Croche (krōch) noun [ Old French croche , equiv. to French crochet , croc , hook. See Crotchet , Crook .] A little bud or knob at the top of a deer's antler.

Crochet noun [ French crochet small hook. See Croche .] A kind of knitting done by means of a hooked needle, with worsted, silk, or cotton; crochet work. Commonly used adjectively.

Crochet hook , Crochet needle , a small hook, or a hooked needle (often of bone), used in crochet work.

Crochet transitive verb & i. [ imperfect & past participle Crocheted (shād"); present participle & verbal noun Crocheting (-shā"ĭng).] To knit with a crochet needle or hook; as, to crochet a shawl.

Crociary noun [ See Crosier .] (Eccl.) One who carries the cross before an archbishop. [ Obsolete]

Crocidolite noun [ Greek kroky`s nap on cloth + -lite .] (Min.) A mineral occuring in silky fibers of a lavender blue color. It is related to hornblende and is essentially a silicate of iron and soda; -- called also blue asbestus . A silicified form, in which the fibers penetrating quartz are changed to oxide of iron, is the yellow brown tiger-eye of the jewelers.

Crocin noun [ Greek ............ saffron.] (Chemistry) (a) The coloring matter of Chinese yellow pods, the fruit of Gardenia grandiflora . Watts. (b) A red powder (called also polychroite ), which is made from the saffron ( Crocus sativus ). See Polychroite .

Crock (krŏk) noun [ Confer W. croeg cover, Scot. crochit covered.] The loose black particles collected from combustion, as on pots and kettles, or in a chimney; soot; smut; also, coloring matter which rubs off from cloth.

Crock transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Crocked (krŏkt); present participle & verbal noun Crocking .] To soil by contact, as with soot, or with the coloring matter of badly dyed cloth.

Crock intransitive verb To give off crock or smut.

Crock noun A low stool. "I . . . seated her upon a little crock ." Tatler.

Crock noun [ Anglo-Saxon croc , croca , crog , croh ; akin to Dutch kruik , German krug , Icelandic krukka , Danish krukke , Swedish kruka ; but confer W. crwc bucket, pail, crochan pot, cregen earthen vessel, jar. Confer Cruet .] Any piece of crockery, especially of coarse earthenware; an earthen pot or pitcher.

Like foolish flies about an honey crock .
Spenser.

Crock transitive verb To lay up in a crock; as, to crock butter. Halliwell.

Crocker noun A potter. [ Obsolete] Wyclif.

Crockery noun [ From Crock an earthen vessel.] Earthenware; vessels formed of baked clay, especially the coarser kinds.

Crocket noun [ Old French croquet , F. crochet , dim. of croc hook. See Crook , and confer Crotchet .]
1. (Architecture) An ornament often resembling curved and bent foliage, projecting from the sloping edge of a gable, spire, etc.

2. A croche, or knob, on the top of a stag's antler.

The antlers and the crockets .
W. Black.

Crocketed adjective (Architecture) Ornamented with crockets.

Crocketing noun (Architecture) Ornamentation with crockets. Ruskin.

Crocky adjective [ From Crock soot.] Smutty.

Crocodile noun [ Latin crocodilus , Greek ...............: confer French crocodile . Confer Cookatrice .]
1. (Zoology) A large reptile of the genus Crocodilus , of several species. They grow to the length of sixteen or eighteen feet, and inhabit the large rivers of Africa, Asia, and America. The eggs, laid in the sand, are hatched by the sun's heat. The best known species is that of the Nile ( C. vulgaris , or C. Niloticus ). The Florida crocodile ( C. Americanus ) is much less common than the alligator and has longer jaws. The name is also sometimes applied to the species of other related genera, as the gavial and the alligator.

2. (Logic) A fallacious dilemma, mythically supposed to have been first used by a crocodile.

Crocodile bird (Zoology) , an African plover ( Pluvianus ægypticus ) which alights upon the crocodile and devours its insect parasites, even entering its open mouth (according to reliable writers) in pursuit of files, etc.; -- called also Nile bird . It is the trochilos of ancient writers. -- Crocodile tears , false or affected tears; hypocritical sorrow; -- derived from the fiction of old travelers, that crocodiles shed tears over their prey.

Crocodilia noun plural [ New Latin , from Latin crocodilus crocodile.] (Zoology) An order of reptiles including the crocodiles, gavials, alligators, and many extinct kinds.

Crocodilian adjective (Zoology) Like, or pertaining to, the crocodile; characteristic of the crocodile. -- noun One of the Crocodilia.

Crocodility noun (Logic) A caption or sophistical mode of arguing. [ R.]

Crocoisite noun [ Confer French croco...se .] (Min.) Same as Crocoite .

Crocoite noun [ Greek ............ saffron.] (Min.) Lead chromate occuring in crystals of a bright hyacinth red color; -- called also red lead ore .

Croconate noun (Chemistry) A salt formed by the union of croconic acid with a base.

Croconic adjective [ Greek ............ saffron.]
1. Of, pertaining to, or resembling saffron; having the color of saffron; as, croconic acid.

