Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Crayon?

\Cray"on\ (kr?"?n), n. [F., a crayon, a lead pencil (crayon Cont['e] Cont['e]'s pencil, i. e., one made a black compound invented by Cont['e]), fr. craie chalk, L. creta; said to be, properly, Cretan earth, fr. Creta the island Crete. Cf. {Cretaceous}.] 1. An implement for drawing, made of clay and plumbago, or of some preparation of chalk, usually sold in small prisms or cylinders. Let no day pass over you . . . without giving some strokes of the pencil or the crayon. --Dryden. Note: The black crayon gives a deeper black than the lead pencil. This and the colored crayons are often called chalks. The red crayon is also called sanguine. See {Chalk}, and {Sanguine}. 2. A crayon drawing. 3. (Electricity) A pencil of carbon used in producing electric light. {Crayon board}, cardboard with a surface prepared for crayon drawing. {Crayon drawing}, the act or art of drawing with crayons; a drawing made with crayons.
\Cray"on\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Crayoned} (-?nd); p. pr. & vb. n. {Crayoning}.] [Cf. F. crayonner.] To sketch, as with a crayon; to sketch or plan. He soon afterwards composed that discourse, conformably to the plan which he had crayoned out. --Malone.