asterisk

noun

1. (dated)A small star; also (by extension), something resembling or shaped like a star.

   “Add one Ray unto the common Luſtre; add not only to the Number but the Note of thy Generation; and prove not a Cloud but an Aſteriſk in thy Region.”

2. (dated)A small star; also (by extension), something resembling or shaped like a star.

   “He is in the right to put the Aſteriſks, not the VVords into the text; becauſe They do indeed give us [notice, that there is in Them] as much additional meaning, as there vvould be in thoſe vvords vvhich they ſo properly repreſent.”

   “I having been looking at your pamphlet, and shewing it, but I mention no names. I don't see the use of names, for my part, unless it be to put in asterisks. It is—yes—very, indeed.”

   “There is no punctuation, but three signs are used, namely, 1st, the asterisc (※); 2nd, the obelus (—:); and 3rd, the two dots (:). The asteriscs indicate the words of the Hebrew text, not admitted by the Seventy into their Greek version, which words are included between the asterisc and the two dots; […]”

   “The Hôtels marked with one asterisc are Restaurants also. Those marked with two asteriscs have Table d'Hôte.”

   “Above all, the 48-page timetables of the new service, which have been distributed free at every station in the scheme, are a model to the rest of B.R. For the first time on British Railways, so far as we are aware, a substantial timetable has been produced, not only without a single footnote but also devoid of all wearisome asterisks, stars, letter suffixes and other hieroglyphics.”

3. (dated)A small star; also (by extension), something resembling or shaped like a star.

   “Using a crafting knife, cut a small asterisk shape in the center of each black circle. Gently pierce each asterisk with a wooden skewer to make a hole. Once done, simply insert your stove knobs, and you're almost ready!”

4. (dated, figuratively)A small star; also (by extension), something resembling or shaped like a star.

   “I don't want to be an asterisk in my kids' lives. I don't want to be just some guy who sporadically appears and then disappears again.”

   “The opposing view sees it as an abject failure and historically irrelevant. This verdict was neatly summed up by the New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin when he predicted, a year on from the event: "It will be an asterisk in the history books, if it gets a mention at all."”

5. (US, dated, figuratively)A small star; also (by extension), something resembling or shaped like a star.

   “They came into the tournament highly ranked, but with a little bit of an asterisk as their last two wins had been unconvincing.”

6. (dated)A small star; also (by extension), something resembling or shaped like a star.

   “Then he [the deacon] reverently covereth the holy Cup with the veil. Likewise he placeth the Asterisk upon the holy Diskos, and the veil over it, and saith the following prayer with the Priest, silently, […]”

   “The asterisk is one of the sacred objects used in the Byzantine rite. It is placed on the paten to protect the Eucharistic bread from contact with the special veil that covers it. The name derives from the shape of the object and symbolically recalls the Biblical words: "And the star came and stood above where the child was" […] [Matthew 2:9].”

   “The diskos, then, typifies the heavens, and for that reason, it is round, and holds the Master of heaven. What is called the ‘asterisk’ represents the stars, especially the one at the birth of Christ, just as the veils represent the firmament, the swaddling clothes, the shroud, and the burial cloths.”

verb

1. (transitive)To mark or replace (text, etc.) with an asterisk symbol (*; noun sense 1.1); to star.

   “Bank of New Zealand Estates Company Share Account now stands, as we have already seen, at £1,089,722 17s. 7d., a reduction of £760,177 2s. 5d. having been effected by the writing off of share capital. But from the point of view of its intrinsic value, the item has still to be dealt with, being asterisked in the balance sheet as follows: […]”

   “She was determined to make the most of the trip, extracting some cultural capital from the emotional waste, and so read carefully through the Venice guidebooks she had brought, underlining the must-dos and asterisking the should-dos.”

   “[Alain] Jaubert's preface is the longest and most detailed in our corpus; […] It covers both [Edgar Allan] Poe's work in general and the specific content of the volume (Jaubert, ingeniously, adopts an ad hoc typographical device, asterisking the references to the tales of his volume).”