cross-country

[ adjective kraws-kuhn-tree, kros-; noun kraws-kuhn-tree, -kuhn-, kros- ]

/ adjective ˈkrɔsˌkʌn tri, ˈkrɒs-; noun ˈkrɔsˈkʌn tri, -ˌkʌn-, ˈkrɒs- /

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adjective

directed or proceeding over fields, through woods, etc., rather than on a road or path: a cross-country race.

from one end of the country to the other: a cross-country flight.

noun, plural cross-coun·tries.

a cross-country sport or race.

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Origin of cross-country

First recorded in 1760–70

Words nearby cross-country

cross-buttock, cross-check, cross colour, cross-compound, cross-correlation, cross-country, cross-country skiing, crosscourt, cross-cousin, cross-cousin marriage, cross-cultural

How to use cross-country in a sentence

In that country at that moment, the Catholics have practically disappeared.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Elsewhere, courts throughout the country have placed limits on speech this year.
Politicians Only Love Journalists When They're Dead|Luke O’Neil|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“This is a federal mandate that is causing some real problems for schools across the country,” Kline told a CBS affiliate in July.
The Republican War on Kale|Patricia Murphy|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Charles “Father” Coughlin, a raving anti-Semite, was one of the most popular radio hosts in the country.
Why Was Bess Myerson the First and Last Jewish Miss America?|Emily Shire|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST

It marked a groundbreaking moment in how the country viewed Jews, especially Jewish women.
Why Was Bess Myerson the First and Last Jewish Miss America?|Emily Shire|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty-one cities, near a hundred walled towns, and a great number of villages.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift
In the drawing-room things went on much as they always do in country drawing-rooms in the hot weather.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
In cross-section the burrows varied from round (three inches in diameter) to oval (three inches high and four inches wide).
Summer Birds From the Yucatan Peninsula|Erwin E. Klaas
Nothing remarkable occurred in our march through this country.
The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1801)|Daniel Defoe
There are some folk in this country, you know, who manifest a very retiring disposition at times.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair

British Dictionary definitions for cross-country

cross-country

adjective, adverb

by way of fields, woods, etc, as opposed to roadscross-country running

across a countrya cross-country railway

noun

a long race held over open ground

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012