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An embrasure or indentation in a battlement; a loophole in a fortress; an indentation; a notch. See Merlon, and Illust. of Battlement.

A representation of the increasing moon, often used as an emblem or badge; as:

The top line of a slope or embankment. Crest tile, a tile made to cover the ridge of a roof, fitting upon it like a saddle. -- Interior crest (Fort.), the highest line of the parapet.

A deep crevice or fissure, as in embankment; one of the clefts or fissure by which the mass of a glacier is divided.

Worsted yarn,, slackly twisted, used for embroidery.

Embroidery in crewels, commonly done upon some plain material, such as linen.

house, a low lodging house, into which men are decoyed and plied with drink, to induce them to ship or enlist as sailors or soldiers. -- Crimping iron. (a) An iron instrument for crimping and curling the hair. (b) A crimping machine. -- Crimping machine, a machine with fluted rollers or with dies, for crimping ruffl…

or use; to disable; to deprive of resources; as, to be financially crippled. More serious embarrassments . . . were crippling the energy of the settlement in the Bay. Palfrey. An incumbrance which would permanently cripple the body politic. Macaulay.

A system of prison discipline employing for consecutive periods cellular confinement, associated imprisonment under the mark system, restraint intermediate between imprisonment and freedom, and liberation on ticket of leave.

, and serving as a symbol of death. Crossbones, scythes, hourglasses, and other lugubrios emblems of mortality. Hawthorne.

A heathlike plant of the genus Empetrum, and its fruit, a black, scarcely edible berry; -- also called crakeberry.

A person employed to scare off crows; hence, a scarecrow. [Obs.] Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper. Shak.

A royal headdress or cap of sovereignty, worn by emperors, kings, princes, etc.

A colony of the British Empire not having an elective 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.

To emit a grinding or craunching noise. The crunching and ratting of the loose stones. H. James.

face or outer shell; an incrustation; as, a crust of snow. I have known the statute of an emperor quite hid under a crust of dross. Addison. Below this icy crust of conformity, the waters of infidelity lay dark and deep as ever. Prescott.

A gem engraved, or a plate embossed in low relief, for inlaying a vase or other object.

Fig.: Resembling crystal; pure; transparent; pellucid. "The crystalline sky." Milton. Crystalline heavens, or Crystalline spheres, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its mot…

To embrace closely; to foundle. Forby.

The state of being a cully. Less frequent instances of eminent cullyism. Spectator.