crown

From Middle English coroune, croune, crowne, from Anglo-Norman coroune, curune, corone (French couronne), from Latin corona (“wreath”), from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē). Doublet of corona.

• (paper size): So called because originally watermarked with a crown.

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /kɹaʊn/

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊn

crown (plural crowns)

1. A royal, imperial or princely headdress; a diadem.
2. (heraldry) A representation of such a headdress, as in heraldry; it may even be that only the image exists, no physical crown, as in the case of the kingdom of Belgium; by analogy such crowns can be awarded to moral persons that don't even have a head, as the mural crown for cities in heraldry
3. A wreath or band for the head, especially one given as reward of victory or a mark of honor.
4. (by extension) Any reward of victory or mark of honor.

   the martyr's crown

5. Imperial or regal power, or those who wield it.
6. (metonymically) The sovereign (in a monarchy), as head of state.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Blackstone

     Parliament may be dissolved by the demise of the crown.

7. (by extension, especially in law) The state, the government (headed by a monarch).

   Treasure recovered from shipwrecks automatically becomes property of the Crown.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Macaulay

     Large arrears of pay were due to the civil and military servants of the crown.

8. The top part of something:
   1. The topmost part of the head.
      • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

        From toe to crown he'll fill our skin with pinches.

      • (Can we date this quote?) Bunyan

        Twenty things which I set down: / This done, I twenty more had in my crown.

   2. The highest part of a hill.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

        the steepy crown of the bare mountains

   3. The top section of a hat, above the brim.
   4. The raised centre of a road.
   5. The highest part of an arch.
   6. The upper range of facets in a rose diamond.
   7. The dome of a furnace.
9. (architecture) A kind of spire or lantern formed by converging flying buttresses.
10. Splendor; culmination; acme.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

      mutual love, the crown of all our bliss

11. 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 koruna, kruna, krone.
12. (historical) A former pre-decimalization British coin worth five shillings.
    • 1859, J.C. Hotten, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words

      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 coachwheel, or a thick-un, or a tusheroon.

13. (botany) The part of a plant where the root and stem meet.
14. (forestry) The top of a tree.
15. (anatomy) The part of a tooth above the gums.
16. (dentistry) A prosthetic covering for a tooth.
17. (nautical) A knot formed in the end of a rope by tucking in the strands to prevent them from unravelling
18. (nautical) The part of an anchor where the arms and the shank meet
19. (nautical) The rounding, or rounded part, of the deck from a level line.
20. (nautical, in the plural) The bights formed by the turns of a cable.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

21. (paper) In England, a standard size of printing paper measuring 20 × 15 inches.
22. (paper) In American, a standard size of writing paper measuring 19 × 15 inches.
23. (chemistry) A monocyclic ligand having three or more binding sites, capable of holding a guest in a central location
24. (medicine) During childbirth, the appearance of the baby's head from the mother's vagina
    • 2007, David Schottke, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, First Responder: Your First Response in Emergency Care, page 385

      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.

25. (firearms) A rounding or smoothing of the barrel opening
26. (geometry) The area enclosed between two concentric perimeters.
27. (religion) A round spot shaved clean on the top of the head, as a mark of the clerical state; the tonsure.
28. A whole turkey with the legs and wings removed to produce a joint of white meat.
29. (African American Vernacular, colloquial) A formal hat worn by women to Sunday church services; a church crown.
    • 2013, Adam Boulton, Tony's Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration‎:

      "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]."

30. The knurled knob or dial, on the outside of a watch case, used to wind it or adjust the hands

• (reward of victory or a mark of honor): award, garland, honor/honour, prize, wreath
• (royal, imperial or princely headdress): coronet
• (representation of such a headdress):
• (wreath or band for the head): garland, wreath
• (imperial or regal power): monarchy, royalty
• (of the head): apex, top
• (of a hill): apex, peak, summit, top
• (centre of a road):
• (highest part of an arch):
• (of a hat): top
• (splendor, finish, culmination): completion, culmination, finish, splendor/splendour
• (currency):
• (British coin): caser, tusheroon, tush, tosheroon, tosh, bull, caroon, thick-un, coachwheel, cartwheel
• (part of plant):
• (anatomy: part of tooth): corona
• (dentistry: prosthetic covering for a tooth):

• (of a hill): base, bottom, foot

crown (not comparable)

1. Of, related to, or pertaining to a crown.

   crown prince

2. Of, related to, pertaining to the top of a tree or trees.

   a crown fire

crown (third-person singular simple present crowns, present participle crowning, simple past and past participle crowned)

1. To place a crown on the head of.
2. To formally declare (someone) a king, queen, emperor, etc.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     Her who fairest does appear, / Crown her queen of all the year.

3. To bestow something upon as a mark of honour, dignity, or recompense; to adorn; to dignify.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Bible, Psalms viii. 5

     Thou […] hast crowned him with glory and honour.

4. To form the topmost or finishing part of; to complete; to consummate; to perfect.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Byron

     the grove that crowns yon tufted hill

   • (Can we date this quote?) Motley

     To crown the whole, came a proposition.

5. To declare (someone) a winner.
   • 2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”, in BBC Sport‎:

     New Zealand were crowned world champions for the first time in 24 years after squeezing past an inspired France team by a single point.

6. (medicine) 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.

7. (transitive) To cause to round upward; to make anything higher at the middle than at the edges, such as the face of a machine pulley.
8. To hit on the head.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess‎:

     &lquo;[…] 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 “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. We nearly crowned her we were so offended. She saw us but she didn't know us, did she?’.

9. (video games) To shoot an opponent in the back of the head with a shotgun in a first-person shooter video game.
10. (board games) 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.

11. (firearms) To widen the opening of the barrel.
12. (military) To effect a lodgment upon, as upon the crest of the glacis, or the summit of the breach.
13. (nautical) To lay the ends of the strands of (a knot) over and under each other.

• crowned

• coronation
• 👑

• IPA^(key): /kɹoʊn/
• Rhymes: -oʊn

crown

1. (archaic) past participle of crow
   • 1823, Byron, Don Juan

     The cock had crown.

crown

1. Alternative form of coroune