Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of the military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to recover control of the Holy Land from the Muslims.
  • noun A holy war undertaken with papal sanction.
  • noun A concerted effort or vigorous movement for a cause or against an abuse.
  • intransitive verb To engage in a crusade.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To engage in a crusade; support or oppose any cause with zeal.
  • noun Same as crusado.
  • noun A military expedition under the banner of the cross; specifically, one of the medieval expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Europe for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Mohammedans.
  • noun Any vigorous concerted action for the defense or advancement of an idea or a cause, or in opposition to a public evil: as, a temperance crusade; the crusade against slavery.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To engage in a crusade; to attack in a zealous or hot-headed manner.
  • noun Any one of the military expeditions undertaken by Christian powers, in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Mohammedans.
  • noun Any enterprise undertaken with zeal and enthusiasm.
  • noun A Portuguese coin. See Crusado.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of the military expedition undertaken by the Christians of Europe in the 11th to 13th centuries to reconquer the Levant from the Muslims.
  • noun figuratively A grand concerted effort toward some purportedly worthy cause.
  • verb To make a grand concerted effort toward some purportedly worthy cause.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of the more or less continuous military expeditions in the 11th to 13th centuries when Christian powers of Europe tried to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims
  • verb go on a crusade; fight a holy war
  • noun a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end
  • verb exert oneself continuously, vigorously, or obtrusively to gain an end or engage in a crusade for a certain cause or person; be an advocate for

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French croisade and Spanish cruzada, both ultimately from Latin crux, cruc-, cross.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Formed as a hybrid of Middle French croisade and Spanish cruzada, both from Medieval Latin cruciata, cruzata. In English use since the 1570s.

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