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To dye with crimson or deep red; to redden. Signed in thy spoil and crimsoned in thy lethe. Shak.

The point of time when it is to be decided whether any affair or course of action must go on, or be modified or terminate; the decisive moment; the turning point. This hour's the very crisis of your fate. Dryden. The very times of crisis for the fate of the country. Brougham.

Pertaining to, or indicating, a crisis, turning point, or specially important juncture; important as regards consequences; hence, of doubtful issue; attended with risk; dangerous; as, the critical stage of a fever; a critical situation. Our circumstances are indeed critical. Burke. The small moment, the exact point, th…

Affiction regarded as a test of patience or virtue; trial; disappointment; opposition; misfortune. Heaven prepares a good man with crosses. B. Jonson.

A genus of poisonous serpents, including the rattlesnakes.

The angle formed by the parting of two legs or branches; a fork; the point where a trunk divides; as, the crotch of a tree.

An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.

vertex or top of an arch; -- applied generally to about one third of the curve, but in a pointed arch to the apex only.

ective magistracy or a parliament, but governed by a chief magistrate (called Governor) appointed by the Crown, with executive councilors nominated by him and not elected by the people.

A point where one branch of a curve crosses another branch. See Double point, under Double, a.

rystallizes with water of crystallization only at low temperatures, or below the freezing point of water. F. Guthrie.

ures, esp. such an instrument containing alcohol or some other liquid of a lower freezing point than mercury.

Being vertical, or at the highest point of altitude; hence, predominant. [R.]

To reach its highest point of altitude; to come to the meridian; to be vertical or directly overhead. As when his beams at noon Culminate from the equator. Milton.

The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavently body; passage across the meridian; transit.

Empty oyster shells and other substances laid down on oyster grounds to furnish points for the attachment of the spawn of the oyster. [Also written cutch.]

Sharp-edged and pointed; shaped like a pruning knife, as the beak of certain birds.

Tending to prove the same point to which other evidence has been offered; -- said of evidence.

Wedge-shaped; (Bot.), wedge-shaped, with the point at the base; as, a cuneate leaf.

but is quickly fatal when introduced into the blood, and used by the Indians as an arrow poison. [Written also urari, woorali, woorari, etc.]