Heraldic Cres- 
cent. 
crescent 
device, or symbol. Speciflcally (a) The Turkish stan- 
dard, which bears the figure of a crescent, and, figuratively, 
the Turkish military power itself. The use of the cres- 
cent as the Turkish emblem dates from the conquest of 
Constantinople (1453); it had been considered in a sense 
an emblem of the city, anil was assumed by the Turkish 
sultans in commemoration of their signal conquest. 
The cross of our faith is replanted, 
The pale, dying crescent is daunted. 
Campbell, Song of the Greeks. 
The crescent glittering on the domes which were once 
consecrated by the venerated. symbol of his faith. 
Prescott, Ferd. and Isa. , Int. 
(4) In her., a bearing in the form of a young or new mosn, 
usually borne horizontally with the horns 
uppermost. Bee decrescent and incres- 
cent. 
A second son differences his arms with 
a crescent. 
Booke of Precedence (E. E. T. S., extra 
[ser.), i. 114. 
(c) In arch., a range of buildings in the 
form of a crescent or half-moon : as, 
Lansdowne Crescent in London. 
5. A Turkish military musical instrument with 
bells or jingles. 6. A defect in a horse's foot, 
when the coffin-bone falls down. E. D. 7- 
In lace-making, a cordonnet of considerable pro- 
jection inclosing part of the pattern of point- 
lace, giving it relief, and separating it from the 
ground or from other parts of the pattern. Thus, 
if a leaf is made of cloth -stitch, it may be surrounded by 
a crescent one eighth of an inch thick and with half as 
much projection, and this again by a ring of ornamental 
loops or couronnes. 
8. A small roll of bread of various kinds, made 
in the form of a crescent. 
At noon I bought two crisp crescents ... at a shop 
counter. The Century, XXXII. 939. 
Crescent City, the by-name of the city of New Orleans, 
from the crescent-shaped bend of the Mississippi river in 
its front. Crescent reversed, in her., a crescent with 
the horns turned downward. Crescents of Gianuzzi, 
in anal., the peculiar crescentiform bodies found lying in 
the alveoli of salivary glands, between the cells and the 
membrana propria. Also called demilunes of Heidenhain. 
Order of the Crescent, a Turkish order instituted in 
1799, and awarded only for distinguished bravery in the 
naval or military service. It was abolished in 1851. An 
order of the crescent was founded by Charles of Anjou in 
Sicily in 1268, but had a short existence. Rene of Anjou, 
count of Provence and titular king of Naples and Sicily, 
founded another shorMived order of the crescent in the 
fifteenth century. 
crescent (kres'ent), v. t. [< crescent, .] 1. To 
form into a crescent. 2. To surround partly 
in a semicircular or crescent form. [Bare.] 
A dark wood crescents more than half the lawn. 
Seward, Letters, vi. 195. 
Crescentade (kres-en-tad'), n. [< crescent + 
-ode, formed after amsade,] A war or military 
expedition under the flag of Turkey, for the de- 
fense or extension of Mohammedanism. See 
crescent, it., 4 (a), and compare crusade 1 . 
crescented (kres'en-ted), a. [< crescent + -c<<2.] 
1. Adorned with a crescent; in her., decorated 
with crescents at the ends : said of any bearing 
that may receive them, as a cross or saltier. 
2. Bent like or into a crescent. 
Phoibe bent towards him crescented. Keats. 
Crescentia (kre-sen'shiS), w. [NL., after Cre- 
scenti, an old writer on botany.] A small ge- 
nus of trees or large shrubs, natural order Big- 
noniacece, natives of the tropics. The principal 
1346 
crescentic (kre-sen'tik), . [< crescent, n., + 
-ic.] Having the form of a crescent. 
In the shade of a very thick tree-top the sun-flecks are 
circular like the sun ; but during an eclipse they are cres- 
centic, or even annular. Le Conte, Light, p. 27. 
Douglas Bay, with its romantic headlands, crescentic 
shores, etc. Harper's Mag., LXXV. 520. 
crescentically (kre-sen'ti-kal-i), adv. In a 
crescentic manner or shape; crescentwise. 
crescentiform (kre-sen'ti-form), a. [< L. cres- 
cen(t-)s. crescent, + forma, shape.] Crescen- 
tic in form ; shaped like a crescent : in zool., 
said speciflcally of various parts, as joints of the 
antennse or palpi of insects. 
crescentoid (kres'en-toid), a. [< crescent + 
-oirf.] Crescent-lite; crescentiform. 
