crescent

noun

• 1the curved sickle shape of the waxing or waning moon: the moon was a slender crescent
• a representation of a crescent used as an emblem of Islam or of Turkey: on the flag was embroidered the Turkish crescent
• (the Crescent) chiefly historical the political power of Islam or of the Ottoman Empire.

• 2a thing which has the shape of a single curve that is broad in the centre and tapers to a point at each end:a three-mile crescent of golden sand
• [usually in names] chiefly British a street or terrace of houses forming an arc:we lived at Westway Crescent
• Heraldry a charge in the form of a crescent, typically with the points upward.

• 3a moth or butterfly which bears crescent-shaped markings on the wings, in particular:

  • an orange or brown American butterfly with a silvery mark on the underside of the hindwing (genus Phyciodes, subfamily Melitaeinae, family Nymphalidae). a brownish European moth with a pale mark on the forewing (several species in the family Noctuidae, in particular Celaena leucostigma).

adjective

• 1 [attributive] having the shape of a crescent:a crescent moon

• 2 literary growing, increasing, or developing.