Crotchet

n. [Fr. crochet. See CROCHES.] 1. A forked piece of wood used as a support in building; a crotch.

The crotchets of their cot in columns rise. Dryden.

2Sense 2. (Mus.) The third principal note, equal in duration to half a minim, or a fourth of the semibreve, marked with a hook, the stem of which may turn up or down according to its situation on the staff.

Crotchets.

Moore.

3Sense 3. (Fort.) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way at a point where a traverse is placed.

4Sense 4. (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.

5Sense 5. (Print.) A bracket. See BRACKET.

6Sense 6. (Surg.) An instrument of a hooked form, used in certain cases to expedite the delivery of a child.

Dunglison.

7Sense 7. A crooked or perverse fancy; a capricious opinion; a whim; a conceit.

He ruined himself and all that trusted in him by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational man. De Quincey.