Search the Dictionary

The mark of the cross, as cut, painted, written, or stamped on certain objects, -- sometimes as the sign of 12 o'clock on a dial. The fescue of the dial is upon the christcross of noon. Old Play. Nares.

The alphabet; -- formerly so called, either from the cross usually set before it, or from a superstitious custom, sometimes practiced, of writing it in the form of a cross, by way of a charm. From infant conning of the Christcross-row. Wordsworth.

Of enormous size; gigantic; huge; as, a colossal statue. "A colossal stride." Motley.

Colossal. [R.]

The amphitheater of Vespasian in Rome. [Also written Coliseum.]

c size. The name was especially applied to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of Nero in Rome, the Colossus of Apollo at Rhodes. He doth bestride the narrow world Like a colossus. Shak.

Able to exist with another thing; consistent. [R.] Chillingworth.

Energy wasted by hysteresis or eddy currents in the core of an armature, transformer, etc.

A variety of amianthus which is very light, like cork.

The name in Central America for the seed of a true palm; also, a commercial name for the true ivory nut. See Ivory nut.

A thing (only in phrase below). Rule of Coss, an old name for Algebra. Etym: [It. regola di cosa rule of thing, the unknown quantity being called the cosa, or the thing.]

One of a warlike, pastoral people, skillful as horsemen, inhabiting different parts of the Russian empire and furnishing valuable contingents of irregular cavalry to its armies, those of Little Russia and those of the Don forming the principal divisions.

An outpost consisting of four men, forming one of a single line of posts substituted for the more formal line of sentinels and line of pickets.

Plain India muslin, of various qualities and widths.

To treat as a pet; to fondle. She was cosseted and posseted and prayed over and made much of. O. W. Holmes.

One of the small chips or slices into which beets are cut in sugar making.

Of or relating to algebra; as, cossic numbers, or the cossic art. [Obs.] "Art of numbers cossical." Digges (1579).

A mark or cross, as the signature of a person who is unable to write.

See Christcross-row.

upright, or as an X. It was anciently used in the execution of criminals. Nailed to the cross By his own nation. Milton.