crease

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A line made by pressing, folding, or wrinkling.
2. n. Sports A rectangular area marked off in front of the goal in hockey and lacrosse.
3. n. Sports One of the lines in cricket marking off the positions of the bowler and batter or the space between two of these lines.
4. v. To make a pressed, folded, or wrinkled line in.
5. v. To graze or wound superficially with a bullet.
6. v. To become wrinkled.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A line or long thin mark made by folding or doubling; hence, a similar mark, however produced.
2. n. Specifically, one of certain lines used in the game of cricket. The bowling-crease is a line 6 feet 8 inches in length, drawn upon the ground at each wicket, so that the stumps stand in the center; the return-crease, one of two short lines drawn at either end of the bowling-crease, within which the bowler must be standing when he delivers his ball; and the popping-crease, a line 4 feet in front of the wicket, and parallel with the bowling-crease, and at least of the same length. (See cricket.) The space between the popping- and bowling-creases is the batsman's proper ground, passing out of which he risks being put out of the game by a touch of the ball in the hands of one of the opposite side.
3. n. A split or rent.
4. n. A curved tile.
5. n. The top of a horse's neck.
6. To make a line or long thin mark in, as by folding, doubling, or indenting.
7. To indent, as a cartridge-case, for the purpose of confining the charge; crimp.
8. In hunting, to wound by a shot which flattens the upper vertebræ, or cuts the muscles of the neck, and stuns, but does not kill.
9. To increase; grow.
10. To increase; augment.
11. n. Increase; profit.
12. n. A less common spelling of creese.

Wiktionary

1. n. A line or mark made by folding or doubling any pliable substance; hence, a similar mark, however produced.
2. n. cricket One of the white lines drawn on the pitch to show different areas of play; especially the popping crease, but also the bowling crease and the return crease.
3. n. lacrosse The circle around the goal, where no offensive players can go.
4. n. ice hockey The goal crease; an area in front of each goal, surrounded by thin red lines and filled in with light blue.
5. v. transitive To make a crease in; to wrinkle.
6. v. transitive To lightly bloody; to graze.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. See creese.
2. n. A line or mark made by folding or doubling any pliable substance; hence, a similar mark, however produced.
3. n. (Cricket) One of the lines serving to define the limits of the bowler and the striker.
4. n. (Lacrosse) The combination of four lines forming a rectangle inclosing either goal, or the inclosed space itself, within which no attacking player is allowed unless the ball is there; -- called also goal crease.
5. v. To make a crease or mark in, as by folding or doubling.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. become wrinkled or crumpled or creased
2. v. make wrinkles or creases on a smooth surface; make a pressed, folded or wrinkled line in
3. n. a slight depression in the smoothness of a surface
4. n. an angular or rounded shape made by folding
5. v. make wrinkled or creased
6. n. a Malayan dagger with a wavy blade
7. v. scrape gently