Forms: 4–7 creste, 4– crest; also 4–6 creest(e, 4–7 crist(e, 5 krest(e, creyste, 5–7 creast, 6 Sc. creist. [ME. a. OF. creste (13th c. in Littré, also creiste), mod.F. crête, = Pr., Sp., It. cresta:—L. crista tuft, plume.]
1. A ‘comb,’ a tuft of feathers, or similar excrescence, upon an animal’s head.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 197 (Mätz.). He … had anon igrowe a spore on þe leg, and a crest on þe heed, as it were a cok. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xxxiii. (1495), 795. A certen fysshe hauynge a creste lyke to a sawe.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 329. A lappewinke made he was … And on his heed there stont upright A crest in token of a knight.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 102. Creste, of a byrdys hede, cirrus.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 155. Phebus red fowle hys corall creist can steir.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 525. Oft he [the serpent] bowd His turret Crest.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 476. The subtlest serpent with the loftiest crest.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 18. In the Spring the wanton lapwing Gets himself another crest.
b. fig. In phrases, such as to erect, elevate, let fall one’s crest, used as a symbol of pride, self-confidence, or high spirits. Cf. CRESTFALLEN.
1531. Tindale, Exp. 1 John 27. When the byshoppes sawe that … they beganne to set up theyr crestes.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 380. And make him fall His crest.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, III. 80. Then began the Argives to let fall their crests and sue for peace.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Wks. VIII. 318. That this faction does … erect its crest upon the engagement.
1851. Gallenga, Italy, 481. After a short explanation … their crests fell, and … all went away satisfied.
c. Any feathery-like tuft or excrescence: applied e.g. to the tail of a comet.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 33. Stella comata, þat is, a sterre wiþ a briȝt shynynge crest.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VI. cxlix. 135. .Ii. blasynge starrys, or .ii. starrys with crestis.
2. An erect plume or tuft of feathers, horse-hair, or the like, fixed on the top of a helmet or head-dress; any ornament or device worn there as a badge or cognizance.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 622. Al anoneward þe helm an heȝ ys crest a bar adoun & þe cercle of gold þat sat þer-bey.
c. 1435. Torr. Portugal, 1128. The creste, that on his hede shold stond, Hit was all gold shynand.
1605. Camden, Rem., Armories (R.). Creasts being the ornaments set on the eminent toppe of the healme … were vsed auntiently to terrifie the enemy, and therefore were strange deuises or figures of terrible shapes.
1824. Macaulay, Ivry. A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white crest.
1874. Whittier, Eagle’s Quill from Lake Superior, ix. War-chiefs with their painted brows, And crests of eagle wings.
3. Her. A figure or device (originally borne by a knight on his helmet) placed on a wreath, coronet, or chapeau, and borne above the shield and helmet in a coat of arms; also used separately, as a cognizance, upon articles of personal property, as a seal, plate, note-paper, etc.
As it represents the ornament worn on the knight’s helmet, it cannot properly be borne by a woman, or by a corporate body, as a college or city. (It is a vulgar error to speak of the arms or shields of such bodies as crests.)
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1837 (Ashmole MS.). To Darius … enditis he a pistill, A crest clenly inclosid þat consayued þis wordis.
1431. E. E. Wills (1882), 88. A faire stone of Marble with my creste, myn armes, my vanturs.
1572. Bossewell (title), Workes of Armorie deuided into three Bookes, entituled … of Cotes and Creastes.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. i. 226. What is your Crest, a Coxcombe?
1622. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., i. (1634), 15. Mine old Host at Arnhem … changed his Coate and Crest thrice in a fortnight.
1837. Howitt, Rur. Life, II. iv. (1862), 120. A crescent,—the crest of the Northumberland family.
b. fig.
c. 1425. Fest. Church, 66, in Leg. Rood (1871), 212. Whan kyngis sone bare fleisshly creste.
1592. Lyly, Midas, V. ii. Melancholy is the creast of courtiers’ armes.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 173. Who have nothing but long Nails as the Crests of idle Gentility.
