▪ I. crotchet, n.1
(ˈkrɒtʃɪt)
Also 5–6 crochette, 5–9 crochet, 6 corchat, crockchette, chrotchet, 7 crachet, 7 (9 dial.) cratchet, 8 crotchett.
[ME. a. F. crochet hook, dim. of croche crook, hook: see crochet.]
I. = crocket.
1. Arch. = crocket 2; also transf. to buds or branches.
| c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 174 Þe mynstre..Wiþ arches..y-corven Wiþ crochetes on corners wiþ knottes of golde. 1825 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 767 The crotchets, or projecting stones on the outside of that..spire. 1892 Lichfield Mercury 25 Mar. 8/5 Let us gather one of their [elm trees'] delicate sprays... Every crochet resembles a cluster of spherical beads. |
† 2. = crocket 1. Obs. (Cf. F. crochet.) In mod. dial. cratchet = the crown of the head.
| 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet B iv, They will..anatomize..thy bodie from the corne on thy toe, to the crochet on thy head. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., Cratchet, the crown of the head. ‘Nap his cratchet’, crack his crown. 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Cratchet, the crown of the head. |
II. A hook or hooked instrument.
† 3. A small hook, esp. for fastening things; an ornamental hook serving as a brooch or fastening.
| c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iii. xxiv. (1869) 149 Of this crochet, S. 1481 Caxton Godfrey 179 It shold be fasted to the creneaux of the walle, with good and stronge crochettes of yron. 1483 ― Gold. Leg. 134/4 Thenne the tyraunt..with hokes and crochettis of yron dyde do tere theyr flessh. 1503 Priv. Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830) 92 For hookes and crochettes..delivered to William Hamerton yeoman of the Warderobe of the beddes. a 1618 Sylvester Du Bartas, Job Triumphant xli, Canst thou his tongue with steely crotchets thrill. 1690 Evelyn Mundus Muliebris, This to her side she does attach With gold crochet, or French pennache. 1703 J. Savage Lett. Antients lxxvii. 217 An Imperial Purple Robe on her Shoulders button'd with a Crotchet of Diamonds on her Breast. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 245 ¶2 A Crochet of 122 Diamonds, set..in Silver. |
4. Surg. † a. A hook-like instrument; b. spec. an instrument employed in obstetrical surgery.
| 1750 Phil. Trans. XLVII. 83 With a crotchet holding up the integuments [I] keep them from touching. 1754–64 Smellie Midwif. II. 448, I sat down with a resolution to deliver either with the forceps or crotchet in order to save the woman's life. 1854 E. Mayhew Dogs (1862) 213 Forceps..are always dangerous..The crochet, a blunt hook..is to be preferred. |
5. a. A hook used in reaping: see quot. 1833. ‖ b. A hook fastened with straps on the back of a porter for carrying parcels. [= Fr. crochet.]
| 1833 J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 58 The crotchet or hook; the workman uses it with the left hand to gather the quantity of corn he intends to cut. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxvii. 216 Simond carried my theodolite box, tied upon a crotchet on his back. |
6. A natural hook-like organ or process: spec. † a. ‘The tushe, tuske, or fang of a beast’ Cotgr. [F. crochet]. b. One of the minute hooks or claws on the prolegs of many lepidopterous larvæ. c. Anat. The hook-like extremity of the superior occipito-temporal convolution of the brain.
| 1678 Phillips s.v., Among Hunters, the chief master Teeth of a Fox, are called Crochets. [Hence 1708 in Kersey and in later Dicts.] 1778 Milne Dict. Bot. s.v. Semen, Some seeds attach themselves to animals, by means of hooks, crotchets, or hairs. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. xii, In the Ostrich, this apparatus of crotchets and fibres, of hooks and teeth is wanting. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1828) III. xxix, The prolegs of almost all Lepidopterous larvæ are furnished with a set of minute slender horny hooks, crotchets, or claws..somewhat resembling fish-hooks. 1876 Quain Elem. Anat. (ed. 8) II. 532 Its anterior extremity is rounded into a hook called by Vicq-d'Azyr the ‘crotchet’, hence its name. |
III. Derived and figurative senses.
7. a. Mus. A symbol for a note of half the value of a minim, made in the form of a stem with a round (formerly lozenge-shaped) black head; a note of this value. Also attrib.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 104 Crochett of songe, semiminima. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 116, Sec Pastor. Say what was his song? hard ye not how he crakyd it, Thre brefes to a long. Tert. Pastor. Yee mary he hakt it, Was no crochett wrong, nor no thing that lakt it. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems (1884) No. 22 iv, The pyet..Fenȝeis to sing the nychtingalis not; Bot scho can nevir the corchat cleif, For harsknes of hir carlich throt. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 178 He giueth it such a natural grace by breaking a minime into a crotchet rest and a crotchet. 1622 Peacham Compl. Gent. xi. (1634) 102 Hee driveth a Crotchet thorow many Minims, causing it to resemble a chaine with the Linkes. 1782 Burney Hist. Mus. (ed. 2) II. iv. 303 Notes in a lozenge form:..these, whether the heads were full or open, were at first called minims: but when a still quicker note was thought necessary, the white or open notes only had that title and the black were..by the English [called] Crotchets: a name given by the French with more propriety, from the hook or curvature of the tail, to the..Quaver. 1850 W. Irving Goldsmith 290 He pretended to score down an air as the poet played it, but put down crotchets and semi-breves at random. |
b. Often used with playful allusion to sense 9.
| 1579 Gosson Apol. Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 68 They [Musitions] haue euer a crotchet aboue commons, and adde where they liste. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. iii. 58 Why these are very crotchets that he speaks, Note notes forsooth, and nothing. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 768 Being possess'd with crotchets, as many Musicians are. |
† 8. A square bracket in typography; = crook 7: formerly also called hook. Obs.
| 1676 Coles, Crotchet..also (in printing) the mark of a Parenthesis [ ]. 1748 Richardson Clarissa Wks. 1883 VIII. 456 note, What is between crotchets, thus [ ], Mr. Belford omitted. 1832 Lindley Introd. Bot. 495 A few interpolations, which are distinguished by being included within crotchets [ ]. |
9. a. A whimsical fancy; a perverse conceit; a peculiar notion on some point (usually considered unimportant) held by an individual in opposition to common opinion.
