/kɹɒk/, /kɹɑk/, /kɹɔk/
OriginFrom Middle English crok, crokke (“earthenware jar, pot, or other container; cauldron; belly, stomach”) [and other forms], from Old English crocc, crocca (“crock, pot, vessel”) [and other forms], from Proto-Germanic *krukkō, *krukkô (“vessel”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“vessel”).
The English word is cognate with Danish and Norwegian krukke (“jar”), Dutch kruik (“jar, jug”), regional German Kruke (“crock”), Icelandic krukka (“pot, jar”), Old English crōg, crōh (“crock, pitcher, vessel”). See also cruse.
- A stoneware or earthenware jar or storage container.
“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 ab”
- A piece of broken pottery, a shard.
- UKA person who is physically limited by age, illness or injury.
“old crocks’ home” — home for the aged
“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 a crock,” he told himself, a”
“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 h”
- UKAn old or broken-down vehicle (and formerly a horse or ewe).
“old crocks race” — veteran car rally
- Canada, US, countable, slang, uncountableSilly talk, a foolish belief, a poor excuse, nonsense.
“That's a bunch of crock.”
“The story is a crock.”
- A low stool.
“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”
- uncountableThe loose black particles collected from combustion, as on pots and kettles, or in a chimney; soot; smut.
“[…] “here I stand talking to mere Mooncalfs, with Uncle Pumblechook waiting, and the mare catching cold at the door, and the boy grimed with crock and dirt from the hair of his head to the sole of his”
- uncountableColouring matter that rubs off from cloth.
- To break something or injure someone.
“"That last time I brought down Barry I crocked him. He's in his study now with a sprained ankle. ..."”
“Thousands of cars crocked by dodgy fuel”
“Ferreira ... peremptorily expunges England’s World Cup chances by crocking Wayne Rooney.”
- To transfer coloring through abrasion from one item to another.
“thus producing a permanent, definite color thereon which will not fade or crock, and at the same time using up all of the coloring matter.”
“Colored fabrics should be dried separately for the first few times to prevent crocking (rubbing off of dye).”
“In leather garments, lining also prevents crocking of color onto skin or garments worn underneath.”
- To cover the drain holes of a planter with stones or similar material, in order to ensure proper drainage.
“The pots should be crocked for drainage to one-half their depth and the plants made moderately firm in the compost, as already indicated...”
- dialectal, transitiveTo put or store (something) in a crock or pot.
“She filled the pail and carried it down to the springhouse to crock it and leave it to cool.”
- intransitiveTo give off crock or smut.
Formscrocks(plural) · crocks(present, singular, third-person) · crocking(participle, present) · crocked(participle, past) · crocked(past) · Crocks(plural)