4. The apex or ‘cone’ of a helmet; hence, a helmet or head-piece.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 275. Upon hys crest a raven stode.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 195. Vpon his crest he bar a tour.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 782. Hic conus, a crest.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 11. On his craven crest A bounch of heares discolourd diversly.
1595. Shaks., John, II. i. 317. There stucke no plume in any English Crest, That is remoued by a staffe of France.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 988. On his crest Sat horror plum’d.
1740. Somerville, Hobbinol, II. 416. On his unguarded Crest The Stroke delusive fell.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), I. 22. The feathers that danced on his crest.
5. The head, summit or top of anything.
1382. Wyclif, Ex. xxviii. 23. Two goldun ryngis, the whiche thow shalt putte in either creeste of the broche.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 128. Hevynly lylleis … Oppynnyt and schew thar creistis redymyte.
1632. Lithgow, Trav. (1682), 71. The Northern wind … doth first murmur at this aspiring Oke, and then striketh his Crest with some greater strength.
1635. Quarles, Emblems, V. xi. The drooping crests of fading flow’rs.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 827. The giant tower, from whose high crest, they say, Men saw the goodly hills of Somerset.
1871. Rossetti, Troy Town, xii. His arrow’s burning crest.
b. esp. The summit of a hill or mountain.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 731. Þer as claterande fro þe crest þe colde borne rennez.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 882. Appone the creste of the cragge.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, V. v. And wente forth by the creast of that hylle.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 83. The very pitch and crest of the hill, the Scytotauri do hold.
1681. Cotton, Wond. Peake, 5. At a high Mountains foot, whose lofty crest O’re looks the Marshy Prospect.
1799. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., I. 22. Strongly posted on the elevated crest of a rocky ridge.
1818. Shelley, Rev. Islam, IV. xxxii. O’er many a mountain chain which rears Its hundred crests aloft.
c. fig. The most excellent, the crown. rare.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 855. Of spotlez perlez þa[y] beren þe creste.
1838. De Quincey, The Avenger, Wks. 1890, XII. 239. And yet to many it was the consummation and crest of the whole.
1873. Lowell, All Saints, 1. One feast, of holy days the crest … All Saints.
6. Arch. The finishing of stone, metal, etc., that surmounts a roof-ridge, wall, screen, or the like; a cresting; sometimes applied to the finial of a gable or pinnacle. b. Short for crest-tile (see 11).
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. xi. To reyse a wall With batayling and crestes marciall.
1513. Will of J. Hutton (Somerset Ho.). Crest of the Highe Aulter.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 188. Than Arthur … slypped downe thereby tyll he came to the crest of the wall.
1596–7. S. Finche, in Ducarel, Hist. Croydon, App. (1783), 155. The crests as heigh for the safegarde of the windoes.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 526. Supposing verily there had been tiles and crests indeed.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. vii. 14.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 537. Moss groweth chiefly upon Ridges of Houses … and upon the Crests of Walls.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xx. 491. As a rule, crests cost as much by the hundred as plain tiles do by the thousand.
7. An elevated ridge. a. The lofty ridge of a mountain which forms its sky line, and from which the surface slopes on each side; the summit line of a col or pass; the ridge of a hedge-bank or the like. b. Fortif. The top line of a parapet or slope. c. A balk or ridge in a field between two furrows. d. The curling foamy top or ridge of a wave; the highest part of any undulation.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 102. Creyste, of londe eryyde, porca.
1830. E. S. N. Campbell, Dict. Mil. Sc., 21. Four feet and a half below the crest of the Parapet.
1850. Layard, Nineveh, vii. 151. Two vast rocks formed a kind of gateway on the crest of the pass.
1854. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XV. I. 19. Crests, cradges, and ward-dykes [were] constructed to hold off fen-waters.
