crusade

[kroo-seyd] /kruˈseɪd/
noun
1.
(often initial capital letter) any of the military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Europe in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Muslims.
2.
any war carried on under papal sanction.
3.
any vigorous, aggressive movement for the defense or advancement of an idea, cause, etc.:
a crusade against child abuse.
verb (used without object), crusaded, crusading.
4.
to go on or engage in a crusade.
Origin
1570-80; earlier crusada < Spanish cruzada; replacing croisade < Middle French. See cross, -ade1
Related forms
crusader, noun
noncrusading, adjective
post-Crusade, adjective
pre-Crusade, adjective
Examples from the web for crusade
  • It is easy to campaign if everyone can get behind a common enemy and crusade.
  • They were quite sincere and considered theirs a moral crusade.
  • Will never meant to turn his opposition into a crusade.
  • Napoleon's crusade to conquer the world had stalled.
  • Let us start this crusade within ourselves, then our family.
  • Teams from across the globe converge on the host nation in something of an unarmed, athletic crusade.
  • He mercilessly rooted out perceived enemies of the state in what amounted to a crusade against science.
  • Populists crusade against corruption, but often engender more.
  • With the scourge of unwanted e-mail on the rise, some unlikely candidates are joining the crusade.
  • And so what had started as an intellectual pursuit now became a crusade.
British Dictionary definitions for crusade

crusade

/kruːˈseɪd/
noun
1.
(often capital) any of the military expeditions undertaken in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries by the Christian powers of Europe to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims
2.
(formerly) any holy war undertaken on behalf of a religious cause
3.
a vigorous and dedicated action or movement in favour of a cause
verb (intransitive)
4.
to campaign vigorously for something
5.
to go on a crusade
Derived Forms
crusader, noun
Word Origin
C16: from earlier croisade, from Old French crois cross, from Latin crux; influenced also by Spanish cruzada, from cruzar to take up the cross
Word Origin and History for crusade
n.

1706, respelling of croisade (1570s), from Middle French croisade (16c.), Spanish cruzada, both from Medieval Latin cruciata, past participle of cruciare "to mark with a cross," from Latin crux (genitive crucis) "cross." Other Middle English forms were croiserie, creiserie. Figurative sense of "campaign against a public evil" is from 1786.

v.

1732, from crusade (n.). Related: Crusaded; crusading.