• Across

    Pronunciation

    • UK enPR: É™-krŏs′, IPA: /əˈkɹɒs/
    • US enPR: É™-krôs′, IPA: /əˈkɹɔs/
    • US enPR: É™-krôst, IPA: /əˈkɹɔst/
    • cot-caught enPR: É™-krŏs′, IPA: /əˈkɹɑs/
    • Rhymes: -É’s, -ɔːs
    • Hyphenation: a + cross

    Origin

    Middle English acros, from a-croiz, from Anglo-Norman an ("on") + Old French croiz ("in the form of a cross"), from Latin crux

    Full definition of across

    Preposition

    1. To, toward, or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
      We rowed across the river.
      Fortunately, there was a bridge across the river.
      He came across the street to meet me.
    2. On the opposite side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
      That store is across the street.
    3. (Southern US, AAVE)  On the opposite side, relative to something that lies between, from (a point of interest).
      • 1994 June 21, Thong P Tong <tongtp@coyote.cig.mot.com@coyote.cig.mot.com>, "Re: Battle Tech Center", message-ID <2u7lsi$79n@delphinium.cig.mot.com>
    , comp.sys.ibm.pc.games, Usenet http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games/msg/28d5e0700985bbe6:
      • And make sure you're parked across the mall in the outside lot. ... Last time I was there, I parked in a parking structure and paid an arm and a leg for it.
      • 1995, Ronald Kessler, Inside the White House, 1996 edition, ISBN 0671879197, page 243 http://books.google.com/books?id=lJz-yIZNE2sC&pg=PA243&dq=across:On another occasion, Clinton asked Troopergate (Bill Clinton) to drive him to Chelsea's school, Booker Elementary, where Clinton met the department store clerk and climbed into her car."I parked across the entrance and stood outside the car looking around, about 120 feet from where they were parked in a lot that was pretty well lit," Patterson recalled. "...They stayed in the car for thirty to forty minutes."
    1. From one side to the other within (a space being traversed).
      The meteor streaked across the sky.
      He walked across the room.
      Could you slide that across the table to me, please?
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 8, I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.
    2. At or near the far end of (a space).
    3. Spanning.
      This poetry speaks across the centuries.
    4. Throughout.
      All across the country, voters were communicating their representatives.
      • 2012, Anna Lena Phillips, Sneaky Silk Moths, Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
      • 2013-06-21, Chico Harlan, Japan pockets the subsidy …, Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."
    5. So as to intersect or pass through or over at an angle.
      Lay the top stick across the bottom one.
      She had straps fastened across the conduit every six feet.

    Related terms

    Derived terms

    Adverb

    across

    1. From one side to the other.
      • 2013-07-20, Welcome to the plastisphere, researchers noticed many of their pieces of marine debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, .
    2. she helped the blind man across;  the river is half a mile across
    3. On the other side.
      If we sail off at noon, when will we be across?
    4. In a particular direction.
      He leaned across for a book.
    5. (crosswords) Horizontally.
      I got stuck on 4 across.

    Noun

    across

    (plural acrosses)
    1. (crosswords) A clue whose solution runs horizontally in the grid.I solved all of the acrosses, but then got stuck on 3 down.
    © Wiktionary