crown jewels
Britishplural noun
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A prized possession or asset, as in The Iliad and Odyssey are the crown jewels of ancient literature , or The software products are the company's crown jewels . This usage transfers the value of royal jewels to some other object. [Late 1800s]
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Also, family jewels . The male genitals, especially the testicles. For example, She gave the would-be mugger a hard kick in the family jewels . A slang euphemism, the term dates from the 1970s, and the variant from the early 1900s.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Discovery has long been considered one of the crown jewels of the Air & Space Museum’s historic fleet, having flown missions regularly between 1984 and 2011.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 3, 2026
A five-year grassroots campaign to spur the reopening of one of the crown jewels of moviegoing in Los Angeles is on indefinite pause following an incident at the theater Friday night.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 6, 2026
The director of the Louvre museum in Paris has resigned, months after the high-profile theft of France's crown jewels from one of the world's most visited art galleries.
From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026
Questions continue to swirl since the October 19 break-in over whether it was avoidable and why thieves were able to steal crown jewels worth more than $100 million.
From Barron's • Jan. 5, 2026
Where the crown jewels get dropped down sewers and flushed down toilets.
From "Look Both Ways" by Jason Reynolds
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
