Also (in sense 1) 6 croystaff.
† 1. Eccl. An archbishop’s cross; also, by confusion, used for CROSE-STAFF, a bishop’s crook or crosier. Obs. exc. Hist.
1460. Capgrave, Chron. (1858), 156. He [Robt Grostede] appered to the Pope, and smet him on the side with the pike of his crosse staf.
1540. Inv., in Greene, Hist. Worcester, II. App. 5. Item, a croystaff of selver and gylt.
1541. Barnes, Wks. (1573), 246/1. All your holy ornamentes, as your holy myters, your holy crosse-staues, your holy pyllers.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 2. He [Becket] taketh from Alexander his Crosyer, the crosse with the Crossestaffe … and caryeth it in himselfe.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, 188. Shall I not smite him with his own cross-staff?
† 2. An instrument formerly used for taking the altitude of the sun or a star. Obs.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. II. viii. (ed. 7), 386. The Latitude then is to be knowne by the Astrolabe, Quadrant, Crosse-staffe, and by such like Mathematicall instruments.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., II. xiii. 80. How to use the Cross-Staff. Set the end of the Cross-Staff to the … Eye…. Then move the Cross … from you or towards you … till that the upper end come upon the … Sun or Star.
1839. Marryat, Phant. Ship, ix. The cross-staff at that time was the simple instrument used to discover the latitude.
b. A surveyor’s cross, used in taking offsets.
1874. in Knight, Dict. Mech.