2. Pertaining to, or derived from, croconic acid.

Croconic acid (Chemistry) , a yellow crystalline substance, C ₅ O ₃ (OH) ₂ , obtained from potassium carboxide, rhodizonic acid, and various phenol and quinone derivatives of benzene, and forming yellow or orange colored salts.

Crocose (krō"kōs) noun [ Greek kro`kos saffron.] (Chemistry) A white crystalline sugar, metameric with glucose, obtained from the coloring matter of saffron. [ Written also crokose .]

Crocus (krō"kŭs) noun [ Latin , saffron, from Greek kro`kos ; confer Hebrew karkōm , Arabic kurkum , Sanskrit ku&ndot;kuma .]
1. (Botany) A genus of iridaceous plants, with pretty blossoms rising separately from the bulb or corm. C. vernus is one of the earliest of spring-blooming flowers; C. sativus produces the saffron, and blossoms in the autumn.

2. (Chemistry) A deep yellow powder; the oxide of some metal calcined to a red or deep yellow color; esp., the oxide of iron ( Crocus of Mars or colcothar ) thus produced from salts of iron, and used as a polishing powder.

Crocus of Venus (Old Chem.) , oxide of copper.

Croft (krŏft; 115) noun [ Anglo-Saxon croft ; akin to Dutch kroft hillock; confer Gael. croit hump, croft.] A small, inclosed field, adjoining a house; a small farm.

A few small crofts of stone-encumbered ground.
Wordsworth.

Crofter noun One who rents and tills a small farm or holding; as, the crofters of Scotland.

Crofting noun
1. Croftland. [ Scot.] Jamieson.

2. (Textile Manuf.) Exposing linen to the sun, on the grass, in the process of bleaching.

Croftland noun Land of superior quality, on which successive crops are raised. [ Scot.] Jamieson.

Crofton system [ After Sir Walter Crofton , Irish penologist.] (Penology) A system of prison discipline employing for consecutive periods cellular confinement, associated imprisonment under the mark system, restraint intermediate between imprisonment and freedom, and liberation on ticket of leave.

Crois (krois). noun [ Old French ] See Cross , noun [ Obsolete]

Croisade noun [ French criosade . See Crusade .] A holy war; a crusade. [ Obsolete] Bacon.

Croise (krois) noun [ French croisé crusader, from Old French crois , French croix , cross. See Cross .]
1. A pilgrim bearing or wearing a cross. [ Obsolete]

2. A crusader. [ Obsolete]

The conquests of the croises extending over Palestine.
Burke.

Croissanté adjective [ French croissant , adj. & noun , crescent.] (Her.) Terminated with crescents; -- said of a cross the ends of which are so terminated.

Croker (krō"kẽr) noun [ Greek kro`kos saffron.] A cultivator of saffron; a dealer in saffron. [ Obsolete] Holinshed.

Croma (krō"mȧ) noun [ Italian ] (Mus.) A quaver. [ Obsolete]

Cromlech (krŏm"lĕk) noun [ W. cromlech ; crom bending or bent, concave + llech a flat stone; akin to Ir. cromleac .] (Archæol.) A monument of rough stones composed of one or more large ones supported in a horizontal position upon others. They are found chiefly in countries inhabited by the ancient Celts, and are of a period anterior to the introduction of Christianity into these countries.

Cromorna noun [ French cromorne (cf. Italian cromorno 0, from German krummhorn crooked horn, cornet, an organ pipe turned like a trumpet; krumm crooked + horn horn.] (Mus.) A certain reed stop in the organ, of a quality of tone resembling that of the oboe. [ Corruptly written cromona .]

Crone (krōn) noun [ OD. kronie , karonie , an old sheep, Old French carogne , F. charogne , carrion (also F. carogne illnatured woman.). See Carrion , and Crony .]
1. An old ewe. [ Obsolete] Tusser.

2. An old woman; -- usually in contempt.

But still the crone was constant to her note.
Dryden.

3. An old man; especially, a man who talks and acts like an old woman. [ R.]

The old crone [ a negro man] lived in a hovel, . . . which his master had given him.
W. Irving.

A few old battered crones of office.
Beaconsfield.

Cronel noun [ Confer Coronel spearhead, Crown .] The iron head of a tilting spear.

Cronet noun [ Confer Coronet , Crownet .] The coronet of a horse.

Cronian adjective [ Greek ............ Saturnian, from ............ Saturn.] Saturnian; -- applied to the North Polar Sea. [ R.] Milton.

Cronstedtite noun (Min.) A mineral consisting principally of silicate of iron, and crystallizing in hexagonal prisms with perfect basal cleavage; -- so named from the Swedish mineralogist Cronstedt .

Crony noun ; plural Cronies (-n...z). [ Orig., an old woman. See Crone .]
1. A crone. [ Obsolete] "Marry not an old crony ." Burton.

2. An intimate companion; a familiar frend . [ Colloq.]

He soon found his former cronies , though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time.
W. Irving.

Croodle intransitive verb [ Confer Cruddle , Crudle .]
1. To cower or cuddle together, as from fear or cold; to lie close and snug together, as pigs in straw. [ Prov. Eng.] Wright. Forby.

A dove to fly home her nest and croodle there.
C. Kingsley.

2. To fawn or coax. [ Obsolete]

3. To coo. [ Scot.]