FromMiddle Englishcrok,crokke(“earthenware jar, pot, or other container; cauldron; belly, stomach”) [and other forms], fromOld Englishcrocc,crocca(“crock, pot, vessel”) [and other forms],[1][2] fromProto-Germanic*krukkō,*krukkô(“vessel”), perhaps fromProto-Indo-European*grewg-(“vessel”).
The English word is cognate withDanish andNorwegiankrukke(“jar”),Dutchkruik(“jar, jug”), regionalGermanKruke(“crock”),Icelandickrukka(“pot, jar”),Old Englishcrōg,crōh(“crock, pitcher, vessel”). See alsocruse.
crock (pluralcrocks)
- Astoneware orearthenwarejar orstoragecontainer.
- 1590-96,Edmund Spenser,The Faerie Queene, 1750,The Works of Spenser, Volume 3,page 181,
- Therefore the Vulgar did about him flock / And cluster thick unto his leaſings vain; / Like fooliſh Flies about an Honey-Crock; / In hope by him great Benefit to gain, / And uncontrolled Freedom to obtain.
- A piece of broken pottery, ashard.
- (UK) A person who is physically limited by age, illness or injury.
- oldcrocks’ home ―home for the aged
1925,John Buchan,John Macnab,Gutenberg Australia eBook #0300621:He was getting very proud of the way he had learned to manage his game leg, and it occurred to him that here was a chance of testing his balance.[…] “Not so bad that, for acrock,” he told himself, as he lay full length in the sun watching the faint line of the Haripol hills overtopping the ridge of Crask.
1932, Helen Simpson,Boomerang,Gutenberg Australia eBook #0800611:He was in love with a girl, whose full name he did not tell me, and whom he had not seen for two years. She was a Lady Diana Someone, so much I knew, very lovely, a sort of relation, and he believed he had a chance if only the doctors could do something to help his asthma. “Can′t ask a girl to marry acrock.”
- 2006,The Moving Finger, part one (Miss Marple, 15 min, 20 year old bicycling tomboy to injured walker):
- Girl: "Will you always be a bit of acrock?"
Man: "According to my doctor, no."
Girl: "I was afraid you looked bad-tempered because you were crocked up for life."
- (UK) An old or broken-down vehicle (and formerly ahorse orewe).
- Synonyms:banger;see alsoThesaurus:old car
- oldcrocks race ―veteran car rally
- (slang, Canada,US, countable and uncountable) Silly talk, a foolish belief, a poor excuse, nonsense.
That's a bunch ofcrock.
The story is acrock.
- A lowstool.
- 1709,Isaac Bickerstaff (Richard Steele),The Tatler, 1822, Alexander Chalmers (editor),The Tatler, 2007 Facsimile Edition,page 12,
- I then inquired for the person that belonged to the petticoat; and, to my great surprise, was directed to a very beautiful young damsel, with so pretty a face and shape, that I bid her come out of the crowd, and seated her upon a littlecrock at my left hand.
- (medicalslang, derogatory) Apatient who is difficult to treat, especially one who complains of a minor or imaginedillness.
1959, Kenneth Hammond, Fred Kern,Teaching Comprehensive Medical Care[470],→OCLC, pages A: Well, yes. Nobody likescrocks. Q: Why not? A: They're a nuisance. There is nothing ever wrong with them and they are even so peculiar they never have diseases other people do.: 1976, Stephen Charles Frankel,Emergency Medical Care in an Urban Area[1], page118:Mumford (1970) noted that the terms ‘crock’, ‘gomer’, and ‘turkey’, were sometimes utilized by interns to designate different types of undesirable patients, and sometimes used synonymously.
stoneware or earthenware jar
piece of broken pottery, a shard
old or broken-down vehicle (and formerly a horse)
crock (third-person singular simple presentcrocks,present participlecrocking,simple past and past participlecrocked)
- To break something or injure someone.
1904, P.G. Wodehouse,The Gold Bat[2]:"That last time I brought down Barry Icrocked him. He's in his study now with a sprained ankle. ..."
2007 January 3,Daily Mirror:Thousands of carscrocked by dodgy fuel
2006 April 30,The Sunday Times:Ferreira ... peremptorily expunges England’s World Cup chances bycrocking Wayne Rooney.
- (textiles, leatherworking) To transfer coloring throughabrasion from one item to another.
- 1917, John H. Pfingsten, "Colouring-matter for leather and method of using the same"[3], US Patent 1371572, page 1:
- thus producing a permanent, definite color thereon which will not fade orcrock, and at the same time using up all of the coloring matter.
1964, Isabel Barnum Wingate,Know Your Merchandise,page109:Colored fabrics should be dried separately for the first few times to preventcrocking (rubbing off of dye).
2002, Sandy Scrivano,Sewing With Leather & Suede[4],→ISBN, page95:In leather garments, lining also preventscrocking of color onto skin or garments worn underneath.
- (horticulture) To cover the drain holes of aplanter with stones or similar material, in order to ensure proper drainage.
1900, H.A. Burberry,The Amateur Orchid Cultivators' Guide Book,page21:The pots should becrocked for drainage to one-half their depth and the plants made moderately firm in the compost, as already indicated...
- (transitive, now dialectal) Toput orstore (something) in a crock or pot.
1970,Donald Harington,Lightning Bug:She filled the pail and carried it down to the springhouse tocrock it and leave it to cool.
To break something or injure someone
CompareWelshcroeg(“cover”),Scotscrochit(“covered”).
crock (uncountable)
- The loose black particles collected fromcombustion, as on pots and kettles, or in a chimney;soot;smut.
1860 December –1861 August,Charles Dickens, chapter VII, inGreat Expectations […], volume I, London:Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861,→OCLC,page109:[…] “here I stand talking to mere Mooncalfs, with Uncle Pumblechook waiting, and the mare catching cold at the door, and the boy grimed withcrock and dirt from the hair of his head to the sole of his foot!”
- Colouring matter that rubs off from cloth.
crock (third-person singular simple presentcrocks,present participlecrocking,simple past and past participlecrocked)
- (intransitive) To give off crock or smut.
- ^“crokke,n.”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
- ^“crock,n.1”, inOED Online
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2021;“crock1,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
- Krueger, Dennis (December 1982). "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?"Studio Potter Vol. 11, Number 1.[5] (etymology)
- “crock”, inCollins English Dictionary.
- “crock”, inMerriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “crock”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
- “crock”, inCambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
- “crock”, inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.
(Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium.)
crock (pluralcrocks)
- an oldewe which has ceased bearing
FromMiddle Englishcrokke, fromOld Englishcrocca.
crock (pluralcrocks)
- crock(largeearthenwarevessel for holdingmilk,cream,salt,butter, etc.)
- crockanition(“complete destruction, fragments”)
- crockums(“refuse of fish livers after the oil has been extracted”)
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2021;“crock1,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.