crossword puzzle
Preserved but no longer current.
A puzzle in which words must be discovered to fill in, letter by letter, the squares into which a rectangular diagram is divided. Clues are furnished and most of the letters form parts of two words, one reading across and the other down the rectangle. There have long been simple puzzles of this nature, but the more ingenious crossword was invented in U.S.A., about 1923, and immediately welcomed in Britain.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “crossword puzzle” mean?
A puzzle in which words must be discovered to fill in, letter by letter, the squares into which a rectangular diagram is divided. Clues are furnished and most of the letters form parts of two words, one reading across and the other down the rectangle. There have long been simple puzzles of this nature, but the more ingenious crossword was invented in U.S.A., about 1923, and immediately welcomed in Britain.
Is “crossword puzzle” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.