crusade
Americannoun
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crusades
plural
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Often Crusade any of the military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Europe in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Muslims.
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any war carried on under papal sanction.
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any vigorous, aggressive movement for the defense or advancement of an idea, cause, etc..
a crusade against child abuse.
verb (used without object)
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crusades,
present (3rd person singular)
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crusaded,
past participle, past
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crusading
present participle
noun
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(often capital) any of the military expeditions undertaken in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries by the Christian powers of Europe to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims
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(formerly) any holy war undertaken on behalf of a religious cause
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a vigorous and dedicated action or movement in favour of a cause
verb
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to campaign vigorously for something
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to go on a crusade
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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crusadesimple
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crusadessimple
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have crusadedperfect
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has crusadedperfect
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am crusadingprogressive
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are crusadingprogressive
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is crusadingprogressive
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have been crusadingperfect progressive
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has been crusadingperfect progressive
Past
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crusadedsimple
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had crusadedperfect
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was crusadingprogressive
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were crusadingprogressive
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had been crusadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of crusade
First recorded in 1570–80; earlier crusada, from Spanish cruzada; replacing croisade, from Middle French. See cross, -ade 1
Explanation
If you go on a crusade against vegetables, you are waging a long-term battle against leafy greens. A crusade is a passionate struggle against something or someone. In the 11th through 13th centuries, Roman Catholics attempting to win control of parts of what they considered the Holy Land (currently Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese, and Palestinian lands) waged military battles against the Muslims who controlled the land. These battles are called the Crusades. The word crusade carries with it the feeling of a violent and vigorous fight. So if someone is on a crusade to do something, they mean business!
Vocabulary lists containing crusade
Vocabulary from "Stop Expecting Games to Build Empathy" by Julie Muncy
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Richard Nixon's "Checkers" Speech (1952)
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The Middle East and Central Asia - Introductory
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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.
See Examples For:
Vitamin C was filed away with other “alternative” remedies, and Pauling’s late-career crusade was widely seen as a sad mistake.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
"This is a crusade," says Georgios Samaras, an assistant professor of public policy at King's College London who studies the European and US far right.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
In 2014 the Times’s editors launched an editorial crusade for full legalization.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
In the end, Manzo’s crusade would cost him his life — and force Quiroz to make a painful decision: abandon her husband’s fight, or embrace it as her own.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
I tell him how I’ve lost all my friends because I refused to join their activist crusade.
From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh
The campaign takes a page from other Rust Belt cities, including Detroit and South Bend, that have undertaken big blight elimination crusades, with varying degrees of success.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
When Richard the Lionheart led crusades to the Middle East they were funded by crippling taxes at home.
From Barron's ● Mar. 19, 2026
He is a traditionalist Roman Catholic who crusades for the traditional Latin Mass and enjoys discussing medieval philosopher-theologians and ancient texts.
From Slate ● Sep. 24, 2025
These are ventures — often one-person crusades — that celebrate fast food, Finnish folk art, Skid Row, skateboarding, vertebrate zoology and more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2024
Combating mitigation has become one of the great crusades in commercial aviation in the past fifteen years.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison Friday, Russia’s prison agency said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2024
OK, so her fans didn’t wear wrist-to-elbow bead bracelets, and she didn’t exhort them to register to vote — although her husband crusaded ardently for giving women the vote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2024
In addition to convicting Nazi war criminals, he crusaded for an international criminal court.
From New York Times ● Apr. 9, 2023
Paul Morantz, a California lawyer who crusaded against brainwashing self-help gurus, crooked psychotherapists and menacing cults, including one that nearly killed him with a rattlesnake, died Oct.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 2, 2022
He was a militant idealist who crusaded against racial bigotry by growing faint in its presence.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
The American Academy of Pediatrics began crusading against juice for kids.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
There’s Charles Foster Kane, an extremely rich, crusading newspaper owner who is chided by a friend for losing more than a million dollars a year.
From Salon ● Feb. 6, 2026
Roberts won a lead actress Oscar in 2001 for playing a crusading real-life legal clerk in “Erin Brockovich,” a role that perfectly combined her acting strengths and star wattage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2025
A serious survey of the Israel-Palestinian conflict would be highly beneficial to everyone, but it would have to examine arguments made by both sides—that’s the difference between real academic instruction and political crusading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
She could keep trusting Mom and Dad, and keep being my whining, chess-playing, crusading Charlemagne.
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
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.
