crocodiley

Adjective

crocodiley (comparative more crocodiley, superlative most crocodiley)

1. (informal) Resembling or characteristic of a crocodile.
   • “Incongruous, but there you are,” Finlay added, giving Norma one of his crocodile smiles which had become even more crocodiley since he’d acquired an eye patch.1987, Emma Blair [pseudonym; Iain Blair], When Dreams Come True, Anstey, Leics.: Charnwood, F. A. Thorpe (Publishing) Ltd., published 1989, →ISBN, page 594
   • You, as Chuck, have to fight your way through myriad levels of baddies – dinosaurs, spiders and weird kind of little red… erm… squidgy things and other small units that suddenly become big crocodiley units.1992 July, Patrick McCarthy, “chuck rock”, in Paul Lakin, editor, Game Zone, number 9, London: Dennis Publishing Ltd., page 36, column 3

   Synonyms:

   crocodilelike

2. (informal) Of a body of water: inhabited by or typical of crocodiles.
   • I went in for this remembering that I had been informed that there were very nasty crocodiles on the island, and that I had got to get past the mouth of that largest river—as crocodiley-looking a spot as you could wish for, if you had a gun.1897, Mary H[enrietta] Kingsley, “Fernando Po and the Bubis”, in Travels in West Africa: Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan...
   • We had to swim three separate channels of the river, each of considerable depth, but so narrow that a couple of strokes landed us on the other side; but they looked so “crocodiley”!1899, F[rederick] Vaughan Kirby, “Hunting Elephants on the Mupe”, in Sport in East Central Africa: Being an Account of Hunting Trips in Portuguese and Other Districts of East Central Africa, London...