crusade

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive)
• HYPHEN: cru=sade

CIDE DICTIONARY

crusade, n. [F. croisade, fr. Pr. crozada, or Sp cruzada, or It. crociata, from a verb signifying to take the cross, mark one's self with a cross, fr. L. crux cross; or possibly taken into English directly fr. Pr. Cf. Croisade, Crosado, and see Cross.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any enterprise undertaken with zeal and enthusiasm; as, a crusade against intemperance.  [1913 Webster]
•  A Portuguese coin. See Crusado.  [1913 Webster]

crusade, v. i. 

 To engage in a crusade; to attack in a zealous or hot-headed manner.  M. Green.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

crusade, n. & v.
--n.
1 a any of several medieval military expeditions made by Europeans to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. b a war instigated by the Church for alleged religious ends.
2 a vigorous campaign in favour of a cause.
--v.intr. engage in a crusade.

Derivative

crusader n.

Etymology

earlier croisade (F f. croix cross) or crusado (Sp. f. cruz cross)

THESAURUS

crusade

activity, battle, campaign, cause, commitment, drive, expedition, faith, fight, great cause, holy war, interest, issue, jehad, jihad, lifework, lobby, mass movement, movement, principle, reason for being, war

ROGET THESAURUS

crusade

Warfare

N warfare, fighting, hostilities, war, arms, the sword, Mars, Bellona, grim visaged war, horrida bella, bloodshed, appeal to arms, appeal to the sword, ordeal of battle, wager of battle, ultima ratio regum, arbitrament of the sword, battle array, campaign, crusade, expedition, operations, mobilization, state of siege, battlefield, theater of operations, warpath, art of war, tactics, strategy, castrametation, generalship, soldiership, logistics, military evolutions, ballistics, gunnery, chivalry, gunpowder, shot, battle, tug of war, service, campaigning, active service, tented field, kriegspiel, Kriegsspiel, fire cross, trumpet, clarion, bugle, pibroch, slogan, war-cry, war-whoop, battle cry, beat of drum, rappel, tom-tom, calumet of war, word of command, password, watchword, passage d-armes, war to the death, war to the knife, guerre a mort, guerre a outrance, open war, internecine war, civil war, contending, contentious, armed, armed to the teeth, armed cap-a-pie, sword in hand, in arms, under arms, up in arms, at war with, bristling with arms, in battle array, in open arms, in the field, embattled, battled, unpacific, unpeaceful, belligerent, combative, armigerous, bellicose, martial, warlike, military, militant, soldier-like, soldierly, chivalrous, strategical, internecine, flagrante bello, in the thick of the fray, in the cannon's mouth, at the sword's point, at the point of the bayonet, Int, vae victis!, to arms!, to your tents O Israel!, the battle rages, a la guerre comme a la guerre, bis peccare in bello non licet, jus gladii, my voice is still for war, 'tis well that war is so terrible, otherwise we might grow fond of it, my sentence is for open war, pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war, the cannons have their bowels full of wrath, the cannons aspit forth their iron indignation, the fire-eyed maid of smoky war, silent leges inter arma, si vis pacem para bellum.