crotchet Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook
hook.
noun a musical note having the time value of a quarter of a whole note
quarter note.
noun a strange attitude or habit
quirk; quirkiness; queerness; oddity.
noun a small tool or hooklike implement

F. crochet, prop., a little hook, a dim. from the same source as croc hook. See Crook, and cf. Crochet, Crocket, Crosier.

A forked support; a crotch.
The crotchets of their cot in columns rise. Dryden.
(Mus.) A time note, with a stem, having one fourth the value of a semibreve, one half that of a minim, and twice that of a quaver; a quarter note.
(Fort.) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
(Mil.) The arrangement of a body of troops, either forward or rearward, so as to form a line nearly perpendicular to the general line of battle.
(Print.) A bracket. See Bracket.
(Med.) An instrument of a hooked form, used in certain cases in the extraction of a fetus. Dunglison.
A perverse fancy; a whim which takes possession of the mind; a conceit.
He ruined himself and all that trusted in him by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational man. De Quincey.