noun
Usage: usually capitalized M
1.
a. : a cross formée
b. : a cross resembling the cross formée but having the outer face of each arm indented in a V — called also cross of eight points
2. : a Eurasian garden perennial ( Lychnis chalcedonica ) having scarlet or rarely white flowers in dense terminal heads — called also scarlet lychnis
3.
a. : a star wheel with teeth shaped like a Maltese cross used with a finger stop wheel to limit the uncoiling of a watch mainspring — called also Geneva stop
b. : a similar device in a motion-picture projector used to advance a film one or more frames at a time