Crotchet

Definitions

1. A musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.
2. A sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook
   obsolete
3. A hook-shaped instrument, especially as used in obstetric surgery.
   historical
4. A whim or a fancy.
   archaic
5. A forked support; a crotch.
6. An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
   historical
7. 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.
8. A square bracket.

Equivalents

Examples

“The crotchets and quavers are dancing up and down the stave like⟳ little black boys on a fence.”

“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.”

“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!"”

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

“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: [...]”

CEFR level