Adjacent Words

Crosier definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CROSIER, n.
1. A bishop crook or pastoral staff, a symbol of pastoral authority and care. It consists of a gold or silver staff, crooked at the top, and is carried occasionally before bishops and abbots, and held in the hand when they give solemn benedictions. The use of crosiers is ancient. Originally a crosier was a staff with a cross on the top, in form of a crutch or T.
2. In astronomy, four stars in the southern hemisphere, in the form of a cross.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a staff surmounted by a crook or cross carried by bishops as a symbol of pastoral office [syn: crosier, crozier]

Merriam Webster's

or crozier noun Etymology: Middle English crocer crosier bearer, from Anglo-French crosser, from croce, crosse crosier, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English crycc crutch — more at crutch Date: 15th century 1. a staff resembling a shepherd's crook carried by bishops and abbots as a symbol of office 2. a plant structure with a coiled end

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (also crozier) 1 a hooked staff carried by a bishop as a symbol of pastoral office. 2 a crook. Etymology: orig. = bearer of a crook, f. OF crocier & OF croisier f. crois CROSS

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Crosier Cro"sier (kr?"zh?r), n. [OE. rocer, croser, croyser, fr. croce crosier, OF. croce, croche, F. crosse, fr. LL. crocea, crocia, from the same German or Celtic sourse as F. croc hook; akin to E. crook.] The pastoral staff of a bishop (also of an archbishop, being the symbol of his office as a shepherd of the flock of God. Note: The true shape of the crosier was with a hooked or curved top; the archbishop's staff alone bore a cross instead of a crook, and was of exceptional, not of regular form. --Skeat.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Pastoral staff (of an archbishop).

Moby Thesaurus

Malacca cane, alpenstock, baton, caduceus, cane, chain of office, crook, cross, cross-staff, crutch, crutch-stick, fasces, gavel, handstaff, keys, lituus, mace, mantle, miter, pallium, pastoral staff, paterissa, portfolio, quarterstaff, red hat, ring, rod, rod of office, scepter, shillelagh, staff, stave, stick, swagger stick, swanking stick, tiara, triple crown, truncheon, walking stick, wand, wand of office