Heading
7. (common).—A person, male or female, who sees everything en noir, and whose conversation is likened to that of the raven, which is a bird of ill-omen.—See Goldsmith's Good Natured Man. Fr., un glas = also a passing bell.
Croakumshire, subs. (old).—Northumberland.
[Grose: 'from the
particular croaking in the pronunciation
of the people of that
county, especially about Newcastle
and Morpeth, where they
are said to be born with a burr
in their throats, which prevents
their pronouncing the letter 'r.']
Crock, subs. (common).—A worthless
animal; a fool; said of a
horse it signifies a good-for-nothing
brute; of a man or woman, a
duffer, a 'rotter.' [Most likely
from the Scots crock = an old
sheep.]
1887. Sporting Times, 12 March, p. 2, col. 5. The wretched crocks that now go to the post will be relegated to more appropriate work.
1889. Bird o' Freedom, 7 Aug., p. 3, For five minutes that crock went about twice as fast as it had ever done.
1889. Illustrated Bits, 13 July, 'I say,' said the Lumberer to the Old Hermit, as they stood at the mouth of the Cave listening to the song birds, 'you are getting a bit of a crock—failing fast, I should say.'
Crocketts, subs. (Winchester College).—A
kind of bastard cricket,
sometimes called 'small crochetts.'
Five stumps are used
and a fives ball, with a bat of
plain deal about two inches broad,
or a broomstick.
1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 122. The more noisily disposed would indulge in . . . playing Hicockolorum, or Crocketts.
To get crocketts, verbal phr.—To fail to score at cricket; to make a duck's egg.
Crocodile, subs. (University).—A
girl's school walking two and
two.
Crocus, Crocus-Metallorum
or Croakus, subs. (common).—A
doctor; specifically, a quack.
[Conjecturally, a derivative of
croak = to die. Cf., quot. 1781,
under Crocussing rig.]
English Synonyms. Pill; squirt; butcher; croaker; corpse-provider; bolus; clyster; gallipot. [Several of these terms also = an apothecary.]
French Synonyms. Un dragueur (popular: literally a dredging machine); un cliabeau (a doctor at St. Lazare); un bénévole (popular: a young doctor, especially one walking the hospitals); un marchand de morts subites (common: literally 'a dealer in sudden death.' Cf., Corpse provider).
German Synonym. Rofe or Raufe (from the Hebrew).
Italian Synonyms. Maggio (signifying God, king, lord, and pope); posteggiatore (literally 'he that places'; used of any charlatan, but particularly of a quack doctor); dragon di farda.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Crocus or crocus metallorum: a nickname for the surgeons of the army and navy.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 231 (quoted in list of patterer's words).
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed. p., 444, s.v.
