Crotch to Crown
Crotch
(Crotch) n.; pl. Crotches [Cf. Crotchet, Crutch.]
1. The angle formed by the parting of two legs or branches; a fork; the point where a trunk divides; as,
the crotch of a tree.
2. (Naut.) A stanchion or post of wood or iron, with two arms for supporting a boom, spare yards,
etc.; — called also crane and crutch. Totten.
Crotched
(Crotched) a.
1. Having a crotch; forked.
2. Cross; peevish. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
Crotchet
(Crotch"et) n. [F. crochet, prop., a little hook, a dim. from the same source as croc hook.
See Crook, and cf. Crochet, Crocket, Crosier.]
1. A forked support; a crotch.
The crotchets of their cot in columns rise.
Dryden.
2. (Mus.) A time note, with a stem, having one fourth the value of a semibreve, one half that of a minim,
and twice that of a quaver; a quarter note.
3. (Fort.) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
4. (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.
5. (Print.) A bracket. See Bracket.
6. (Med.) An instrument of a hooked form, used in certain cases in the extraction of a fetus. Dunglison.
7. A perverse fancy; a whim which takes possession of the mind; a conceit.
He ruined himself and all that trusted in him by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational
man.
De Quincey.
Crotchet
(Crotch"et), v. i. To play music in measured time. [Obs.] Donne.
Crotcheted
(Crotch"et*ed), a. Marked or measured by crotchets; having musical notation. Harmar
Crotchetiness
(Crotch"et*i*ness) n. The state or character of being crotchety, or whimsical.
This belief in rightness is a kind of conscientiousness, and when it degenerates it becomes crotchetiness.
J.
Grote.
Crotchety
(Crotch"et*y) a. Given to crotchets; subject to whims; as, a crotchety man.
Croton
(Cro"ton) n. [Gr. prop., a tick, which the seed of the croton resembles.] (Bot.) A genus of euphorbiaceous
plants belonging to tropical countries.
Croton oil (Med.), a viscid, acrid, brownish yellow oil obtained from the seeds of Croton Tiglium, a
small tree of the East Indies. It is a most powerful drastic cathartic, and is used externally as a pustulant.
