[Orig. two words: cf. CROSS a. 1, CROSS- 9.] a. A question put by way of cross-examination. † b. A question on the other side; a question in return.
a. 1694. Tillotson, Serm., lxxv. (1748), V. 1191. Now that this question is answered, one might methinks ask him a cross question or two.
1705. Farquhar, Twin Rivals, IV. i. Have you witnesses?… Produce him … But you shall engage first to ask him no cross questions.
1834. 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 neighbor on the right with the answer given to another question by one’s neighbor on the left.
1742. J. Yarrow, Love at First Sight, 2. As if you had been playing at cross-Questions.
1884. Illust. Lond. News, Christmas No. 22/1. ‘I’m afraid, doctor, we are playing at cross-questions and crooked answers.’