The original of this sense is obscure: it is nearly synonymous with crank n.2, senses 3 and 4, and might, like it, have the radical notion of ‘mental twist or crook’; but Cotgrave appears to connect it with the musical note, sense 7: ‘Crochue, a Quauer in Musicke; whence Il a des crochues en teste, (we say) his head is full of crochets’: cf. also 7 b.
| 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 46 M. Osburn stud uppon this chrotchet, that he had bene ons there alreddi, and therefore, etc. 1587 Harrison England ii. xxii. (1877) I. 339 All the od crochets in such a builder's braine. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. ii. 135. 1621–51 Burton Anat. Mel. i. iii. i. ii. 187 That castle in the ayr, that crochet, that whimsie. 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. ii. 813 How could so fond a crotchet be devised, That God our serioust actions hath despised? 1711 E. Ward Quix. I. 37 With fifty Crotchets in his Head. a 1772 Wilkie The Ape, Parrot, etc. (R.), But airy whims and crotchets lead To certain loss, and ne'er succeed. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 930 And gloomy crotchets fill'd his wandering head. 1861 M. Arnold Pop. Educ. France 165 Opinions which have no ground in reason..mere crotchets, or mere prejudices. |
b. A fanciful device, mechanical, artistic, or literary.
| 1611 L. Barry Ram Alley in Hazl. Dodsley X. 366 As for my breath I have crotchets and devices, ‘Ladies’ rank breaths are often help'd with spices’. 1644 Evelyn Diary 8 Nov., He shew'd us his perpetual motions..models, and a thousand other crotchets and devices. 1733 (title), Islington; or the Humours of the New Tunbridge Wells..with Serious and Comical Puns, Crotchets, and Conclusions. 1761 Foote Liar i. Wks. 1799 I. 290 All the sighing, dying, crying crotchets, that..rhymers have ever produced. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. ix, Nothing but innuendoes, figurative crotchets. |
10. Fortif. A passage formed by an indentation in the glacis opposite a traverse, connecting the portions of the covered way on both sides of the traverse.
| 1853 Stocqueler Milit. Encycl. |
† 11. Mil. ‘The arrangement of a body of troops, either forward or rearward, so as to form a line nearly perpendicular to the general line of battle’ (Webster 1864). Obs.
† 12. quasi-adv. Oddly. nonce-use.
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 20 Its independency or loosness from God, lies as crotchet every whit, as its being. |
13. Comb., as crotchet-shaped; crotchet-hero (humorous), a musician; crotchet letter, one having a hook-shaped hair-line; crotchet-monger, one who has crotchets on political and other questions and obtrusively advocates them; hence crotchet-mongering.
| 1807 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 82 Exhibit loud piano feats Caught from that crotchet-hero, Meetz. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 60 They are mostly crotchet-mongers and puzzle⁓brains. 1884 Ray Lankester in Pall Mall G. 6 Oct. 1/3 A corkscrew-shaped or a rod-shaped or a crotchet-shaped bacillus. 1887 Script Letters for Perforating & Sewing, Crotchet letters b v f r w. 1888 Charity Organis. Rev. June 267 The only way for a philanthropist to escape the reproach of crotchet-mongering is to give up trust in legislative crotchets. |
▪ II. † ˈcrotchet, n.2 Obs.
Also 7 cratchet.
[dim. of crotch. (Cf. also crutchet.)]
1. A pole or prop with a forked top; = crotch 3.
| 1631 Capt. Smith Advt. Planters 32 This was our Church, till wee built a homely thing like a barne, set upon Cratchets. 1681 [see crotch 3]. 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 25 They live in huts or thatched cabbins sustained by crotchets. 1764 Croker, etc. Dict. Arts & Sc. s.v. Currying, [Tools used] A crotchet or fork. |
2. A forked support or bracket.
| 1772 W. Bailey Descr. Useful Machines I. 255 A Brass Crotchet screwed to the Pedestle and properly fitted to the solid and also to the hollow end of the axis of the machine. |
3. Naut. = crotch 3 c, crutch 3.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine, Crouchants, the crotchets, or floor-timbers fore and aft in a boat. |
▪ III. ˈcrotchet, v.
[f. crotchet n.1]
† a. To break a longer note up into crotchets (obs.). b. To affect with crotchets. c. To ornament with crotchets or crockets. Hence ˈcrotcheted, ppl. a.
| 1587 J. Harmar tr. Beza's Serm. 267 (T.) Not these cantels and morsels of scripture warbled, quavered, and crochetted, to give pleasure unto the ears. c 1600 Donne Elegies i. Jealousie, Drawing his breath, as thick and short, as can The nimblest crocheting Musitian. 1628 Ford Lover's Mel. ii. ii, You are but whimsied yet, crotcheted, conundrumed. 1892 Lichfield Mercury 25 Mar. 8/5 Look up..through the slender branches, crochetted almost to the tips..There is no need to wonder where the architects..got their idea of crochetting the spires and pinnacles of our Cathedral. |