1864. Earl Derby, Iliad, IV. 485. First curls the ruffl’d sea With whit’ning crests.
1865. Geikie, Scen. & Geol. Scot., vi. 118. From a somewhat rounded and flattened ridge, it narrows into a mere knife-edged crest, shelving steeply into the glens on either side.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 214. Here the strata, originally almost horizontal, have been thrown into a succession of gentle undulations, rising to a crest in one locality and falling to a trough at another.
8. The ridge or surface line of the neck of a horse, dog, or other animal; sometimes applied to the mane which this part bears.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 272. His braided hanging mane Upon his compass’d crest now stand on end.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. i. (1668), 2. Chuse a horse with a deep neck, large crest.
1724. Lond. Gaz., No. 6286/3. Stolen … a … Gelding with Saddle Spots upon his Crest.
a. 1849. Sir R. Wilson, Autobiog. (1862), I. ii. 89. My little mare received … a musket-ball through the crest of her neck.
1872. Ruskin, Eagle’s N., § 227. The crest, which is properly the mane of lion or horse.
† b. The dewlap of an ox. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 58. A long, thick, and soft neck; his crest descending down to the knee.
9. A raised ridge on the surface of any object.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Areste, The Crest, of a sword, &c.; a sharpe rising in the middle thereof.
b. Anat. A ridge running along the surface of a bone, as the frontal, occipital, parietal (or sagittal) crests of the skull, the lacrymal, nasal, and turbinated crests in the face, the iliac, pubic, and tibial crests, etc.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 152. Horns … slightly bent outwards and forwards, the frontal crest passing behind them.
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 149. These surfaces are separated by three edges. The anterior … is called the Crest (crista tibiæ).
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., 178. The ilium has a wide outer surface,… the upper border of which is termed the ‘crest.’
c. Dental crest: ‘the ridge of epithelium which, at the earliest stage of the development of the teeth, covers in the dental groove, and from the lower layers of which the enamel organ is developed’ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1882).
d. Bot. and Zool. A formation resembling a crest or ridge, on the surface of an organ.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, I. i. (1633), 2. Leafe, Sheath, eare, or crest.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 145. The keel [of Polygala] has an appendage … called technically a crest, and often consisting of one or even two rows of fringes or divisions.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 392. Luzula pilosa … crest of seeds long curved terminal.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 540. When outgrowths occur on the seed, either along the raphe … or as a cushion covering the micropyle … they are variously called Crest, Strophiole, or Caruncle.
† 10. The middle line of fold in broad-cloth.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 8 § 4. Every hole wolen Cloth called brode Cloth shall hold and conteyn in leenght xxiiij yerdes … to be measured by the Crest of the same Cloth.
11. Comb., as crest-bearer, -feather, † -front; crest-like, -lopped, -wounding adjs.; crest-board, a board that forms the crest or finishing of any projecting part of a building; † crest-risen, † crest-sunk a. (cf. 1 b and CREST-FALLEN); crest-tile, a bent tile used to cover the crest or ridge of a roof; crest-wreath (in Her.), the wreath or fillet of twisted silk which bears the crest.
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Dec., 3/2. The united crest of France and Navarre,… supported by two angels as *crest-bearers.
1881. Mechanic, § 985. If a gutter be made … the front may be finished with a *crest-board.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 291/2. To elevate the *crest-feathers.
1611. Cotgr., Accresté … also, cockit, proud, lustie, *creast-risen.
1618. Brathwait, Descr. Death, xvi. 271. Chap-falne, *Crest-sunke, drie-bon’d Anatomie.
1477. Act 17 Edw. IV., c. 3. Thaktile, roftile, ou *crestile.
1611. Cotgr., Enfaistau, a Ridge-tyle, Creast-tyle, Roofe-tyle.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss. s.v., In Gothic architecture, crest tiles are those which, decorated with leaves, run up the sides of a gable or ornamented canopy.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 828. O vnfelt sore, *crest-wounding priuat scarre!
1864. Boutell, Heraldry Hist. & Pop., xvii. (ed. 3), 265. This *Crest-Wreath first appears a little before the middle of the 14th century.
