CRESCENT

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does crescent mean? 

• CRESCENT (noun)
  The noun CRESCENT has 1 sense:

1. any shape resembling the curved shape of the moon in its first or last quarters

  Familiarity information: CRESCENT used as a noun is very rare.

• CRESCENT (adjective)
  The adjective CRESCENT has 1 sense:

1. resembling the new moon in shape

  Familiarity information: CRESCENT used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRESCENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any shape resembling the curved shape of the moon in its first or last quarters

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("crescent" is a kind of...):

curve; curved shape (the trace of a point whose direction of motion changes)

Derivation:

crescent (resembling the new moon in shape)

• CRESCENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Resembling the new moon in shape

Synonyms:

crescent; crescent-shaped; lunate; semilunar

Similar:

rounded (curving and somewhat round in shape rather than jagged)

Derivation:

crescent (any shape resembling the curved shape of the moon in its first or last quarters)

 Context examples 

The Wnt signaling pathway is blocked by a family of secreted proteins such as crescent and Dkk-1 sufficient for induction of heart formation in posterior mesoderm.

(ALK Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

Zone III is the residual crescent of retina anterior to zone II.

(Immature Retinal Vasculature in Zone 3, NICHD)

Overhead drifted a pale crescent moon, and the Southern Cross burned low in the sky.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Tonight when the new Moon rises, or in the next few nights when the Moon is a slim crescent, go outside and look up.

(Earthshine, NASA)

He and his aids now withdrew behind the curtain: the other party, which was headed by Colonel Dent, sat down on the crescent of chairs.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Dare you to wear your brother's coat without the crescent which should stamp you as his cadet.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The dorsal lip, which forms at the site of the gray crescent, forms the dorsal margin of the blastopore.

(Dorsal Lip, NCI Thesaurus)

The rotten bark gave way under his feet, and with a despairing yelp he pitched down the rounded crescent, smashed through the leafage and stalks of a small bush, and in the heart of the bush, on the ground, fetched up in the midst of seven ptarmigan chicks.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Beyond the veranda was a small cleared garden, bounded with cactus hedges and adorned with clumps of flowering shrubs, round which the great blue butterflies and the tiny humming-birds fluttered and darted in crescents of sparkling light.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This pale crescent was "the likeness of a kingly crown;" what it diademed was "the shape which shape had none."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)