crest
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English creste, from Old French creste (modern French crête) and perhaps continuing Old English cræsta (“crest, tuft, plume”); both ultimately from Vulgar Latin *cresta, from Latin crista. Doublet of crista.
The informal meaning “design, logo” (sense 11) stems from a misinterpretation of the heraldic sense 4, which specifically refers to the object placed on top of the helm.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
crest (plural crests)
- The summit of a hill or mountain ridge.
- A tuft, or other natural ornament, growing on an animal's head, for example the comb of a cockerel, the swelling on the head of a snake, the lengthened feathers of the crown or nape of bird, etc.
- The plume of feathers, or other decoration, worn on or displayed on a helmet; the distinctive ornament of a helmet.
- (heraldry) A bearing worn, not upon the shield, but usually on a helmet above it, sometimes (as for clerics) separately above the shield or separately as a mark for plate, in letterheads, and the like.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.
- The upper curve of a horse's neck.
- The ridge or top of a wave.
- The helm or head, as typical of a high spirit; pride; courage.
- The ornamental finishing which surmounts the ridge of a roof, canopy, etc.
- The top line of a slope or embankment.
- (anatomy) A ridge along the surface of a bone.
- (informal) A design or logo, especially one of an institution, sports club, association or high-class family.
- 2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits :”, in The Onion AV Club[1]:
- Hungry for fame and the approval of rare-animal collector Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), Darwin deceives the Captain and his crew into believing they can get enough booty to win the pirate competition by entering Polly in a science fair. So the pirates journey to London in cheerful, blinkered defiance of the Queen, a hotheaded schemer whose royal crest reads simply “I hate pirates.”
- Any of several birds in the family Regulidae, including the goldcrests and firecrests.
Synonyms[edit]
Coordinate terms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
summit of a hill or mountain ridge
|
animal’s or bird’s tuft
|
plume or decoration on a helmet
|
heraldic bearing
upper curve of horse's neck
ridge or top of a wave
|
helm or head
informal: design or logo
bird in the family Regulidae — see kinglet
Verb[edit]
crest (third-person singular simple present crests, present participle cresting, simple past and past participle crested)
- (intransitive) Particularly with reference to waves, to reach a peak.
- (transitive) To reach the crest of (a hill or mountain)
- 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian[2]:
- the land rolls gently, so that, upon cresting a low rise or passing a copse of wind turbines, you suddenly spot a lot full of lorries or a complex of gigantic sheds.
- To furnish with, or surmount as, a crest; to serve as a crest for.
- c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
- His legs bestrid the ocean, his reared arm / Crested the world.
- 1815, William Wordsworth, Extracts from An Evening Walk:
- groves of clouds that crest the mountain's brow
- To mark with lines or streaks like waving plumes.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 13:
- Like as the shining skie in summers night, / What time the dayes with scorching heat abound, / Is creasted all with lines of firie light
Translations[edit]
particularly with reference to waves, to reach a peak
to reach the crest of (a hill or mountain)
to furnish with, or surmount as, a crest; to serve as a crest for
to mark with lines or streaks like waving plumes
Anagrams[edit]
Aromanian[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Latin crēscō. Compare Romanian crește, cresc.
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
crest first-singular present indicative (past participle crãscute)
- to grow
Related terms[edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)ker- (turn)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɛst
- Rhymes:English/ɛst/1 syllable
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Heraldry
- English terms with quotations
- en:Anatomy
- English informal terms
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Perching birds
- en:Landforms
- Aromanian terms inherited from Latin
- Aromanian terms derived from Latin
- Aromanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Aromanian lemmas
- Aromanian verbs