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Crotchet
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 small tool or hooklike implement wordnet
- 3 A sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook obsolete
- 4 a strange attitude or habit wordnet
- 5 A hook-shaped instrument, especially as used in obstetric surgery. historical
"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."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 a musical note having the time value of a quarter of a whole note wordnet
- 7 A whim or a fancy. archaic
"Thou who walkest in a vain shew, looking out with ornamental dilettante sniff and serene supremacy at all Life and all Death; and amblest jauntily; perking up thy poor talk into crotchets, thy poor conduct into fatuous somnambulisms; [...] dost thou call that "liberty!""
- 8 a sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook wordnet
- 9 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: [...]"
- 10 An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed. historical
- 11 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.
- 12 A square bracket.
- 1 to play music in measured time obsolete
"The nimblest crotcheting musician"
- 2 Archaic form of crochet (“knit by looping”). alt-of, archaic
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.
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.
See also for "crotchet"
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Unscramble this word: crotchet