Word Direct Answers

What does "crotchet" mean?

Crotchet: (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.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Fort.) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
  2. 3.(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.
  3. 4.(Print.) A bracket. See Bracket.
  4. 5.(Med.) An instrument of a hooked form, used in certain cases in the extraction of a fetus. Dunglison.
  5. 6.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.
  6. 7.To play music in measured time. [Obs.] Donne.

Sources