Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The figure of the moon as it appears before its first quarter phase or after its third quarter phase, with concave and convex edges terminating in points.
  • noun Something shaped like a crescent, such as a curved pastry or a curved street.
  • adjective Crescent-shaped.
  • adjective Waxing, as the moon approaching its first quarter phase; increasing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Increasing; growing: specifically applied to the moon during its first quarter, when its visible portion is increasing in area, in the curved form called a crescent (see II.).
  • Shaped like the appearance of the moon during its first quarter.
  • noun The period of apparent growth or increase of the moon in its first quarter: as, the moon is in its crescent.
  • noun The increasing part of the moon in its first quarter, or the similarly shaped decreasing part in its last quarter, when it presents a bow of light terminating in points or horns: as, the crescent of the moon.
  • noun The moon itself in either its first or its last quarter; the new or the old moon.
  • noun Something in the shape of the crescent moon; a crescent-shaped object, construction, device, or symbol.
  • noun In heraldry, a bearing in the form of a young or new moon, usually borne horizontally with the horns uppermost. See decrescent and increscent.
  • noun In architecture, a range of buildings in the form of a crescent or half-moon: as, Lansdowne Crescent in London.
  • noun A Turkish military musical instrument with bells or jingles.
  • noun A defect in a horse's foot, when the coffin-bone falls down.
  • noun In lace-making, a cordonnet of considerable projection inclosing part of the pattern of point-lace, giving it relief, and separating it from the ground or from other parts of the pattern.
  • noun A small roll of bread of various kinds, made in the form of a crescent.
  • To form into a crescent.
  • To surround partly in a semicircular or crescent form.
  • noun The curved, sausage-shaped gametocyte of Laverania, the parasite of pernicious *malaria (which see, with cut).
  • noun In certain extinct cardioid pelecypods, a lunate flattening of the shell-surface just behind the beaks. It specially characterizes the Devonian genus Honeoyea.
  • noun In the extinct trimerellid brachiopods, a curved and narrow muscular scar on each valve just within the cardinal margin.
  • noun In plate-armor, one of the small pieces of steel used to protect joints. See gusset .

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The increasing moon; the moon in her first quarter, or when defined by a concave and a convex edge; also, applied improperly to the old or decreasing moon in a like state.
  • noun Anything having the shape of a crescent or new moon.
  • noun A representation of the increasing moon, often used as an emblem or badge.
  • noun A symbol of Artemis, or Diana.
  • noun The ancient symbol of Byzantium or Constantinople.
  • noun The emblem of the Turkish Empire, adopted after the taking of Constantinople.
  • noun Any one of three orders of knighthood; the first instituted by Charles I., king of Naples and Sicily, in 1268; the second by René of Anjou, in 1448; and the third by the Sultan Selim III., in 1801, to be conferred upon foreigners to whom Turkey might be indebted for valuable services.
  • noun (Her.) The emblem of the increasing moon with horns directed upward, when used in a coat of arms; -- often used as a mark of cadency to distinguish a second son and his descendants.
  • transitive verb rare To form into a crescent, or something resembling a crescent.
  • transitive verb To adorn with crescents.
  • adjective Shaped like a crescent.
  • adjective Increasing; growing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The figure of the moon as it appears in its first or last quarter, with concave and convex edges terminating in points.
  • noun Something shaped like a crescent, especially:
  • noun New Zealand A crescent spanner.
  • adjective dated, rare marked by an increase; waxing, like the Moon.
  • verb transitive To form into a crescent, or something resembling a crescent.
  • verb transitive To adorn with crescents.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective resembling the new moon in shape
  • noun any shape resembling the curved shape of the moon in its first or last quarters

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English cressaunt, from Anglo-Norman, variant of Old French creissant, from present participle of creistre, to grow, from Latin crēscere; see ker- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin crēscēns, present active participle of crēscō ("arise, thrive").

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