X

x
verb, transitive. To mark with an X; to cancel or obliterate with a series of X’s, usually used with “out”, as in “x’d out.” Also “x-ed”, “x’d” or “xed”; “x-ing” or “x’ing”.

Stu couldn’t help glancing at the stack of papers waiting for his examination before turning over the one before him. He certainly never expected that he would have to wade through hundreds of documents in order to investigate a crime when he opted for a law-enforcement career. “This bites. It bites big-time,” he thought. “I have an office the size of a closet, and the only time I get anywhere near a window is when I pass a couple of them on my way to the cafeteria at noon.” He heaved a massive sigh, relieved that there was no one with him in the office to hear it.

He returned to his study of the page before him. One-third of the way down the page, the type changed to a smaller size. Stu frowned and lifted the paper in order to read it more easily. That was when he saw it: someone had x-ed out a series of words in one paragraph in such a way that the deletions could have been mistaken for an ornamental pattern. Stu’s pulse quickened. He forgot the boredom he had felt only moments before. He moved the paper even closer in an effort to discern the words beneath the X’s. After a minute or two, he shook his head. Discovering what had been x-ed out was going to require one of the forensics experts’ tricks with different-colored lights and special software. His human eyesight was not enough.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.