Other forms: crisscrossed, crisscrossing, crisscrosses
To crisscross is to cross back and forth over something. Crisscross the country, crisscrossed with paths, a crisscross pattern.
It implies many crossings in several directions rather than one, which is why it suits railways, scars and search patterns. The origin is unexpectedly religious: it comes from Christ's cross, the mark that stood at the head of the alphabet in a child's hornbook. Note that it is usually written as one word.
1verbcrisscrossTo cross back and forth over something.
“Footpaths crisscross the hills, so it's easy to get lost without a map.”
crisscross is a crossing back and forth.
Middle English crist-crosse means Christ's cross, the mark at the head of a child's alphabet. The form was reshaped by reduplication of cross.
Middle English
crist-crosse
English, today
crisscross
Built from
From Middle English crist-crosse, crists-crosse (“Christ's cross”). by surface analysis, an apophonic reduplication of cross.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA