Word.ws English Dictionary

crony

/ˈkɹəʊni/US/ˈkɹoʊni/

crony noun: a close friend.

Noun (1)

crony (plural cronies)

  1. (informal) A close friend.
    • Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time; and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great favour.1819 June 23, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Rip Van Winkle”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number I, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page...
    Antonyms:
    noncrony
  2. (informal) A trusted companion or partner in a criminal organization.

Noun (2)

crony (plural cronies)

  1. (obsolete) An old woman; a crone.
    • Marry not an old crony.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

crony meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

crony in Tamil

நம்பிக்கைக்குரிய நண்பன், பாங்கன்

crony in Bengali

পুরোনো বন্ধু, ঘনিষ্ঠ সঙ্গী

crony in Malayalam

ചങ്ങാതി, ആത്മസുഹൃത്ത്, ഉറ്റമിത്രം

crony in Kannada

ಆಪ್ತಮಿತ್ರ, ನಿಕಟ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತ, ಹತ್ತಿರದ ಗೆಳೆಯ, ಕಟ್ಟಳವಿಗ
More languagesFewer languages
crony in Malay
kuncu
crony in Indonesian
kroni

Examples of crony in a sentence

  • The mayor rewarded his cronies with cushy plums, requiring little work for handsome pay.
  • Griff and his cronies played spades at the back of the classroom.
  • As the bender wore on, Morrissey and his cronies eventually slipped under the haze of the booze.

All 17 example sentences with crony

Synonyms of crony

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of crony

Forms of crony

pluralcronies
alternative formchrony

Origin of crony

Coined between 1655 and 1665 from Ancient Greek χρόνιος (khrónios, “perennial, long-lasting”); see also chrono- (“time”). Initially Cambridge University slang, in sense of “chum”, as “friend of long standing”, with illegal connotation later. Early spellings included chrony, as in 1665 diary by Samuel Pepys, supporting the Greek origin.

Words formed from crony

Phrases with crony

Words that rhyme with crony

38 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about crony

What does crony mean?
Crony means a close friend.
What is crony in Tamil?
Crony in Tamil is நம்பிக்கைக்குரிய நண்பன், பாங்கன். See Crony meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is crony?
Crony is a noun.
How do you pronounce crony?
Crony is pronounced /ˈkɹoʊni/ (US).
What is the plural of crony?
The plural of crony is cronies.

Words near crony in the dictionary

  1. Cronulla
  2. Cronus
  3. cronusite
  4. cronut
  5. cronuts
  6. crony
  7. crony capitalism
  8. crony capitalisms
  9. crony democracy
  10. cronydom
  11. cronyish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crony (page history and authors); crony (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crony (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crony (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crony (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-crony.wav.

Cite this entry: “crony.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crony. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.