crotchet

noun
/ˈkɹɑt͡ʃ.ɪt/US/ˈkɹɒtʃ.ɪt/UK

Etymology

From Middle English crochet, from Old French crochet (“small hook”), from croc + -et (diminutive suffix), from Old Norse krókr (“hook”). The musical note was named so because of a small hook on its stem in black notation (in modern notation this hook is on the quaver/eighth note). Doublet of crochet, crocket, and croquet.

  1. derived from krókr
  2. derived from crochet
  3. inherited from crochet

Definitions

  1. A musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.

    • The crotchets and quavers are dancing up and down the stave like little black boys on a fence.
  2. A sharp curve or crook

    A sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook

  3. A hook-shaped instrument, especially as used in obstetric surgery.

    • Either Doctor Denman or an old Woman would have waited—but since the horrid death-doing Crotchet has been found out, & its use permitted—Oh! many & many a Life has been flung away.
  4. + 7 more definitions
    1. A whim or a fancy.

      • He ruined himself and all that trusted in him by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational man.
    2. A forked support

      A forked support; a crotch.

      • Their little Shed, ſcarce large enough for Two, / Seems, from the Ground increas'd, in Height and Bulk to grow. / A ſtately Temple ſhoots within the Skies, / The Crotchets of their Cot in Columns riſe: [...]
    3. An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.

    4. The arrangement of a body of troops, either forward or rearward, so as to form a line…

      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.

    5. A square bracket.

    6. to play music in measured time

      • The nimblest crotcheting musician
    7. Archaic form of crochet (“knit by looping”).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for crotchet. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA