1753 Philos. Trans. 1751–2 (Royal Soc.) 47 83 With a crotchet holding up the integuments [I] keep them from touching.

1854 E. Mayhew Dogs (1862) 213 Forceps..are always dangerous..The crochet, a blunt hook..is to be preferred.

1754 W. Smellie Treat. Midwifery II. xxvii. 448 I..sat down with a resolution to deliver, either with the forceps or crotchet, in order to save the woman's life.

1833 J. Holland Treat. Manuf. Metal II. 58 The crotchet or hook; the workman uses it with the left hand to gather the quantity of corn he intends to cut.

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xxvii. 216 Simond carried my theodolite box, tied upon a crotchet on his back.

c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 104 Crochett of songe, semiminima.

a1500 (a1460) Towneley Plays (1994) I. xiii. 153 2 Pastor. Say, what was his song? Hard ye not how he crakyd it, Thre brefes to a long? 3 Pastor. Yee, Mary, he hakt it: Was no crochett wrong, Nor nothyng that lakt it.

a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 225 The pyat..Feynȝeis to sing the nychtingale note, Bot scho can not the corchet cleiff For hasknes of hir carleche throte.

1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 178 He giueth it such a natural grace by breaking a minime into a crotchet rest and a crotchet.

1622 H. Peacham Compl. Gentleman xi. 102 Hee driueth a Crotchet thorough many Minims, causing it to resemble a chaine with the Linkes.

1782 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music II. 303 Notes in a lozenge form..whether the heads were full or open, were at first called Minims; but when a still quicker note was thought necessary, the white or open notes only had that title, and the black were..by the English [called] Crotchets: a name given by the French with more propriety from the hook or curvature of the tail, to the..Quaver.

1849 W. Irving Oliver Goldsmith (rev. ed.) xxxiv. 290 He pretended to score down an air as the poet played it, but put down crotchets and semi-breves at random.

1579 S. Gosson Apol. Schoole of Abuse in Ephemerides Phialo f. 85^v They [sc. Musitions] haue euer a crotchet aboue commons, and adde where they liste.

1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing ii. iii. 55 Why these are very crotchets that he speakes, Note notes forsooth and nothing. View more context for this quotation

1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses I. 768 Being possess'd with crotchets, as many Musicians are.

1573 G. Harvey Let.-bk. (1884) 46 M. Osburn stud uppon this chrotchet, that he had bene ons there alreddi, and therefore, etc.

1587 W. Harrison Descr. Eng. (1877) I. ii. xxii. 339 All the od crochets in such a builder's braine.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) iii. i. 391 The Duke had Crochets in him. View more context for this quotation

1628 G. Wither Britain's Remembrancer ii. 813 How could so fond a crotchet be devised, That God our serioust actions hath despised?

1638 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 5) i. iii. i. ii. 187 That castle in the ayre, that crochet, that whimsie.

1710 E. Ward Life Don Quixote i. iii. 37 With fifty Crotchets in his Head.

a1772 Wilkie Ape, Parrot, etc. (R.) But airy whims and crotchets lead To certain loss, and ne'er succeed.

1807 G. Crabbe Parish Reg. iii, in Poems 131 And gloomy Crotchets fill'd his wandering Head.

1861 M. Arnold Pop. Educ. France 165 Opinions which have no ground in reason..mere crotchets, or mere prejudices.

1611 L. Barry Ram-Alley v. sig. H4^v As for my breath I haue crotchets and deuises, Ladies rankebreaths are often healpt with spices.

c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1644 (1955) II. 230 He..shew'd us his perpetual motions..Modells, and a thousand other crotchets & devises.

1733 title Islington; or the Humours of the New Tunbridge Wells..with Serious and Comical Puns, Crotchets, and Conclusions.

1764 S. Foote Lyar i. ii. 19 All the sighing, dying, crying crotchets, that..rhymers have ever produc'd.

1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus ii. ix. 67/1 Nothing but innuendoes, figurative crotchets.