Etimology
From Middle English acros, from early Middle English a-croiz, a-creoyz, from Anglo-Norman an (“in, on”) + croiz (“in the form of a cross”); Equivalent to a- + cross. More at cross.
preposition
across
To, toward, or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
On the opposite side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
(Southern US, African-American Vernacular) across from: on the opposite side, relative to something that lies between, from (a point of interest).
From one side to the other within (a space being traversed).
At or near the far end of (a space).
Spanning.
Throughout.
So as to intersect or pass through or over at an angle.
In possession of full, up-to-date information about; abreast of.
Examples
We rowed across the river.
Fortunately, there was a bridge across the river.
He came across the street to meet me.
That store is across the street.
And make sure you're parked across the mall in the outside lot. […] Last time I was there, I parked in a parking structure and paid an arm and a leg for it.
On another occasion, Clinton asked Patterson to drive him to Chelsea's school, Booker Elementary, where Clinton met the department store clerk and climbed into her car."I parked across the entrance and stood outside the car looking around, about 120 feet from where they were parked in a lot that was pretty well lit," Patterson recalled. " […] They stayed in the car for thirty to forty minutes."
A boy that sat across me politely introduced himself as Jackson Klausner.
The meteor streaked across the sky.
He walked across the room.
Could you slide that across the table to me, please?
I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.
"Mam's baking and Cathleen's asleep. I've got a pile of washing bubbling in the copper, so I'd best be off." With that she was across the room and out the door.
This poetry speaks across the centuries.
All across the country, voters were communicating their representatives.
Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."
Lay the top stick across the bottom one.
She had straps fastened across the conduit every six feet.
He parked across the end of the driveway, blocking her in.
As a regular news reader I thought I was across the eccentricities of the US president.
Related words
related terms
cross
adverb
across (not comparable)
From one side to the other.
On the other side.
In a particular direction.
(crosswords) Horizontally.
Examples
she helped the blind man across; the river is half a mile across
[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].
If we sail off at noon, when will we be across?
He leaned across for a book.
I got stuck on 4 across.
noun
across (plural acrosses)
(crosswords, often in combination) A word that runs horizontally in the completed puzzle grid or its associated clue.
Examples
I solved all of the acrosses, but then got stuck on 3 down.