christ

n. 1. The mark of the cross, as cut, painted, written, or stamped on certain objects, -- sometimes as the sign of 12 o'clock on a dial. [ 1913 Webster ]

The fescue of the dial is upon the christcross of noon. Old Play. Nares. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The beginning and the ending. [ Obs. ] Quarles. [ 1913 Webster ]

The alphabet; -- formerly so called, either from the cross usually set before it, or from a superstitious custom, sometimes practiced, of writing it in the form of a cross, by way of a charm. [ 1913 Webster ]

From infant conning of the Christcross-row. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. any of several tropical ferns of the genus Christella having thin brittle fronds. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Christened p. pr. & vb. n. Christening. ] [ AS. cristnian to make a Christian, fr. cristen a Christian. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To baptize and give a Christian name to. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To give a name; to denominate. “Christen the thing what you will.” Bp. Burnet. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To Christianize. [ Obs. ] Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To use for the first time. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. cristendōm; cristen a Christian + -dom. ] 1. The profession of faith in Christ by baptism; hence, the Christian religion, or the adoption of it. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The name received at baptism; or, more generally, any name or appelation. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That portion of the world in which Christianity prevails, or which is governed under Christian institutions, in distinction from heathen or Muslim lands. [ 1913 Webster ]

The Arian doctrine which then divided Christendom. Milton [ 1913 Webster ]

A wide and still widening Christendom. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The whole body of Christians. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. christianus, Gr. &unr_;; cf. AS. cristen. See Christ. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. One who believes, or professes or is assumed to believe, in Jesus Christ, and the truth as taught by Him; especially, one whose inward and outward life is conformed to the doctrines of Christ. [ 1913 Webster ]

The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Acts xi. 26. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One born in a Christian country or of Christian parents, and who has not definitely becomes an adherent of an opposing system. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Eccl.) (a) One of a Christian denomination which rejects human creeds as bases of fellowship, and sectarian names. They are congregational in church government, and baptize by immersion. They are also called Disciples of Christ, and Campbellites. (b) One of a sect (called Christian Connection) of open-communion immersionists. The Bible is their only authoritative rule of faith and practice. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In this sense, often pronounced, but not by the members of the sects, [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Pertaining to Christ or his religion; as, Christian people. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Pertaining to the church; ecclesiastical; as, a Christian court. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Characteristic of Christian people; civilized; kind; kindly; gentle; beneficent. [ 1913 Webster ]

The graceful tact; the Christian art. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Christian Commission. See under Commission. --
Christian court. Same as Ecclesiastical court. --
Christian Endeavor, Young People's Society of. In various Protestant churches, a society of young people organized in each individual church to do Christian work; also, the whole body of such organizations, which are united in a corporation called the United Society of Christian Endeavor, organized in 1885. The parent society was founded in 1881 at Portland, Maine, by Rev. Francis E. Clark, a Congregational minister. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ] --
Christian era, the present era, commencing with the birth of Christ. It is supposed that owing to an error of a monk (Dionysius Exiguus, d. about 556) employed to calculate the era, its commencement was fixed three or four years too late, so that 1890 should be 1893 or 1894. --
Christian name, the name given in baptism, as distinct from the family name, or surname. [ 1913 Webster ]

. The era in use in all Christian countries, which was intended to commence with the birth of Christ. The era as now established was first used by Dionysius Exiguus (died about 540), who placed the birth of Christ on the 25th of December in the year of Rome 754, which year he counted as 1 a. d. This date for Christ's birth is now generally thought to be about four years too late. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]