cruces
[kroo-seez]
- a plural of crux.
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crux
[kruhks]
- a vital, basic, decisive, or pivotal point: The crux of the trial was his whereabouts at the time of the murder.
- a cross.
- something that torments by its puzzling nature; a perplexing difficulty.
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Origin of crux
1635–45; < Latin: stake, scaffold, or cross used in executions, torment; figurative senses perhaps < New Latin crux (interpretum) (commentators') torment, a difficult passage in a text; cf. crucial
Synonyms
Las Cruces
[lahs kroo-sis]
- a city in S New Mexico, on the Rio Grande.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cruces
Historical Examples
At its mouth the Chagre is one-fourth of a mile broad, and at Cruces about 150 feet: in its middle course the depth is 24 feet.
But we no pay twenty dollars unless you get us to Cruces poco pronto, sabe?
GoldStewart White
From Cruces to Panama mules were employed for the remainder of the journey.
The Makers of Canada: ChamplainN. E. Dionne
There are two points at which one may land, viz: the villages of Gorgona and Cruces.
The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and CaliforniaBrevet Col. J.C. Fremont
Cruces is a small village, situated on a plain, immediately on the banks of the river, which here are high and sandy.
The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and CaliforniaBrevet Col. J.C. Fremont
cruces
- a plural of crux
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Crux
- the more formal name for the Southern Cross
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crux
- a vital or decisive stage, point, etc (often in the phrase the crux of the matter)
- a baffling problem or difficulty
- mountaineering the most difficult and often decisive part of a climb or pitch
- a rare word for cross
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Word Origin
C18: from Latin: cross
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
Word Origin and History for cruces
crux
n.
1814, "cross," from Latin crux "cross" (see cross (n.)). Figurative use for "a central difficulty," is older, from 1718; perhaps from Latin crux interpretum "a point in a text that is impossible to interpret," in which the literal sense is something like "crossroads of interpreters." Extended sense of "central point" is from 1888.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
crux
(krŭks, kruks)- A cross or a crosslike structure.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.