crosshair

English

Etymology

cross +‎ hair

Noun

crosshair (plural crosshairs)

1. Reticle.
   • 2004, Franz Ferdinand (band) (lyrics and music), “Take Me Out”, in Franz Ferdinand:

     I'm just a crosshair / I'm just a shot away from you

Derived terms

• in the crosshairs

Translations

reticle

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 十字線／十字线 (zh) (shízìxiàn)

• Dutch: kruisdraad m, draadkruis n
• Finnish: hiusristikko, hiusristi
• German: Fadenkreuz (de) n
• Greek: σταυρόνημα (el) n (stavrónima)
• Hungarian: célkereszt (hu)
• Icelandic: þráðkross m, sjónkvarði m, hárkross m
• Japanese: 十字線 (じゅうじせん, jūjisen)
• Korean: 십자선 (sipjaseon)
• Portuguese: retícula
• Russian: перекре́стие (ru) n (perekréstije), се́тка визи́рных ни́тей f (sétka vizírnyx nítej)
• Swedish: korshår n

Verb

crosshair (third-person singular simple present crosshairs, present participle crosshairing, simple past and past participle crosshaired)

1. To focus on within a reticle.
   • 1970, Nebraskaland - Volume 48, Issues 8-49, page 21:

     Watching hopefully for a buck to come along behind the does, I eyed them through the scope of the borrowed .243. From time to time, I crosshaired the vital areas .

   • 1979, Soviet Military Review, page 24:

     The next moment it was crosshaired by the electronic sights .

   • 2011, Carolyn Dennis-Willingham, No Hill for a Stepper, page 234:

     That's when Dad noticed one of P. V.'s deputies standing behind a truck about a hundred feet away, crosshairing a rifle straight at him.

   • 2014, Ian Douglas, The Complete Legacy Trilogy:

     A red glowing reticle crosshaired whatever the laser's muzzle was pointed at, together with flickering numbers giving range, bearing, and probable targetID.

2. (by extension) To target.
   • 1996, Jeffery Deaver, A Maiden's Grave:

     She fired a smile at him, the likes of which he hadn't seen in years—since Meg, in fact, had crosshaired him at the junior prom with one of those flirtations that he never would've believed the president of the Methodist Girls' Youth Group was capable of.

   • 2004, The Iron Mountain Review - Volume 20, page 24:

     My kinfolks had crosshaired in on the truth of the world.

   • 2005, Ogaga Ifowodo, The Oil Lamp, page xix:

     Shell-shocked, babies and children smothered the instinct to cry and clammed to backs and shoulders and the heldout hand, brave as their parents clinging to the hope of return to their homes crosshaired by the demolition man, as they sought cover under leaves in a shuddering forest.