in Phil. Trans. VII. 5043 This Lake hath the figure of a Croissant..This Croissant where 'tis largest, which is from Morges to Thonon, is about Five good Leagues over. 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 130 The breast is distinguished by a crescent of pure white. 1837 Disraeli Venetia i. i, The centre of a crescent of woods. 1838 Thirlwall Greece II. 281 As they came near they bent their line into a crescent. |
5. A row of houses built in the form of the inner bow of a crescent moon or arc of a circle.
First used in the name of ‘the Royal Crescent’ at Bath, afterwards used elsewhere, and hence as a generic name.
| 1766 Anstey Bath Guide 45 Old Stucco has just sent A plan for a house to be built in the Crescent. 1788 Birm. Gaz. 17 Nov., A plan, elevation and section of the intended building to be called the Crescent. 1837 Dickens Pickw. II. xxxv. 163 There were blown into the Crescent a sedan-chair, with Mrs. Dowler inside. 1868 Lessons Mid. Age 299 The handsome streets, crescents and terraces which form the west end of Glasgow. |
6. A small crescent-shaped roll of bread. (U.S.) More fully, crescent roll. (Cf. croissant.)
| 1886 Century Mag. XXXII. 939 At noon I bought two crisp ‘crescents’, which I ate sometimes at a shop counter. 1899 Daily News 23 Sept. 3/1 Crescent rolls and hot milk. 1951 E. Paul Springtime in Paris v. 106 Coffee cups, saucers and crisp crescent rolls in our hands. |
7. A Turkish musical instrument consisting of a staff with arms, ornamented with a crescent on the top, and bearing bells or jingles.
| In mod. Dicts. |
8. A disease in a horse's foot (see quots.).
| 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v., Crescents..are really nothing but the Bones of the little Foot that has left its Place, and fallen downwards, and the Sole at the Toe appears round, and the Hoof above shrinks in. 1823 Crabb Techn. Dict., Crescent, a defect in the foot of a horse when the coffin-bone falls down, and presses the sole outwards. |
9. Lace-making. (See quot.)
| 1882 Caulfeild Dict. Needlework s.v., These crescents are raised Cordonnets that enclose the flat stitches of needle point laces or join the separate pieces of work together. |
10. Comb., as crescent-formed, crescent-lit, crescent-pointed, crescent-shaped adjs.; crescent-like, crescent-wise advs.
| a 1631 Drayton Wks. II. 761 (Jod.) As, crescentlike, the land her breadth here inward bends. 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) I. 316 Keel crescent-shaped, compressed. 1801 Southey Thalaba iii. xxxviii, The Sun, Whose crescent-pointed horns Now momently decrease. |
▪ II. crescent, a.
(ˈkrɛsənt)
[ad. L. crēscent-em, pr. pple. of crēscĕre to grow, increase: see -ent. In II mostly attrib. use of prec.]
I. 1. Growing, increasing, developing. (Often with some allusion to the moon.)
| 1574 T. Hill Conject. Weather i, When all cressent things do bud forth. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. i. 10 My powers are Cressent, and my Auguring hope Sayes it will come to th' full. a 1624 R. Crakanthorp Vigil. Dormitans 188 In the first the Pope was but Antichrist nascent, in the second Antichrist crescent, in the third Antichrist regnant. 1834 Wordsw. Lines on Portrait 47 Childhood here, a moon Crescent in simple loveliness serene. 1845 De Quincey Coleridge & Opium Wks. 1890 V. 196 The wrath of Andrew, previously in a crescent state, actually dilated to a pleni⁓lunar orb. 1859 Tennyson Elaine 447 There is many a youth Now crescent, who will come to all I am And overcome it. |
II. 2. Shaped like the new or old moon; convexo-concave, lunulate.
| 1603 Holland Plutarche's Rom. Quest. (1892) 33 The moone..beginneth to show herself croissant in the evening. 1635 E. Pagitt Christianogr. 100 Marked with the Moone Crescent, which is the Turkish Ensigne. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 439 With these in troop Came..Astarte, Queen of Heav'n, with crescent Horns. 1725 Turner in Phil. Trans. XXXIII. 411 An Insect..with..a crescent or forked Tail. 1831 Brewster Newton (1855) I. xi. 273 Galileo discovered that Venus had the same crescent phases as the waxing and the waning moon. 1860 Russell Diary India I. 359 New Orleans is called the ‘crescent city’ in consequence of its being built on a curve of the river. |
▪ III. ˈcrescent, v. nonce-wd.
[f. crescent n.]
1. trans. To form into a crescent: see crescented.
2. To border or surround crescent-wise.
| a 1809 Miss Seward Lett. VI. 195 (T.) A dark wood crescents more than half the lawn. |