Neither kind of tubercles crescentoid, but united in 
pairs. E. D. Cope, Origin of the Fittest, p. 250. 
crescent-shaped (kres'ent-shapt), a. Shaped 
like a crescent ; lunate ; crescentiform. 
crescentwise (kres'ent-wiz), adv. In the shape 
of a crescent. 
crescive (kres'iv), a. [< cresce + -ive.~\ Increas- 
ing; growing; crescent. [Archaic.] 
The prince obscur'd his contemplation 
Under the veil of wildness ; which, no doubt, 
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, 
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty. 
Shale., Hen. V., i. 1. 
The great and cresciee self, rooted in absolute nature, 
supplants all relative existence, and ruins the kingdom of 
mortal friendship and love. Emerson, Experience. 
creset, v. See crease^. 
creshawk (kres'hak), n. [< cres- (prob. due ult. 
to F. cresserelle, crecerelle Cotgrave), a kestrel : 
see kestrel &n&hawkl.~\ The kestrel. Montagu. 
cresmet, and v. A Middle English form of 
chrism. 
cresol (kre'sol), n. [< cres-, for creosote, + -01.] 
A phenol having the formula C 7 H 8 O, occurring 
in coal- and wood-tar. When pure it forms a 
colorless crystalline mass. Also cresylic acid 
and cressol. 
cresotic (kre-sot'ik), . [For creosotic, < creo- 
sote + -c.] Relating to or containing creosote. 
Cresotic acid, C 8 H 8 O 3 , an acid derived from cresylic 
alcohol. 
crespt, v. An obsolete form of crisp. 
crespinet, [OF., also crepine, F. erepine, a 
fringe, caul, kell, < crespe, lawn, Cyprus, crape : 
see crape."} A net or caul inclosing the hair, 
used as a head-dress in the early part of the fif- 
teenth century. It is represented as projecting greatly, 
in bosses or in horn-shaped protuberances, in front of the 
ears. Also crisp, Crispins, crespinette. 
crespinettet, " [OF., dim. of crespine : see cres- 
pine.] Same as crespine. 
cress (kres), n. [Early mod. E. also kerse, karse, 
kars; < ME. cresse, cres, also transposed, kerse, 
kers. carse, < AS. cresse, cerse, ccerse = D. 
kers = OHG. cresso, cressa, MHG. G. kresse, 
cress; the Scand. forms, Sw. krasse = Dan. 
karse, are prob. borrowed from LG. or HG., as 
are also OF. kerson, creson, F. cresson = Pr. 
creissoun = It. crescione = Cat. crexen, < ML. 
cresso(n-), cresco(n-), later also crisonium (the 
Romance forms being popularly referred to 
L. creseere, grow: see cresce), and Slov. kresh, 
kresha = Lett, kresse, cress. Origin of Teut. 
word doubtful; possibly from verb repr. by 
OHG. chresan, MHG. kresen, creep.] The com- 
mon name of many species of plants, most of 
them of the natural order Cruciferce. Water-cress, 
or Nasturtium officinale, is used as a salad, and is valued 
in medicine for its antiscorbutic qualities. The leaves 
have a moderately pungent taste. It grows on the brinks 
of rivulets and in moist grounds. The American water- 
cress is Cardamine rotundifolia ; bitter cress is a name of 
other species of the genus. Common garden-cress, also 
called pepper-, town-, or golden cress, is Lepidium satimtm; 
cow-cress is L. campestre ; bastard cress or penny-cress, 
Thlaspi arvense ; tower-cress, Arabia Turrita. Other spe- 
cies are known as rock- or wall-cress ; winter, land-, 
Belleisle, or Normandy cress, Barbarea mdnaris or R. pros- 
cox ; tooth-cress, a species of Dentaria ; Peter's or rock- 
cress, Crithmum maritimum ; and swine- or wart-cress, 
Sentbiera Coromtpui. Among other orders belong the dock- 
cress or nipplewort, Lapsana communis, of the Composi- 
tte, and the Indian cress, Tropceolum majwi, of the Gera- 
niacra;, so named from the pungent, cress-like taste of the 
leaves. 
Poure folke for fere tho fedde Hunger gerne 
Withcreym and with croddes.with canes and other herbes. 
Piers Plowman (C), ix. 322. 
I linger by my shingly bars ; 
I loiter round my creases. 
