There this Princess, the crossest and most disagreeable of all the disagreeable six, was curled up in bed and slumbering cosily.
"How tiresome of you both to come and interrupt," said Nora in her crossest tone.
"And you are the crossest old woman," said Lily, laughing, and giving her hand to the postmistress.
I like that truth about a good dinner 'availing' to secure peace, and the advice to 'caress' your bear when he is at his crossest.
Father said that he could remember when they brought the bears home, growling, snarling—the crossest little things he ever saw.
When the sheriff read it, even his wife thought best to slip away, for he was the crossest man in Nottingham.
But that was the very thing that made me crossest about her carelessness.
Democratic and Republican newspapers vied with one another which could say crossest things and laugh loudest.
They live, you see, right on the high road, and see human nature at its hottest and crossest as well as its most dishonest.
Cousin Retty had a new baby, a little girl; but she said it was the crossest thing alive, and it did seem to cry a good deal.
Old English cros (mid-10c.), from Old Irish cros, probably via Scandinavian, from Latin crux (accusative crucem, genitive crucis) "stake, cross" on which criminals were impaled or hanged, hence, figuratively, "torture, trouble, misery;" originally a tall, round pole; possibly of Phoenician origin. Replaced Old English rood. Also from Latin crux are Italian croce, French croix, Spanish and Portuguese cruz, Dutch kruis, German Kreuz.
"ill-tempered," 1630s, probably from 16c. sense of "contrary, athwart," especially with reference to winds and sailing ships, from cross (n.). Cross-purposes "contradictory intentions" is from 1660s.
c.1200, "make the sign of a cross," from cross (n.). Sense of "to go across" is from c.1400; that of "to cancel by drawing lines over" is from mid-15c. Related: Crossed; crossing.
in the New Testament the instrument of crucifixion, and hence used for the crucifixion of Christ itself (Eph. 2:16; Heb. 12:2; 1 Cor. 1:17, 18; Gal. 5:11; 6:12, 14; Phil. 3:18). The word is also used to denote any severe affliction or trial (Matt. 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; 10:21). The forms in which the cross is represented are these: 1. The crux simplex (I), a "single piece without transom." 2. The crux decussata (X), or St. Andrew's cross. 3. The crux commissa (T), or St. Anthony's cross. 4. The crux immissa (t), or Latin cross, which was the kind of cross on which our Saviour died. Above our Lord's head, on the projecting beam, was placed the "title." (See CRUCIFIXION.) After the conversion, so-called, of Constantine the Great (B.C. 313), the cross first came into use as an emblem of Christianity. He pretended at a critical moment that he saw a flaming cross in the heavens bearing the inscription, "In hoc signo vinces", i.e., By this sign thou shalt conquer, and that on the following night Christ himself appeared and ordered him to take for his standard the sign of this cross. In this form a new standard, called the Labarum, was accordingly made, and borne by the Roman armies. It remained the standard of the Roman army till the downfall of the Western empire. It bore the embroidered monogram of Christ, i.e., the first two Greek letters of his name, X and P (chi and rho), with the Alpha and Omega. (See A.)
