(Lat. crescent, growing, increasing), the new moon; which, as it recedes from the sun, shows a curving rim of light, terminating in points or horns, which increase till it becomes full and round. The term is also applied to the moon in its wane or decrease, but less properly.

in Heraldry, a bearing in the form of a half moon. The Ottomans bear sinople, a crescent montant, argent.

The crescent is frequently used as a difference in coat armour, to distinguish it as that of a second brother or junior family.

The figure of the crescent is the Turkish symbol; or rather it is that of the city of Byzantium, which bore this device from all antiquity, as appears from medals struck in honour of Augustus, Trajan, and others.

The crescent is sometimes montant, that is, its points look towards the top of the chief, which is its most ordinary representation; and hence some contend that the crescent, absolutely so called, implies that situation; though other authors' blazon it montant when the horns are towards the dexter side of the escutcheon, in which position others call it incroissant.

Crescents are said to be adossed, when their backs or thickest parts are turned towards each other, and their points look towards the sides of the shield. Crescent inverted, is that whose points look towards the bottom; but turned crescents are placed like those adossed, the difference being, that all their points look to the dexter side of the shield: contoured crescents, on the contrary, look to the sinister side; and affronted or appointed crescents are contrary to the adossed, the points looking towards each other.

CRESCENT has also been applied to three orders of knighthood; the first of which was instituted by Charles I., king of Naples and Sicily, in 1268; the second in 1448 by René of Anjou; and the third by the Sultan Selim in 1801, two years after the battle of Aboukir.