crotch Now chiefly U.S. or dial.
(krɒtʃ)
Also 6–7 croche.
[Etymological history obscure. In form it appears to agree with ME. croche shepherd's crook, crosier, ONF. croche; but in sense it comes nearer to crutch, of which also, in certain applications, crotch appears as a variant. But crutch and crotch are in current use different words.]
† 1. A fork: app. the agricultural implement.
| 1539 Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1545) 44 Thrust out nature wyth a croche [Naturam expellas furca] yet woll she styll runne backe agayne. |
† 2. A fork formerly used for holding a weed down on the ground, while it was cut off or dragged up with the weed-hook.
Obs.| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 112 In Maie get a weede hooke, a crotch and a gloue, and weed out such weedes as the corne doth not loue. [1873 J. Fowler in Archæol. XLIV. 179 (Plate), A man, in a garden, cutting up thistles from the plants they grow amongst with a weed-hook and crotch. Ibid. 207, 220.] |
3. A stake or pole having a forked top, used as a support or
prop.| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 64 The strawberies looke to be couered with strawe, Laid ouerly trim vpon crotchis and bows. Ibid. 79 For hoppoles and crotches in lopping go saue. 1681 Hickeringill Vind. Naked Truth ii. 1, A Crazy..Fabrick that only stands upon Crotches, and Crotchets. 1700 Dryden Fables, Baucis and Phil. 160 The crotches of their cot in columes rise [furcas subiere columnæ]. 1841 Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) I. xxii. 162 Four posts or crotches..supporting four equally delicate rods, resting in the crotches. |
† b. A forked peg or crook for hanging things on.
Obs.| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 36 With crotchis and pinnes, to hang trinkets theron. |
c. Naut. A forked support for various purposes: see
crutch 3.
4. The fork of a tree or bough, where it divides into two limbs or branches.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 105 The crotch of the bough. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 120 Some [branches]..that have croches [printed creches] will bee for rake-shaftes. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 323 Crotch, the forked part of a Tree useful in many cases of Husbandry. 1758 Acct. Micmakis, etc. 83 Branches of trees..stuck in the ground with the crotch uppermost. 1843–4 T. N. Savage in Boston Jrnl. Nat. Hist. IV, They [chimpanzees]..build their habitations in trees.. supported by the body of a limb or a crotch. 1854 J. L. Stephens Centr. Amer. 374 A platform in the crotch of the tree. 1889 Century Mag. Aug. 503/1 note, A mass of leaves left..in the crotch of the divergent branches. |
5. The ‘fork’ or bifurcation of the human body where the legs join the trunk. (Not restricted to
U.S. and
dial.)
| a 1592 Green Mamillia ii. Poems (Rtldg.) 316 Some close⁓breech'd to the crotch for cold. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 214 The middle bifurcation at the Crotch. 1817–8 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 156 To be split down the middle, from crown to crotch. 1884 Child Ballads II. xxix. 259/1 Three hundred years old, with a beard to the crotch. |
6. A bifurcation of road or river.
| 1767 T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. Bay II. 383 The river to be called by the same name, from the crotch to the mouth. |
| 1857 Holland Bay Path xxii, Standing right in the crotch of the roads. |
† 7. fig. A dilemma.
Obs.| 1622 Bacon Hen. VII, 101 There is a Tradition of a Dilemma that Bishop Morton..vsed, to raise vp the Beneuolence to higher Rates; and some called it his Forke, and some his Crotch [Ellis & Spedding's ed. crutch]. |
8. Comb. crotch-deep a., up to the ‘crotch’ or loins;
crotch-stick (
dial.), a forked stick;
† crotch-tail, old name of the Kite.
| 1844 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. V. i. 9 Pressing it down closely piece by piece with a small *crotch-stick. |
| 1674–91 Ray S. & E.C. Words 94 A *Crotch-tail; a Kite; Milvus caudâ forcipatâ. 1865 Cornh. Mag. July 41 ‘Crutch-tail’ formerly applied to a Kite. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 137 From its forked tail this bird [the Kite] has received the names of Fork tail, Crotch tail (Essex). |