cruci-, crux

1. On, at, or from the other side of; a grammatical word indicating that someone or anything is on the opposite side of something or moves or reaches from one side to the other: "The children ran across the street so they could catch the bus."
2. From one side of to the other: "Mack drove his car on the bridge that would take him across the river".
3. Into contact with: "Mandy came across her old roommate at the shopping center."
4. In such a manner as to be comprehensible, acceptable, or successful: "Frank's parents put his idea across to the rest of the family."
5. Being in a crossed position: "Henry's mother was seated with her arms across her chest."

1. A structure consisting essentially of an upright and a transverse piece, upon which people were formerly put to death.
2. Any object, figure, or mark resembling a cross, as two intersecting lines.
3. A mark resembling a cross, usually an X, made instead of a signature by a person who is unable to write out words.
4. The Cross, when capitalized refers to the cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified.
5. A figure of the Cross (a crucifix) as a Christian emblem, or as a symbol of Christianity; a badge, etc.
6. A sign made with the right hand by tracing the figure of a cross in the air or by touching the fore heard, chest, and shoulders, as an act of devotion usually by Roman Catholics.
7. A structure or monument in the form of a cross, set up for prayer, as a memorial, etc.
8. Any of various conventional representations or modifications of the Christian emblem used symbolically or for ornament, as in heraldry or art; such as, a Latin cross; a Maltese cross.
9. A crossing of animals or plants; a mixing of breeds.
10. An animal, plant, breed, etc., produced by crossing; that is, crossbreeding.
12. A place for crossing.
13. To bear one's cross; that is, to accept trials or troubles (tribulations) patiently.
14. Being in an ill humor; grouchy, bad-tempered, petulant, testy, cranky, disagreeable.
15. Being antagonistic or contrary; contrary, opposite, antagonistic, adverse: such as, they are working at cross purposes.

A technique for electrophoretic separation (science of objects moving in a fluid when an electric charge is applied) of mixed proteins in which two successive currents are passed through the support medium in directions at right angles to each other.

It is used in two-dimensional immunoelectrophoresis, separation and identification of proteins based on differences in electrical charge and reactivity with antibodies.

A deviation of the visual axis of one eye toward that of the other eye; or strabismus, a condition in which the visual axes of the eyes are not parallel and the eyes appear to be looking in different directions.

Defective vision or blindness in half of the visual field of one or both eyes.

1. The transfer of pollen from the flower of one plant to the flower of a plant having a different genetic constitution.
2. A sharing or interchange of knowledge, ideas, etc., as for mutual enrichment; cross-fertilization.

1. Extremely significant or important; such as, a crucial problem.
2. Vital to the resolution of a crisis; decisive; as a crucial election.
3. Having the form of a cross; cross-shaped.

A crucial election is like a signpost because it shows which way the electorate is moving. The metaphor of a signpost, in fact, gives us the sense of the word crucial, "of supreme importance, critical."

Francis Bacon used the phrase instantia crucis, "crucial instance," to refer to something in an experiment that proves one of two hypotheses and disproves the other.

Bacon's phrase was based on a sense of the Latin word crux, "cross", which had come to mean "a guidepost that gives directions at a place where one road becomes two", and hence was suitable for Bacon's metaphor.

Both Robert Boyle, often called the father of modern chemistry, and Isaac Newton used the similar Latin phrase experimentum crucis, "crucial experiment".

When these phrases were translated into English, they became "crucial instance" and "crucial experiment".

Extremely important because many other things depend on it: "The orchestra wants to win over fans and, for more crucially important reasons, radio producers."

1. To torture or to torment someone on a cross.
2. Insects that are crossing their wings.
3. Plants arranging their stems and leaves into forms of crosses.

1. Arranged in or forming a cross; cruciform.
2. Overlapping or crossing, as the wings of some insects when at rest.
3. Shaped like a cross: the cruciate ligaments of the knee.

1. A heat-resistant container in which ores or metals are melted.
2. The hollow part at the bottom of a furnace where molten metal collects.
3. A place or set of circumstances where people or things are subjected to forces that test them and often make them change.
4. A severe test, as of patience or belief; a trial.
5. A severe trial or ordeal.
6. A place, time, or situation characterized by the confluence of powerful intellectual, social, economic, or political forces.
7. Etymology: the figurative sense of "a severe test or trial", is first recorded in about 1645, possibly from the idea that the melting pot must endure great heat in order to fuse metals.

1. In some Christian churches (particularly in the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, and Lutherans), a person who is appointed to carry the church's processional cross: The crucifer carries a cross or crucifix with a long staff, during processions at the beginning and at the end of the church services.
2. Plants that don't have a permanent woody stem: Many crucifers are flowering garden plants or potherbs; while some of the others have medicinal properties; and then there are some that can be eaten by humans; including, the cabbages, radishes, turnips, and mustards.

1. Descriptive of the person who carries a cross in a religious procession: The priest was walking from the back of the church with the cruciferous symbol to the alter in front of the congregation of worshipers.
2. Descriptive of various plants in the mustard family (Cruciferae or Brassicaceae): The cruciferous plants include the cauliflower, the cabbage, horseradish, kale, broccoli, and similar green leaf vegetables.

The mustard family takes its alternate cruciferous name (Cruciferae, New Latin for "cross-bearing") from the shape of the flowers, in which four petals resemble a cross.

A reference to someone who has been killed by being tied to or nailed to a cross and left there to die: "The crucified victim suffered a long time before he died."

1. A person who put other people to death on crosses.
2. Someone who subjects himself or herself, or another person, to painful and harsh criticism.