| 释义 |
▪ I. croak, n.|krəʊk|
Also 8 croke.
[See croak v.]
1. The deep hoarse sound made by a frog or raven. Also transf. and fig.
1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 225 b, They play the waterfrogs, singyng croake croake. 1632Rowley Woman never vext iii. in Hazl. Dodsley XII. 160 O thou fatal raven! let me pull thine eyes out For this sad croak. 1766Pennant Zool. (1812) II. 157 (Puffin Auk) The hoarse, deep, periodical croak of the corvorants. 1861Trollope Barchester T. xliv, ‘I told you so, I told you so!’ is the croak of a true Job's comforter.
2. Hawking. (See quot. 1891.) Also pl. (Cf. crock n.4)
1707Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch (1710) 400 The Croke is evidently an Asthmatic Disposition produced by hard flying. Ibid. 401 The Noise called the Croke was made by Expiration and not by Inspiration. 1891Harting Gloss. Falconry, Croaks, or Kecks, Fr. crac, a disease of the air-passages, analogous to a cough, and so called from the sound the bird makes during any exertion, such as bating, or flying.
▪ II. croak, v.|krəʊk|
Forms: (5 crok) 6–8 croke, 6–7 croake, 7– croak.
[Croak n. and vb. appears only about 1550; the 15th c. crok is not its exact equivalent phonetically; in the same sense ME. had also crouke, crowke: see crook v.2 It is possible that croak, with the northern parallel form crake, craik, goes back to an OE. *crácian, of which the recorded cræcetian to croak (said of ravens) may be a diminutive; but it is on the whole more probable that crouke, crok, croak, with crake, creak, crick, are later formations imitating or suggesting varieties of animal and other sounds.]
1. a. intr. To utter a deep, hoarse, dismal cry, as a frog or a raven.
c1460Towneley Myst. 99 Sely Capyll, oure hen..She kakyls, Bot begyn she to crok, To groyne or to clok. 1557Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 200 Thou dunghyll crowe that crokest agaynst the rayne. 1595Spenser Epithal. 349 Th' vnpleasant quyre of frogs still croking. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iii. iii. Wks. 1856 I. 111 Now croakes the toad. 1697Dryden Virg. Ecl. i. 26 The hoarse Raven..By croaking from the left presag'd the coming Blow. 1835W. Irving Tour Prairies 277 Ravens..flapping about and croaking dismally in the air. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile xxii. 699 Meanwhile the frogs croaked furiously.
b. Of a hawk: see croak n. 2.
1575Turberv. Faulconrie 250 You may perceyve these woormes to plague and trouble your hawke when she croakes in the night. 1618Latham 2nd Bk. Falconry (1633) 23 It breedeth much winde in them, the which..will appeare often with a rising in the gorge, and a noyse withall of croking.
2. transf. Of persons: † To groan or cry (obs.); to speak with a hoarse, hollow utterance; fig. to speak in dismal accents, talk despondingly, forebode evil (like the raven).
c1460Towneley Myst. 108, I thoght Gylle began to crok, and travelle full sad. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. ii. 191 Would I could meete that roague Diomed, I would croke like a Rauen: I would bode, I would bode. 1797Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 389 They, who croak themselves hoarse about the decay of our trade. 1806Metcalfe in Owen Wellesley's Desp. 807 Without croaking, it may be observed that our government is upon a dangerous experiment. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxii. 222 ‘Don't be croaking, cousin—I hate it!’ he would say.
†3. Of the stomach or bowels: To make a rumbling noise. Obs.
1547[see croaking vbl. n. 1]. 1611Cotgr., Gribouiller, to rumble or croake (as the guts doe through windinesse). 1682N. O. Boileau's Lutrin iv. 330 My eager stomach crokes, and calls for Dinner! a1704T. Brown Sat. Fr. King Wks. 1730 I. 60 When my starv'd entrails croke.
4. trans. To utter or proclaim by croaking.
1605Shakes. Macb. i. v. 40 The raven himselfe is hoarse That croakes the fatall entrance of Duncan. 1791Ep. to J. Priestley in Poet. Reg. (1808) 401 Now half the bench of Bishops we may meet, Croaking ‘old clothes’ about St. James's Street. 1847Tennyson Princ. iv. 106 Marsh-divers, rather, maid, Shall croak thee sister. 1879Froude Cæsar xiii. 178 Bibulus, as each measure was passed, croaked that it was null and void.
5. intr.
a. slang. To die.
1812in J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. 1851Mayhew London Lab. I. 424/1 They go mouching along as if they were croaking. 1873Slang Dict., Croak, to die—from the gurgling sound a person makes when the breath of life is departing. 1896A. Morrison Child of Jago xxviii. 272 Run, for Gawd's sake, or the woman'll croak! 1961‘J. Welcome’ Beware of Midnight ii. 33 Your old man has croaked and left you the lot.
b. trans. To kill; to murder; to hang. dial. or slang.
1823P. Egan Grose's Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Croaked, hanged. A flash term among keepers of prisons, who, speaking of a thief that was executed, observe, ‘He was croaked.’ 1848Ladies' Repository VIII. 316/1 Croak, to murder. 1877F. Ross et al. Gloss. Holderness, Crooak,..N. and E., to kill. 1910E. A. Walcott Open Door vii. 83 ‘I never done it!’ he gasped. ‘I never hurt nobody. Who's been croaked?’ 1930Punch 26 Feb. 236 It was fairly clear that he had been croaked. 1945L. A. G. Strong Othello's Occupation 123 Who croaked Enameline? |