<B>crossbench, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) a bench situated at right angles to other benches in the House of Lords on which independent or neutral members sometimes sit. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbencher">
<B>crossbencher, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) an independent or neutral member of the House of Lords. <BR> <I>Ex. Lord Boothby, speaking with the freedom of a crossbencher, described the Treasury's policy as 'furtive, disastrous, and dishonest' (Annual Register).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="crossbill">
<B>crossbill, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a small finch whose powerful bill has points that cross each other when the bill is closed. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbirth">
<B>cross birth,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a birth in which the child is presented in a position transverse to the uterus. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbones">
<B>crossbones, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> two large bones placed crosswise, usually below a skull, to mean death. <BR> <I>Ex. Poisonous medicines are sometimes marked with a skull and crossbones.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="crossbow">
<B>crossbow, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a medieval weapon for shooting arrows (called bolts) or stones, consisting of a bow fixed across a wooden stock, with a groove in the middle to direct the arrows or stones. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbowman">
<B>crossbowman, </B>noun, pl. <B>-men.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a soldier who used a crossbow. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbred">
<B>crossbred, </B>adjective, noun, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> produced by crossbreeding. (SYN) hybrid, mongrel. <DD><I>noun </I> an animal or plant produced by crossbreeding. <BR> <I>Ex. Comebacks and crossbreds met very keen competition (London Times).</I> (SYN) hybrid, mongrel. <DD><I>verb </I> the past tense and past participle of <B>crossbreed.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="crossbredwool">
<B>crossbred wool,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> wool from a sheep that is a cross of two breeds of sheep, such as the Corriedale. Crossbred wool is brighter and coarser than Merino and is used especially in the making of hosiery and worsted serge. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbreed">
<B>crossbreed, </B>verb, <B>-bred,</B> <B>-breeding,</B> noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t., v.i. </I> to breed by mixing kinds, breeds, or races. <BR> <I>Ex. You can crossbreed a horse and a donkey to get a mule.</I> (SYN) cross, hybridize. <DD><I>noun </I> an individual or breed produced by crossbreeding. <BR> <I>Ex. A loganberry is a crossbreed of a blackberry and a raspberry.</I> (SYN) hybrid. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbreeding">
<B>crossbreeding, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> breeding by mixing kinds, breeds, or races. <BR> <I>Ex. It's a boon to biologists, who hope crossbreeding will do for trees what it's already achieved for corn and livestock (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="crossbuck">
<B>crossbuck, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a highway traffic sign consisting of two crosspieces forming an X to warn motorists that a railroad crossing is ahead. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbuck">
<B>cross buck,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Football.) a play in which two backs cross paths as they head into the line of scrimmage, one to fake receiving the ball and the other to receive it. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbun">
<B>cross bun,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a bun marked with a cross on top. Hot cross buns are often eaten on Good Friday or during Lent. </DL>
<A NAME="crossbusing">
<B>crossbusing, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) the busing of children from two different districts to each other's schools. <BR> <I>Ex. the hardening of racial attitudes caused by crossbusing to achieve racial balance (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="crosschannel">
<B>cross-channel, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> passing or situated across a channel, as the English Channel. <BR> <I>Ex. a cross-channel steamer.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="crosscheck">
<B>cross-check, </B>verb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to check a second time; recheck. <BR> <I>Ex. The biographer must ... check and cross-check every document (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to check more than twice. <BR> <I>Ex. rechecked later for accuracy ... and cross-checked in over three times as many cases (Harper's).</I> <DD><B> 3a. </B>(Anthropology.) to compare (a person's behavior) at different times. <DD><B> b. </B>to compare (two people's behavior) under the same conditions. <DD><I>noun </I> a second or further check. </DL>
<A NAME="crosschestcarry">
<B>cross-chest carry,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a method of carrying someone in the water to rescue him from drowning by clamping an arm across his chest while swimming a sidestroke. </DL>
<A NAME="crosscirculation">
<B>cross circulation,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a technique similar to blood transfusion in which the arteries and veins of two individuals are linked so that the heart and lungs of the donor are used to circulate and oxygenate the patient's blood during a heart operation. </DL>
<A NAME="crossconnect">
<B>cross-connect, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> to interchange the connections of (electric wires). </DL>
<A NAME="crosscountry">
