cross and pile, the obverse and reverse side of a coin, head and (or) tail; hence, sometimes, a coin, money; ‘He had neither cross nor pile’, Sidney, Disc. Govt. (ed. 1704, p. 362); head or tail, i.e. ‘tossing up’, to decide anything doubtful; Wycherley, Love in a Wood, iii. 2 (Ranger); Return from Parnassus, ii. 1. 768; A Cure for a Cuckold, iv. 8 (Clare). Anglo-F. ‘jewer (jouer) a cros a Pil,’ A.D. 1327, see NED. ‘Les pièces de monnaie portaient une croix sur leur face, d’où l’expression: n’avoir ni croix ni pile’ (to have neither cross nor pile), see Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais (s.v. Croix).
cross-bite, to bite in return, to cheat. Marston, What you Will, iii. 2. 279; iii. 3. 129. Hence, cross-biter, a swindler, Middleton, Your Five Gallants, ii. 3 (Goldstone).
cross-lay, a cheating wager. Middleton, The Black Book, ed. Dyce, v. 542.
cross-point, a particular step in dancing. Marston, Insatiate Countess, i. 1 (Rogers); Greene, King James IV, iv. 3 (Slipper, l. 1638).
cross-row, the alphabet; ‘And from the Crosse-row pluckes the letter G’, Richard III, i. 1. 55. Short for Christ-cross-row, so called from the figure of the cross (✠) formerly prefixed to it. Still in use in Essex, acc. to EDD. (s.v. Cross, II. (45)). See [Christ-cross].
cross-tree, the gallows; ‘A cross-tree that never grows’ [because made of dead wood], Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone); the cross, Herrick, Noble Numbers, His Anthem to Christ, l. 14.
crotch, the fork of the human body, where the legs join the trunk. Greene, Verses against the Gentlewomen of Sicilia, l. 12; ed. Dyce, p. 316. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Crotch, sb.1). OF. (Picard) croche, ‘entaillure’ (La Curne).
croteys, the dung of hares and rabbits; ‘Of Hares and Coneys, they are called Croteys’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37, p. 97. F. crottes, ‘the dung, excrements or ordure of Sheep, Conies, Hares, etc.’ (Cotgr.).
crouse, crowse, brisk, lively, merry, Drayton, Eclogue vii, 73; Brome, Jovial Crew, i. 1 (1 Beggar). In common prov. use in Scotland and in the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Crouse, adj.1 4).
crow, the well-known bird. In alchemy, at a certain stage of the work, there would sometimes be an appearance like a crow; it was considered a very favourable sign; see B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).