crotchets

Noun

crotchet (plural crotchets)

1. A musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.
   • The crotchets and quavers are dancing up and down the stave like little black boys on a fence.1920 August 27, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Wind Blows”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, pages 140–141

   Synonyms:

   quarter note

2. (obsolete) A sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook
3. (historical) A hook-shaped instrument, especially as used in obstetric surgery.
   • 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.1797 September 1, Hester Lynch Piozzi, Thraliana
4. (archaic) A whim or a fancy.
   • 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!"1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Democracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker), page 124
5. A forked support; a crotch.
   • 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: [...]1717, John Dryden, “Book VIII. [The Story of Baucis and Philemon.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 287
6. (historical) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.

See all 9 meanings of crotchet