<B>cross-country, </B>adjective, adverb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj., adv. </I> <B>1. </B>across fields or open country instead of by road. <BR> <I>Ex. a cross-country race.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>across an entire country, not merely a part. <BR> <I>Ex. a cross-country flight from New York to Seattle (adj.). The mission ... had brought him cross-country to Los Angeles (Time) (adv.).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> a sports event or events held across fields or open country, as cross-country skiing and long-distance running. </DL>
<A NAME="crosscousins">
<B>cross cousins,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Anthropology, Sociology.) cousins one of whom has a father who is the brother of the other's mother. </DL>
<A NAME="crosscultural">
<B>cross-cultural, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> crossing the boundaries of a culture; involving more than one culture. <BR> <I>Ex. The social sciences should study cross-cultural problems as well as those of our own culture.</I> adv. <B>cross-culturally.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="crosscurrent">
<B>crosscurrent</B> or <B>cross-current, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a current of air blowing across another. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) an opposing tendency or trend. <BR> <I>Ex. the crosscurrents of political thought.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="crosscut">
<B>crosscut, </B>noun, adjective, verb, <B>-cut,</B> <B>-cutting.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a cut, course, or path going across. <DD><B> 2. </B>a short cut. <BR> <I>Ex. The quickest way is to take the crosscut through the fields.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Mining.) a passageway cut across the course of a vein. <DD><B> 4. </B><B>=crosscut saw.</B> <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>used or made for cutting across. <BR> <I>Ex. a crosscut chisel.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>cut across. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to cut across. <BR> <I>Ex. Crosscut the field to take a short cut.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="crosscutsaw">
<B>crosscut saw,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a saw made for cutting across the grain of wood. </DL>
<A NAME="crossdate">
<B>cross-date, </B>verb, <B>-dated,</B> <B>-dating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> to establish the date or age of (trees, archaeological artifacts, or other specimens) by comparing systematically their characteristics with those of others whose age has been previously determined. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to make such a comparison so as to establish a date or age. <BR> <I>Ex. With trees of known felling date the outer ring, and hence the rest, can be dated, and so by cross-dating can the outer rings of older trees or stumps which overlap the inner rings of the dated ones (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="crossdress">
<B>cross-dress, </B>intransitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> to dress in the clothing of the opposite sex. <BR> <I>Ex. Transvestites [range] from those who occasionally wear the clothes of the other sex in private to those who are only comfortable when cross-dressing in public (Harper's).</I> noun <B>cross-dresser.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="crossdressing">
<B>cross-dressing, </B>noun. =transvestism.</DL>
<A NAME="crosse">
<B>crosse, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the racket used in playing lacrosse. </DL>
<A NAME="crossexamination">
<B>cross-examination, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an examination to check a previous examination. <BR> <I>Ex. A lawyer questions witnesses for the opposing side by cross-examination to test the truth of their evidence.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a close or severe questioning. </DL>
<A NAME="crossexamine">
<B>cross-examine, </B>transitive verb, intransitive verb, <B>-ined,</B> <B>-ining.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to question closely (a witness for the opposing side) to check the truth of his testimony. (SYN) interrogate. <DD><B> 2. </B>to question closely or severely; cross-question. noun <B>cross-examiner.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="crosseye">
<B>cross-eye, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> strabismus, especially the form in which both eyes are turned toward the nose and cannot focus on the same point. </DL>
<A NAME="crosseyed">
<B>cross-eyed, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having both eyes turned toward the nose and unable to focus on the same point. </DL>
<A NAME="crossfertilization">
<B>cross-fertilization, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Botany.) the fertilization of one flower by pollen from another; allogamy. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Biology.) <DD><B> a. </B>the fertilization of the ovum of one individual by the sperm of another. <DD><B> b. </B>the mating of a male of one variety with the female of another. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) a mingling or exchange (of ideas, techniques, or other findings) between different industries, cultures, or other groups that would result in mutual gain. <BR> <I>Ex. But documents often fail to reveal motives; they fail to show the genesis of ideas or the cross-fertilization and intellectual pin-pricking that takes place when two or more scientists are gathered together (Bulletin of Atomic Scientists).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="crossfertilize">
<B>cross-fertilize, </B>verb, <B>-lized,</B> <B>-lizing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> to cause the cross-fertilization of. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to be subjected to cross-fertilization. </DL>
<A NAME="crossfile">
<B>cross-file, </B>intransitive verb, <B>-filed,</B> <B>-filing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) to file for nomination on more than one party's ticket during Congressional or other primaries. <BR> <I>Ex. In the state of California, the candidates can cross-file and appear on several ballots.</I> noun <B>cross-filer.</B> </DL>
