crotchet

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An odd, whimsical, or stubborn notion.
2. n. Music See quarter note.
3. n. Obsolete A small hook or hooklike structure.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A little hook; a hook.
2. n. Specifically In anatomy, the hooked anterior end of the superior occipitotemporal cerebral convolution.
3. n. In entomology, a little hook-like organ or process, generally one of a series; specifically, one of the minute horny hooks on the prolegs of many caterpillars.
4. n. One of the pair of marks, [], used in writing and printing, now more commonly called brackets. See bracket, n., 4.
5. n. A curved surgical instrument with a sharp hook, used to extract the fetus in the operation of embryotomy.
6. n. In music, a note equal in length to half a minim or one fourth of a semibreve; a quarter note. See note.
7. n. A piece of wood resembling a fork, used as a support in building.
8. n. Milit., a peculiar arrangement of troops, in which they are drawn up in a line nearly perpendicular to the line of battle.
9. n. In fortification, an indentation in the glacis of the covered way at a point where a traverse is placed.
10. n. A singular opinion, especially one held by a person who has no special competency to form a correct opinion; an unusual and whimsical notion concerning a matter of fact or principle of action; a perverse or odd conceit.
11. To play or sing in quick rhythm.
12. n. In zoology, one of the slightly curved and notched bristles or chætæ common among Oligochæta, and serving probably as locomotor organs.
13. n. Same as crocket.

Wiktionary

1. n. A musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.
2. n. A sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook (obsolete except in crochet hook).
3. n. a whim or a fancy
4. v. To make needlework by looping thread with a hooked needle

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A forked support; a crotch.
2. n. 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. n. An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
4. n. 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. n. A bracket. See Bracket.
6. n. An instrument of a hooked form, used in certain cases in the extraction of a fetus.
7. n. A perverse fancy; a whim which takes possession of the mind; a conceit.
8. v. To play music in measured time.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a strange attitude or habit
2. n. a musical note having the time value of a quarter of a whole note
3. n. a sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook
4. n. a small tool or hooklike implement