crusade

Alternative forms

(medieval history): Crusade

Etymology

Formed as a hybrid of Middle French croisade and Spanish cruzada, both from the word for cross; possibly corresponding to a Medieval Latin cruciāta, cruxiata, nominative feminine singular of cruciātus originally "tormented; crucified" but from the 12th century also "marked with a cross" and in the sense "a crusade" from the second half of the 13th century. Recorded in English since the 1570s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɹuːˈseɪd/
• Rhymes: -eɪd

Noun

crusade (plural crusades)

1. Any of the military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Europe in the 11th to 13th centuries to reconquer the Levant from the Muslims.

   During the crusades, many Muslims and Christians and Jews were slaughtered.

2. Any war instigated and blessed by the Church for alleged religious ends. Especially, papal sanctioned military campaigns against infidels or heretics.
3. (figuratively) A grand concerted effort toward some purportedly worthy cause.

   a crusade against drug abuse

4. (politics, Protestantism, dated) A mass gathering in a political campaign or during a religious revival effort.
5. (archaic) A Portuguese coin; a crusado.

Verb

crusade (third-person singular simple present crusades, present participle crusading, simple past and past participle crusaded)

1. To make a grand concerted effort toward some purportedly worthy cause.

   He crusaded against similar injustices for the rest of his life.

See also

• holy war
• jihad
• Miles Christi

References

• AskOxford.com

Further reading

• crusade in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• crusade in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911