/kɹaʊn/
OriginFrom Middle English coroune, from Anglo-Norman corone, from Latin corōna (“crown, wreath”), from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē). Doublet of corona, korona, koruna, krona, króna, and krone. Displaced native Old English corenbēag (“crown”); and Middle English kinehelm, kynehelm, from Old English cynehelm (“crown”).
* (paper size): So called because originally watermarked with a crown.
- A royal, imperial or princely headdress; a diadem.
“Before so many of Europe's crowns came tumbling off the heads of their royal owners, Continental Europe could show a rich variety in the matter of royal trains.”
- A wreath or band for the head, especially one given as reward of victory or a mark of honor.
- broadlyAny reward of victory or mark of honor.
- Imperial or regal power, or those who wield it.
- metonymicallyThe sovereign (in a monarchy), as head of state.
“A parliament may be diſſolved by the demiſe of the crown.”
- broadly, especiallyThe state, the government (headed by a monarch).
“Treasure recovered from shipwrecks automatically becomes property of the Crown.”
“Large arrears of pay were due to the civil and military servants of the crown; and only forty thousand pounds remained in the Exchequer.”
- The police (referring to Crown Victoria police cars).
- The topmost part of the head.
“[...]if he awake, / From toe to crowne hee'l fill our skin with pinches, / Make vs ſtrange ſtuffe.”
“In more than twenty things, which I ſet down; / This done, I twenty more had in my Crown, / And they again began to multiply, / Like ſparks that from the coals of fire do fly.”
- During childbirth, the appearance of the baby's head from the mother's vagina.
- A round spot shaved clean on the top of the head, as a mark of the clerical state; the tonsure.
- The highest part of a hill.
“Huge Trunks of Trees, fell'd from the ſteepy Crown / Of the bare Mountains, rowl with Ruin down.”
“We walk’d together on the crown/Of a high mountain which look’d down/Afar from its proud natural towers/Of rock and forest, on the hills—/The dwindled hills! begirt with bowers/And shouting with a tho”
“So we continue climbing to the saddle of the Kleine Scheidegg, where ahead there comes into view the wide expanse of the Grindelwald valley, backed by the snowy crown of the Wetterhorn.”
- The top section of a hat, above the brim.
- The raised centre of a road.
“Watt was beginning to tire of running his eyes up and down this highway, when a figure, human apparently, advancing along its crown, arrested, and revived, his attention.”
- The highest part of an arch.
“The arch failed first at the crown, then at the quarterings, and finally at the springings.”
- The upper range of facets in a rose diamond.
- The dome of a furnace.
- The upper part of certain fruits, as the pineapple or strawberry, that is removed before eating.
- The top of a tree.
- A kind of spire or lantern formed by converging flying buttresses.
- Splendor; culmination; acme.
“[…] happie in our mutual help/ And mutual love, the Crown of all our bliſs/ Ordain'd by thee, […]”
- Any currency (originally) issued by the crown (regal power) and often bearing a crown (headdress); (translation) various currencies known by similar names in their native languages, such as the korona, koruna, krona, króna, krone.
- historicalA former predecimalization British coin worth five shillings.
“Half-a-crown is known as an alderman, half a bull, half a tusheroon, and a madza caroon; whilst a crown piece, or five shillings, may be called either a bull, or a caroon, or a cartwheel, or a coachwh”
- broadly, historicalA coin or note worth five shillings in various countries that are or were in the British Commonwealth, such as Ireland or Jamaica.
“There is no difficulty getting married in Jamaica, is there? No, it only costs half a crown.”
“Maggie Murphy had some knickers that she bought in Bagenalstown, an interlock of knickers that she got for a half a crown.”
- The part of a plant where the root and stem meet.
- The part of a tooth above the gums.
- A prosthetic covering for a tooth.
- A knot formed in the end of a rope by tucking in the strands to prevent them from unravelling.
- The part of an anchor where the arms and the shank meet.
“The honest, rough piece of iron, so simple in appearance, has more parts than the human body has limbs: the ring, the stock, the crown, the flukes, the palms, the shank. All this, according to the jou”
- The rounding, or rounded part, of the deck from a level line.
- UKA standard size of printing paper measuring 20 × 15 inches.
- USA standard size of writing paper measuring 19 × 15 inches.
- A monocyclic ligand having three or more binding sites, capable of holding a guest in a central location.
- A rounding or smoothing of the barrel opening.
- The area enclosed between two concentric perimeters.
- A whole bird with the legs and wings removed to produce a joint of white meat.
“When these TV chefs show you that they can cook a turkey crown in less than two hours; they aren't magicians or have secret turkey suppliers. The twenty minute per pound rule is based on our grandpare”
- colloquialA formal hat worn by women to Sunday church services; a church crown.
“"His [Barack Obama's] unofficial slogan 'fired up and ready to go!' was borrowed from an 'old lady in a church crown [Sunday best hat]."”
- The knurled knob or dial, on the outside of a watch case, used to wind it or adjust the hands.
- not-comparableOf, related to, or pertaining to a crown.
- not-comparableOf, related to, pertaining to the top of a tree or trees.
- To place a crown on the head of.
“The king of the Huns was crowned with steel, and rode a stallion red,/Saying: “Proud must my father’s spirit feel of me who crowned my head […]””
- To formally declare (someone) a king, queen, emperor, etc.
“Her, vvho faireſt does appear, / Crovvn her Queen of all the year.”
- To bestow something upon as a mark of honour, dignity, or recompense; to adorn; to dignify.
“Thou […] hast crowned him with glory and honour.”
- To form the topmost or finishing part of; to complete; to consummate; to perfect.
“the grove that crowns yon tufted hill”
“To crown the whole, came a proposition.”
- To declare (someone) a winner.
“New Zealand were crowned world champions for the first time in 24 years after squeezing past an inspired France team by a single point.”
- Of a baby, during the birthing process; for the surface of the baby's head to appear in the vaginal opening.
“The mother was in the second stage of labor and the fetus had just crowned, prompting a round of encouragement from the midwives.”
“You will see the baby's head crowning during contractions, at which time you must prepare to assist the mother in the delivery of the baby.”
“He's crowning . . . His head's coming through”
- transitiveTo cause to round upward; to make anything higher at the middle than at the edges, such as the face of a machine pulley.
- To hit on the head.
“‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “i”
- To shoot an opponent in the back of the head with a shotgun in a first-person shooter video game.
- In checkers, to stack two checkers to indicate that the piece has become a king.
““Crown me!” I said, as I moved my checker to the back row.”
- Of a forest fire or bushfire, to spread to the crowns of the trees and thence move from tree to tree independent of the surface fire.
- To widen the opening of the barrel.
- To effect a lodgment upon, as upon the crest of the glacis, or the summit of the breach.
- To lay the ends of the strands of (a knot) over and under each other.
- intransitive, slangTo be on the point of defecating.
“Where's the bathroom, I'm crowning here!”
- archaic, form-of, participle, pastpast participle of crow
- The sovereign of a monarchy; often with reference to that of the Commonwealth realms.
- The government of a monarchy; often with reference to one that is a member of the Commonwealth realms.
- CanadaA Crown attorney.
Formscrowns(plural) · crowns(present, singular, third-person) · crowning(participle, present) · crowned(participle, past) · crowned(past) · the Crown(canonical)
Source: Wiktionary