Meaning of crossstaff | Babel Free

Definitions

Noun. [B2]

Examples

“Yet even with these corrections, Harriot was not satisfied with the crossstaff as currently made. … To take a precise navigational sighting using a crossstaff it is necessary to look two ways at once—at the sun, for instance, and at the horizon. … The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich has 1 crossstaff, 15 backstaffs, and 98 octants; the Peabody Museum at Salem, Massachusetts has 2 crossstaffs, 11 backstaffs, and 82 octants.”

“Several archbishops holding such crossstaffs appear in the Reims nave. […] In one [scene] an enthroned archbishop with crossstaff and moneybags presented a gold piece, as down payment, to architects and master mascons dressed in medieval chaperons.”

CEFR level