crosses

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of cross.

   Rows of white crosses stretched across the war cemetery.

   The jeweler arranged a tray of gold crosses in the window.

   Note

   The plural covers every kind of cross the noun names: drawn figures, a Maltese cross or a cross of Lorraine, burial markers, jewelry, even repeated signs of the cross made by hand. The capitalized Cross, the one on which Christ was crucified, stays singular because it names one object. The same spelling also serves the lacrosse-stick plural, so a sports page and a cemetery can share the word.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of cross.

   The ferry crosses the channel four times a day.

   A bridge crosses the river just south of the town.

   Note

   The present-tense form for he, she, it or a singular noun: the ferry crosses, a line crosses the page. It also carries the religious uses. In the reflexive one the object is a matching pronoun, as in she crosses herself. In the transitive one a priest crosses the person or thing over which he makes the sign. Plural subjects, and I or you, take the bare cross.

   She crosses herself before every meal.

   The priest crosses the child and steps back from the font.

3. 3
   noun

   Plural of crosse.

   The coach handed out new crosses to the junior team.

   Both midfielders cradled the ball in their crosses as they ran.

   Note

   A word from the lacrosse field: the netted sticks players use to catch, cradle and throw the ball. Outside the game the spelling is easily taken for the everyday plural of cross. It needs sporting context around it, such as a coach, a team or a match, before a reader will hear it as sticks rather than marks or symbols.

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