Crapaudine
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A method of preparing fowl and poultry, where the back is split apart and the bird is flattened down the breast, looking somewhat like a toad; spatchcock. countable, uncountable
"“Chicken cutlets,” said she, “or crapaudine, and some serniki — only let them be as good as they were last night."
- 2 A type of piquant sauce flavored with tarragon, lemon or vinegar, and other spices, that is traditionally served with a fowl cooked in the crapaudine style. countable, uncountable
"Spring chickens singed, split, washed, backbone andd breastbone removed, trussed out like a frog, seasoned with salt and peper, rolled in olive oil, broiled well done ; served on toast with crapaudine sauce poured around, garnished with parsley and lemon."
- 3 A form of torture in which the hands and feet are tied together behind the back, forcing the victim's body to bow, and sometimes accompanied by additional forms of torture, such as suspending the body by the point where the hands and feet are tied or beating. countable, uncountable
"A few years ago Herr von Rader and his companions would have been sentenced to quite a curious kind of punishment which was at that time considered in the Foreign Legion to be a radical cure for deserters — a kind of mediaeval torture which, by the way, was not kept for deserters solely, but came into use very often. This was the “silo” and the “crapaudine.”"
- 4 An ulcer on the coronet of a horse, sheep, or donkey. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"The morbid principle is eliminated without apparent disturbance, and is fixed in a more or less apparent manner on the surface of the skin, or in certain cavities which have external openings. I this category are included glanders, farey, scrofula, lupus, canker of horses' feet, (crapaudine,) elephantiasis, tinea, lepra, &c."
- 5 A toadstone. countable, uncountable
"A HORN RING, very massive, with a silver bezel, set with a crapaudine, XIVth Century. It was found near Richmond, in Yorkshire."
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- 6 A device for calibrating a pendulum consisting of a dilatable plate that produces an artificial tilt of a clinometer. countable, uncountable
"This is accomplished by a device patterned after the crapaudine (Verbaandert & Melchior 1958) used to calibrate horizontal pendulums."
- 7 An heirloom variety of beet originating in France, and considered possibly the oldest beet cultivar. countable, uncountable
"The true type of the crapaudine is 4 inches broad at the superior part, and becomes very regularly thinner until it reaches the length of 11 inches, which is the average."
- 8 The socket in which the pivot of a door turns. countable, rare, uncountable
"A stone door socket (Crapaudine C), associated with a small patch of brick pavement and a large slab of stone forming the threshold of a doorway, was uncovered at a depth of 1.25 m . below surface."
Example
More examples"“Chicken cutlets,” said she, “or crapaudine, and some serniki — only let them be as good as they were last night."
Etymology
From French crapaudine.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.