crayon

1. a small stick or pencil of charcoal, wax, clay, or chalk mixed with coloured pigment

2. a drawing made with crayons

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

crayon

[′krā‚än]

(graphic arts)

A small stick for drawing, usually made of a combination of pigments or dyes in a wax or oil medium.

crayon

(1)

Someone who works on Cray supercomputers. More specifically, it implies a programmer, probably of the CDC ilk, probably male, and almost certainly wearing a tie (irrespective of gender). Systems types who have a Unix background tend not to be described as crayons.

crayon

(2)

A computron that participates only in number crunching.

crayon

(3)

A unit of computational power equal to that of a single Cray-1. There is a standard joke about this usage that derives from an old Crayola crayon promotional gimmick: When you buy 64 crayons you get a free sharpener.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

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References in periodicals archive

What we once did with grease pencils, razor blades and tape, we now do with a mouse and a click.

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One early spring evening I went out with my laminated star maps and a red grease pencil and circled everything I could see with the unaided eye.

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It will be the warrant officers who will not only integrate digital processes into daily operations but also will be able to brief supported commanders from digital displays with the same ease they would have if they were briefing from maps with grease pencil markings.

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They also function as a quick chronicle of planting times, fertilizer schedules, and harvest dates when you write on the back with a grease pencil.

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Strauss worked in broadcasting 14 years ago but says today's tools--many loaded onto personal computers--are infinitely easier to use than those from the days when journalists had to mark audio tape with a grease pencil and cut and paste.

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6 When the time is at hand for one of your trips, check each item off your list with a grease pencil as you pack it.

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Geological Survey topographic map you're using, with those tired, smudgy acetate overlays showing, for example, your latest timber cut, on which you've been drawing with a grease pencil.

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Yet in their transition from grease pencil to computer mouse, layout managers not only are taking on more work, they are taking on tricker work.

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On the inside, the compositions were traced onto the windows using a grease pencil. The newsprint was then removed and we were ready to paint.

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All sheets of Bullseye glass are dated and their batch identified using a grease pencil. Finished sheets are separated, categorized, and labeled according to their use, and each sheet of compatible glass wears a bright orange sticker.

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And in his "Schmagoo Paintings," 2008-2009 (displayed in the moma show) he replaced pencil and pen with grease pencil, and the elbow motion of drawing with the full-body movement of gestural painting, in order to make potent, seemingly broken-down cartoon icons of masculine turmoil (Superman, Jesus Christ, caveman stick figure) at a scale normally reserved for more self-serious painting.

Scrawl space: Dan Nadel on Joe Bradley's "Krasdale," 2016