-crays-

{ , n.; pl. -fishes or -fish. [ Corrupted fr. OE. crevis, creves, OF. crevice, F. écrevisse, fr. OHG. krebiz crab, G. krebs. See Crab. The ending -fish arose from confusion with E. fish. ] (Zool.) Any decapod crustacean of the family Astacidæ (genera Cambarus and Cambarus), resembling the lobster, but smaller, and found in fresh waters. Crawfishes are esteemed very delicate food both in Europe and America. The North American species are numerous and mostly belong to the genus Cambarus. The blind crawfish of the Mammoth Cave is Cambarus pellucidus. The common European species is Astacus fluviatilis.
Syn. -- crawdad, crawdaddy. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. tiny lobsterlike crustaceans usually boiled briefly.
Syn. -- crawdad, ecrevisse. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. a large edible marine crustacean having a spiny carapace but lacking the large pincers of true lobsters.
Syn. -- spiny lobster, langouste, rock lobster, crayfish, sea crawfish. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Zool.) See Crawfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F., a crayon, a lead pencil (crayon Conté Conté's pencil, i. e., one made a black compound invented by Conté), 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let no day pass over you . . . without giving some strokes of the pencil or the crayon. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A crayon drawing. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Electricity) A pencil of carbon used in producing electric light. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Crayoned p. pr. & vb. n. Crayoning. ] [ Cf. F. crayonner. ] To sketch, as with a crayon; to sketch or plan. [ 1913 Webster ]

He soon afterwards composed that discourse, conformably to the plan which he had crayoned out. Malone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. porte-crayon; porter to carry + crayon a crayon. ] A metallic handle with a clasp for holding a crayon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. W. ysgräen, ysgräell, a sea swallow, Armor. skrav. ] (Zool.) A tern; the sea swallow. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ Written also scraye. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } (Zool.) Any crustacean of the genus Palinurus and allied genera, as the European spiny lobster (Palinurus vulgaris), which is much used as an article of food. See Lobster. [ 1913 Webster ]