crossbones

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   two bones depicted or placed diagonally across one another, especially beneath a skull as a warning of danger or death

   A skull and crossbones marked the bottle as poisonous.

2. 2
   noun

   two actual bones arranged crosswise

   The exhibit displayed a pair of crossbones beneath the replica skull.

A plural compound of cross + bones, recorded from the seventeenth century. It is most familiar in the skull-and-crossbones emblem of death, poison, or piracy.

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