'Cross wires' definitions:

Definition of 'Cross wires'

From: GCIDE
  • Cross \Cross\ (kr[o^]s), a.
  • 1. Not parallel; lying or falling athwart; transverse; oblique; intersecting. [1913 Webster]
  • The cross refraction of the second prism. --Sir I. Newton. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Not accordant with what is wished or expected; interrupting; adverse; contrary; thwarting; perverse. "A cross fortune." --Jer. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
  • The cross and unlucky issue of my design. --Glanvill. [1913 Webster]
  • The article of the resurrection seems to lie marvelously cross to the common experience of mankind. --South. [1913 Webster]
  • We are both love's captives, but with fates so cross, One must be happy by the other's loss. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Characterized by, or in a state of, peevishness, fretfulness, or ill humor; as, a cross man or woman. [1913 Webster]
  • He had received a cross answer from his mistress. --Jer. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Made in an opposite direction, or an inverse relation; mutually inverse; interchanged; as, cross interrogatories; cross marriages, as when a brother and sister marry persons standing in the same relation to each other. [1913 Webster]
  • Cross action (Law), an action brought by a party who is sued against the person who has sued him, upon the same subject matter, as upon the same contract. --Burrill.
  • Cross aisle (Arch.), a transept; the lateral divisions of a cruciform church.
  • Cross axle. (a) (Mach.) A shaft, windlass, or roller, worked by levers at opposite ends, as in the copperplate printing press. (b) A driving axle, with cranks set at an angle of 90[deg] with each other.
  • Cross bedding (Geol.), oblique lamination of horizontal beds.
  • Cross bill. See in the Vocabulary.
  • Cross bitt. Same as Crosspiece.
  • Cross bond, a form of bricklaying, in which the joints of one stretcher course come midway between those of the stretcher courses above and below, a course of headers and stretchers intervening. See Bond, n., 8.
  • Cross breed. See in the Vocabulary.
  • Cross breeding. See under Breeding.
  • Cross buttock, a particular throw in wrestling; hence, an unexpected defeat or repulse. --Smollet.
  • Cross country, across the country; not by the road. "The cross-country ride." --Cowper.
  • Cross fertilization, the fertilization of the female products of one physiological individual by the male products of another, -- as the fertilization of the ovules of one plant by pollen from another. See Fertilization.
  • Cross file, a double convex file, used in dressing out the arms or crosses of fine wheels.
  • Cross fire (Mil.), lines of fire, from two or more points or places, crossing each other.
  • Cross forked. (Her.) See under Forked.
  • Cross frog. See under Frog.
  • Cross furrow, a furrow or trench cut across other furrows to receive the water running in them and conduct it to the side of the field.
  • Cross handle, a handle attached transversely to the axis of a tool, as in the augur. --Knight.
  • Cross lode (Mining), a vein intersecting the true or principal lode.
  • Cross purpose. See Cross-purpose, in the Vocabulary.
  • Cross reference, a reference made from one part of a book or register to another part, where the same or an allied subject is treated of.
  • Cross sea (Naut.), a chopping sea, in which the waves run in contrary directions.
  • Cross stroke, a line or stroke across something, as across the letter t.
  • Cross wind, a side wind; an unfavorable wind.
  • Cross wires, fine wires made to traverse the field of view in a telescope, and moved by a screw with a graduated head, used for delicate astronomical observations; spider lines. Fixed cross wires are also used in microscopes, etc.
  • Syn: Fretful; peevish. See Fretful. [1913 Webster]

Words containing 'Cross wires'