Crotchet
Crotchet (kr?ch"?t; 224) , noun
[French crochet, prop., a little hook, a dim. from the same source as croc hook. See Crook, and compare Crochet, Crocket, Crosier.]
1.
A forked support; a crotch.
The crotchets of their cot in columns rise.
2.
(Music) 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.
3.
(Fortification) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
4.
(Military) 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.
5.
(Printing) A bracket. See Bracket.
6.
(Medicine) An instrument of a hooked form, used in certain cases in the extraction of a fetus. — Dunglison
7.
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.
Crotchet , intransitive verb
To play music in measured time. [Obsolete] — Donne