Library / English Dictionary

CREST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A showy growth of e.g. feathers or skin on the head of a bird or other animal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

appendage; outgrowth; process (a natural prolongation or projection from a part of an organism either animal or plant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crest"):

tuft (a bunch of feathers or hair)

topknot (showy crest or knot of hair or feathers)

cockscomb; comb; coxcomb (the fleshy red crest on the head of the domestic fowl and other gallinaceous birds)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(heraldry) in medieval times, an emblem used to decorate a helmet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

emblem (special design or visual object representing a quality, type, group, etc.)

Domain category:

heraldry (the study and classification of armorial bearings and the tracing of genealogies)

Holonyms ("crest" is a part of...):

arms; blazon; blazonry; coat of arms (the official symbols of a family, state, etc.)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The center of a cambered road

Synonyms:

crest; crown

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

top; top side; upper side; upside (the highest or uppermost side of anything)

Holonyms ("crest" is a part of...):

road; route (an open way (generally public) for travel or transportation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The top line of a hill, mountain, or wave

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

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

line (a spatial location defined by a real or imaginary unidimensional extent)

Derivation:

crest (lie at the top of)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The top or extreme point of something (usually a mountain or hill)

Example:

the region is a few molecules wide at the summit

Synonyms:

crest; crown; peak; summit; tip; top

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

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

place; spot; topographic point (a point located with respect to surface features of some region)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crest"):

brow; hilltop (the peak of a hill)

pinnacle (a lofty peak)

mountain peak (the summit of a mountain)

Derivation:

crest (lie at the top of)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reach a high point

Example:

The river crested last night

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "crest" is one way to...):

peak; top out (to reach the highest point; attain maximum intensity, activity)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lie at the top of

Example:

Snow capped the mountains

Synonyms:

cap; crest

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "crest" is one way to...):

lie (be located or situated somewhere; occupy a certain position)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

crest (the top line of a hill, mountain, or wave)

crest (the top or extreme point of something (usually a mountain or hill))

Credits

 Context examples: 

All day Alleyne looked down upon the changing scene, and all day the old bowman stood by his elbow, pointing out the crests of famous warriors and the arms of noble houses.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He never took his eyes from the god, thrusting his head forward with ears flattened back and hair involuntarily rising and cresting on his neck.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Small waves, with spiteful foaming crests, continually broke over me and into my mouth, sending me off into more strangling paroxysms.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

This allele, which encodes paired box gene Pax-7 protein, plays a role in both fetal neural crest formation and myoblast differentiation.

(PAX7 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes, cells that are derived from the neural crest.

(Non-Cutaneous Melanoma, NCI Thesaurus/PDQ)

This allele, which encodes heart- and neural crest derivatives-expressed protein 2, is involved in cardiac morphogenesis, DNA binding and transcriptional modulation.

(HAND2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

The mitochondrial genome showed that C. creightoni is closely related to the two remaining caracara species alive today: the crested caracara and the southern caracara.

(Extinct Caribbean bird yields DNA after 2,500 years in watery grave, National Science Foundation)

Perrault scaled it by a miracle, while François prayed for just that miracle; and with every thong and sled lashing and the last bit of harness rove into a long rope, the dogs were hoisted, one by one, to the cliff crest.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

White-crested waves beat madly on the level sands and rushed up the shelving cliffs; others broke over the piers, and with their spume swept the lanthorns of the lighthouses which rise from the end of either pier of Whitby Harbour.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A large thin muscle beneath the external oblique that stretches from the iliac crest to the inferior borders of the tenth to twelfth ribs and the abdominal midline which act to bend the upper trunk forward.

(Internal Oblique Muscle, NCI Thesaurus)