crotchet

plural crotchets

1. entertainmentA 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.

   1920 August 27, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Wind Blows”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, pages 140–141

   Synonyms: quarter note

2. obsoleteA sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook
3. historicalmedicineA 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.

   1797 September 1, Hester Lynch Piozzi, Thraliana

4. archaicA whim or a fancy.

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

   1847, Thomas De Quincey, “Secret Societies”, in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine

   1 more example

   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!"

   1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Democracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker), page 124

5. 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: [...]

   1717, John Dryden, “Book VIII. [The Story of Baucis and Philemon.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 287

6. historicalgovernmentAn indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
7. governmentThe arrangement of a body of troops, either forward or rearward, so as to form a line nearly perpendicular to the general line of battle.
8. mediaA square bracket.

present singular third person crotchets · participle present crotcheting · participle past crotcheted · past crotcheted

1. obsoleteto play music in measured time

   The nimblest crotcheting musician

   a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “(please specify the title)”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC

2. archaicArchaic form of crochet (“knit by looping”).