cross-questionn.
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a. A question put by way of cross-examination.
ΘΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > [noun] > act or instance of > asked in return
antiquery1644
cross-questiona1694
counter-question1864
a1694 J. Tillotson Serm. (1748) V. lxxv. 1191 Now that this question is answered, one might methinks ask him a cross question or two.
1703 G. Farquhar Twin-rivals iv. i. 47 Have you Witnesses..Produce him..But you shall engage first to ask him no cross Questions.
1834 T. Medwin Angler in Wales I. 269 Chatting with her on the way, and endeavouring, by cross-questions..to elicit some information.
c. cross-questions and crooked answers: a game of questions and answers in which a ludicrous effect is produced by connecting questions and answers which have nothing to do with one another; as e.g. the question of one's neighbour on the right with the answer given to another question by one's neighbour on the left.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > parlour and party games > [noun] > question and answer games
purposec1380
questions and commands1628
cross-purposes1666
cross-questions and crooked answers1742
Yes and No1843
truth1868
clumps1883
truth game1908
1742 J. Yarrow Love at First Sight 2 As if you had been playing at cross-Questions.
1884 Illustr. London News Christmas No. 22/1 ‘I'm afraid, doctor, we are playing at cross-questions and crooked answers.’
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
cross-questionv.
transitive. To interrogate with questions which cross, or tend to check the results of, previous questions, so as to test the consistency and completeness of an account; to question closely or minutely; to cross-examine.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > interrogation > question, interrogate [verb (transitive)] > cross-examine
cross-examine1664
cross-question1760
targea1796
back-speir1796
cross-hackle1826
1760 S. Foote Minor i. 17 You will find, by cross questioning him, whether he is a competent person.
1887 A. Jessopp Arcady iii. 67 There are moments when the desire to question and cross-question the vanished dead becomes a passionate longing.
Derivatives
ˌcross-ˈquestioning n.
ΚΠ
a1839 W. M. Praed Poems (1864) II. 8 When on his ranks together spring Cross-buttocks and cross-questioning!
1856 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) II. vi. 104 He was submitted to the closest cross-questionings, in the hope that he would commit himself.
ˌcross-ˈquestionable adj. capable of being cross-questioned.
ΚΠ
1884 J. Hawthorne Pearl-shell Necklace I. 48 There was nothing cross-questionable in such an old-wives' tale.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
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