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CROWNING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Representing a level of the highest possible achievement or attainment
Example:
the crowning accomplishment of his career
Classified under:
Similar:
ultimate (furthest or highest in degree or order; utmost or extreme)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Forming or providing a crown or summit
Example:
her hair was her crowning glory
Classified under:
Similar:
top (situated at the top or highest position)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb crown
Context examples:
Miss Mills replied in the affirmative so readily, that I further asked her if she would take charge of the Cookery Book; and, if she ever could insinuate it upon Dora's acceptance, without frightening her, undertake to do me that crowning service.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Though it came in such a very simple guise, that was the crowning moment of both their lives, when, turning from the night and storm and loneliness to the household light and warmth and peace waiting to receive them, with a glad Welcome home!
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
How the emigrants never wrote home, otherwise than cheerfully and hopefully; how Mr. Micawber had actually remitted divers small sums of money, on account of those pecuniary liabilities, in reference to which he had been so business-like as between man and man; how Janet, returning into my aunt's service when she came back to Dover, had finally carried out her renunciation of mankind by entering into wedlock with a thriving tavern-keeper; and how my aunt had finally set her seal on the same great principle, by aiding and abetting the bride, and crowning the marriage-ceremony with her presence; were among our topics—already more or less familiar to me through the letters I had had.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Didn't they steal sips of tea, stuff gingerbread ad libitum, get a hot biscuit apiece, and as a crowning trespass, didn't they each whisk a captivating little tart into their tiny pockets, there to stick and crumble treacherously, teaching them that both human nature and a pastry are frail?
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
