Crotch″et (kr?ch″?t; 224), n. [F. crochet, prop., a little hook, a dim. from the same source as croc hook. See Crook, and cf. Crochet, Crocket, Crosier.] 1. A forked support; a crotch.
The crotchets of their cot in columns rise.
Dryden.
2. (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.
3. (Fort.) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
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.
5. (Print.) A bracket. See Bracket.
6. (Med.) An instrument of a hooked form, used in certain cases in the extraction of a fetus. Dunglison.
7. 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.