English
crotchet
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ˈkɹɑtʃ.ɪt/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈkɹɒtʃ.ɪt/
Noun

crotchet (plural crotchets)

  1. (music) A musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.
  2. (obsolete) A sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook
  3. (archaic) a whim or a fancy
    • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, chapter XIII, Democracy
      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 […]
    • He ruined himself and all that trusted in him by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational man.
  4. A forked support; a crotch.
    • The crotchets of their cot in columns rise.
  5. (military, historical) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
  6. (military) 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.
  7. (printing) A square bracket.
Synonyms Translations Verb

crotchet (crotchets, present participle crotcheting; past and past participle crotcheted)

  1. (obsolete) to play music in measured time
  2. Archaic form of crochet#English|crochet knit by looping


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