Crotchet

Origin

From Old French crochet (‘small hook’), from croc (with diminutive suffix -et), 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).

Full definition of crotchet

Noun

1. (music) A musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.
2. A sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook (obsolete except in crochet hook).
3. (archaic) a whim or a fancy
• 1843, Thomas_Carlyle, , book 3, chapter XIII, DemocracyThou 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 ...
• De QuinceyHe 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.
• DrydenThe 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 bracket.

Synonyms

• (musical note) quarter note US

Derived terms

• crotchety

Verb

1. to make needlework by looping thread with a hooked needle; to crochet
2. (obsolete) to play music in measured time----