noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
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"During the crusades, many Muslims and Christians and Jews were slaughtered."
"a crusade against drug abuse"
"The same period that has seen social and political crusades increasingly replace religious messages in the pulpits has seen a sharp 35 percent decline in membership of the mainline Protestant denominations associated with the National Council of Churches."
"He crusaded against similar injustices for the rest of his life."
"When the term "crusade" is used to refer to a noble quest, the groups who suffered from the original medieval crusades are not happy."
Any of the Papally-endorsed military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Latin Europe in the 11th to 13th centuries to reconquer the Levant from the Muslims, as well as expeditions along the Baltic Sea and against the Cathars.
Common synonyms include: campaign, drive, movement, activity, advocate, agitate.
When the term "crusade" is used to refer to a noble quest, the groups who suffered from the original medieval crusades are not happy.
Pronounced /kɹuːˈseɪd/.
From French croisade, introduced into English (in the French spelling) by 1575. The modern spelling emerges c. 1760,. Middle French croisade is introduced in the 15th century, based on Spanish cruzada (late 14th century) and Old Occitan crozada (early 13th century), both reflecting Medieval Latin cruciāta, cruxiata, the feminine singular of the adjective cruciātus used as an abstract noun. Adjectival cruciātus originally meant "tormented; crucified", but from the 12th century crucesignatus was also used for "marked with a cross; making the sign of the cross" and eventually "taking the cross" in the sense of "going on a crusade". Old Occitan crozada is used in the sense "[the Albigensian] crusade" in the Song of the Albigensian crusade, written c. 1213. From vernacular usage, Middle Latin cruciāta also comes to be used in the sense "crusade" from about 1270.
Capitalised by Mills, The History of the Crusades (1820) when referring to a specific campaign ("The third and fourth Crusades" p. 95) but not when referring to the general concept ("the clergy successfully preached the crusade through all the German state" p. 87). More at crusade.