Definitions

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

  • noun The section of the leg or hind limb between the knee and foot; shank.
  • noun A leglike part.
  • noun A body part consisting of elongated masses or diverging bands that resemble legs or roots.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun plural The calcareous brachial supports in the Brachiopoda, as in Pentamerus and Rhynchonella, where they are a pair of short discrete, slightly curved lamellæ. Also called crural plates.
  • noun In anatomy and zoology: The lower leg; the part of the hind limb between the knee and the ankle; the second segment of the hind limb, corresponding to the forearm or antebrachium of the fore limb, represented by the length of the tibia or shinbone.
  • noun Some part likened to a leg, as one of a pair of supporting parts; a pillar; a peduncle.

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

  • noun That part of the hind limb between the femur, or thigh, and the ankle, or tarsus; the shank.
  • noun Often applied, especially in the plural, to parts which are supposed to resemble a pair of legs.

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

  • noun a leglike part; shank
  • noun Grades of wine; Plural form of cru.

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

  • noun the leg from the knee to foot

Etymologies

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

[Latin crūs, crūr-, leg.]

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Examples

  • In another branch of the Indo-European family, the same stem * kro - produced the Latin word crus, "dear."

    Is The Word "WHORE" Offensive? Is it a dirty word? 2008

  • In another branch of the Indo-European family, the same stem * kro - produced the Latin word crus, "dear."

    Printing: Is The Word "WHORE" Offensive? Is it a dirty word? 2008

  • As the fibres of the medulla pass up through the pons to the great inferior ganglion, and the fibres of the corpus striatum pass outward and upward to form the cerebrum, this procession of the fibres is shown in the annexed engraving, in which we see the restiform bodies passing up to form the cerebellum, and the remainder of the medulla fibres passing through the pons, and then, under the name crus cerebri or thigh of the cerebrum, passing through the thalamus and striatum to expand in the left hemisphere of the cerebrum.

    Buchanan's Journal of Man, May 1887 Volume 1, Number 4 1856

  • "We ain't got to de las 'crus' yit, an 'I couldn't make my dinneh on a crus' nohow.

    The Earth Trembled Edward Payson Roe 1863

  • Les Jardins de Saint-Benoît is a very smart riverside estate and an ideal rural retreat to sample the region's finest crus.

    Richard Powell: PHOTOS: A Holiday Spent Amongst The Wineries Of Languedoc Richard Powell 2011

  • Despite his affection for Champagne, Chef Ducasse's cellar at home in Monaco is dominated by Burgundy and Bordeaux, many of them grand crus and first growths.

    Alain Ducasse Lettie Teague 2011

  • There are 10 crus named after the villages that stretch for more than 20 kilometers in central-eastern France.

    Starting a Wine Collection Will Lyons 2011

  • Although Volnay does not have any official grands crus—the highest vineyard rating—more than half of its vineyards are premiers crus, the second-highest category.

    The Childhood Chums Keeping Volnay a Delight Jay McInerney 2011

  • Jason Lee for The Wall Street Journal This system, called the "échelle des crus," was implemented about 50 years ago to protect Champagne growers.

    Bubble by Bubble Lettie Teague 2011

  • Les Jardins de Saint-Benoît is a very smart riverside estate and an ideal rural retreat to sample the region's finest crus.

    Richard Powell: PHOTOS: A Holiday Spent Amongst The Wineries Of Languedoc Richard Powell 2011

Comments

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  • WeirdNET does not list the definition I found while reading. (Younger readers will please avert their eyes. This is about human sexuality. Fair warning; I'm not being crude, I'm listing a scientific term I just learned.)

    "The crura look like the legs of a wishbone that run beneath each of the labia... To keep us a little off balance, a 'crus' is an individual leg or part of the wishbone, while 'crura' is what you say when you are referring to both of them.

    "The crura are made up of erectile tissue that is called corpora cavernosa, just like the cylinders that are inside the penis..."

    (Guide to Getting It On, 134)

    April 10, 2008

  • Good heavens. You're not reading O'Brian anymore; that's for sure.

    April 10, 2008