Tennyson, The Brook. 
cressantt, cressauntt, . Obsolete forms of 
Wfc <S . An old form of cresset. 
applied to many domestic uses, and is often elaborately Cresselle (kre-sel'), . [F. erectile. OF. crecelle, 
id or painted. crecerelle (Roquefort), a rattle.] A wooden rat- 
crest 
tie once used in the Roman Catholic Church 
during Passion week instead of a bell, 
cresset (kres'et), >i. [<ME. cresset, < OF. cresset, 
craisset, cruicet, crasset, var. crusset, critcet, croi- 
set, creuset, F. creu- 
set, a cresset ; a 
modification, with 
J other dim. suffix 
* -et, of OF. crttxxrl, 
croisel, r/wV.w/, 
crucel, crmceau, 
croissol, croisuel, a 
cresset, < OD. kruy- 
scl, a hanging 
lamp, dim. of 
kruyse, a pot, cup, 
Cressets. cruse, D. krocs: 
see cruse.~\ 1. A 
cup of any incombustible material mounted 
upon a pole or suspended from above, and 
serving to contain a light often made by the 
burning of a coil of pitched rope. Compare 
beaten. 
From the arched roof, 
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light. 
Hilton, V. L., i. 728. 
The cresset -was a large lanthorn fixed at the end of a 
long pole, and carried upon a man's shoulder. The cres- 
sets were found partly by the different companies. 
Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 464. 
A cresset, in an iron chain, 
Which served to light this drear domain, 
With damp and darkness seemed to strive. 
Scott, Marmion, ii. 18. 
2. An iron frame used by coopers in heating 
barrels, to clear the inside and make the staves 
flexible. 3. A kitchen utensil for setting a pot 
over the fire. [Local.] 4. A chafer or small 
portable furnace upon which a dish can be set 
to be kept hot. 
cresset-light (kres'et-llt), . A lamp or bea- 
con of which a cresset forms the chief part, 
cresset-Stone (kres'et-ston), n. A large stone 
in which one or more cup-shaped hollows are 
made to serve as cressets. 
cressol (kres'ol), n. See cresol. 
cress-rocket (kres'rok'et), n. The popular 
name of Velio, psendocyKsus, a cruciferous plant 
with yellow flowers, indigenous to Spain and 
cultivated in English gardens. 
cressy (kres'i), . [< cress + -yi.] Abounding 
in cresses. 
The cressy islets white in flower. 
7VtiHi/t>, Geraint. 
crest (krest), n. [Early mod. E. also crvast, 
< ME. crest, create, rarely creest, crist, < OF. 
creste, creiste, F. Crete = Pr. Sp. It. cresta = 
Pg. crista, < L. crista, a comb or tuft on the 
head of a bird or serpent, a crest.] 1. A tuft 
or other natural process growing upon the top 
of an animal's head, as the comb of a cock, a 
swelling on the head of a serpent, etc. See 
crista. 
With stones, and brands, and fire, attack 
His rising crest, and drive the serpent hack. 
C. Pitt, tr. of Vida's Art of Poetry. 
Crests proper belong to the top of the head, but may be 
also held to include such growths on its side. . . . Crests 
may be divided into two kinds : 1, where the feathers are 
simply lengthened or otherwise enlarged ; and 2, where 
the texture, and sometimes even the structure, is altered. 
Nearly all birds possess the power of moving and elevat- 
ing the feathers on the head, simulating a slight crest in 
moments of excitement. Cones, Key to N. A. Birds, p. 99. 
2. Anything resembling, suggestive of, or oc- 
cupying the same relative position as a crest, 
(a) An article of dress or ornament ; specifically, in armor, 
an upright ornament of a helmet, especially when not long 
and floating like a plume of fea- 
thers or a cointoise, as a ridge of 
metal, hair, bristles, feathers, or 
the like. Crests of diverse forms 
were usual on ancient helmets, 
and have been more or less 
closely imitated in the various 
forms of crest affixed to the hel- 
mets of gome modern mounted 
troops, etc. Stiff crests of hair 
or feathers were often worn 
by knights in the middle ages. 
(Compare aitrret.) The crest in 
medieval armor was early affect- 
ed by heraldic eonalderatlont 
(see (&)), whether formally, as 
being the heraldic crest itself, or by (he necessity of using 
a badge m- ro^ui/.anri'. \\hrthrr ti-mjinrary or permanent : 
thus, the tilting-helim-t u:is ol'trn surmounted by an rlab- 
orate structure in cnir-bonilli or even in thin nirtal, rep- 
resenting an animal or the head of an animal, or a human 
figure. 
A golden Viper . . . was erected vpon the crest of his 
helmet. Coryat, Crudities, I. 120. 
Helmet and Crest. From 
the frieze of the Parthenon. 
