Crined - Used to describe an animal having its hair of a different tincture.
Croisant - (crois'-ant) A cross the ends of which terminate in crescents.
Cross - One of the earliest and noblest of the honorable ordinaries. When borne plain it is blazoned simply as a cross. There are, however, more than a hundred varieties, some of the better known being the following:
- Anchored
Avellane
Bezant
Bottony
Cablee
Calvary
Chain
Cleche
Crosslet
Fitchee
Flory
Formee
Moline
Patee
Potent
Recercelee
Voided
Cross Anchored - A cross in which the limbs terminate in anchors.
Cross Avellane - Ending in filbert husks.
Cross Bezant - A cross composed of bezants joined together.
Cross Bottany - With the limbs terminating in budlike prominences.
Cross Cablee - A cross made up of two cables.
Cross Corded - A cross bound or wound round with cords. (This term is sometimes applied, though erroneously, to the Cablée.)
Cross Cleche - A cross charged with another cross, of the same color of the field, so large that only a narrow border of the first cross remains visible.
Cross Crosslet - A cross having the three upper ends terminating in three little crosses. It is usually borne in numbers, but this is not always the case.
Cross Fitchee - Sharpened at the lower part; pointed like a dagger. The arms of the See of Canterbury represent four crosses patée fitchée.
Cross Fleury - Adorned at the ends with flowers, generally the fleur-de-lis.
Cross Fourchee - Having the ends forked as branches, with the ends terminating abruptly, as if cut off.
Cross Formee - Resembling the cross patée, but differing in that its extremities reach the edge of the field.
Cross Moline - So called because its shape resembles a millrind (the iron clamp of the upper millstone). It is borne both inverted and rebated, and sometimes saltirewise or in saltire. When used as a mark of cadency it represents the eighth son.
Cross of Calvary (or Cross of the Crucififixion) - Represented mounted on three steps.
Cross of St. George - A plain red cross on a white field. It would be blazoned "Argent, a cross gules."
Cross Patee - The emblem of the Knights of St. John, and is known as the Croix de Malthe. It spreads out at the ends.
Cross Patonce - This has expanded ends like the cross patée, but each terminates in three points.
Cross Pommee - With the ends terminating in single balls.
Cross Potent - One which has its ends T-shaped, or resembling a crutch. (Also written potence.)
Cross Raguly - A notched or jagged cross.
Cross Recercelee - A cross whose ends are split and curled outward. It is usually voided.
Cross Urdee - Differs from an ordinary cross only in that the extremities are drawn to a sharp point instead of being cut straight.
Cross Voided - A cross in outline only.
Cross-bar - Sometimes used to designate the bar sinister; a mark of illegitimacy.
Crossbow - [See ARBALEST.]
Crossed - Borne crosswise.
Crosswise - In the figure of a cross. (Essentially the same as CROSSED.)
Crown - The crown of a sovereign prince is usually closed at the top by four arched bars, called diadems, and surmounted by a globe and cross.
A crown placed below the crest does not denote the rank of the bearer.
Iron Crown - A crown which, besides its gold and jewels, contains a thin circle of iron, said to have been made from a nail of Christ's cross. It was first used at the coronation of the Lombard kings in A.D. 591. Napoleon I was crowned with it in Milan in 1805.
Crowned - Surmounted by a crown. Sometimes a beast, generally the lion, is crowned royally or ducally.
Crucilly - (cru'sil-ly) Said of a charge or field strewn with crosses.
Crusade - One of the several expeditions of Christian knights against the Mohammedans in the Holy Land. There were seven distinct crusades.
Crusader - One who took part in the crusades.
Cubit Arm - An arm cut off at the elbow.
Cuppa - (kup'-pa) A fur composed of any metal and color. Also called Potent-counter-potent.
Currant - The same as courant.
Curvant - (kurv'-ant) Curved; bowed.
Cygnet royal - (sig'-net) A swan gorged with a ducal coronet, and a chain attached thereto, being reflexed over the back.
Find another term:
Cabled to Champ
Champain to Cock
Cockatrice to Coronet
Cost to Crest
Crined to Cygnet royal
D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y
Pimbley's Dictionary of Heraldry is in the public domain.
Please see the main page of
this resource for more information.
