Wiktionary

croak

See also: Croak

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English *croken, crouken, (also represented by craken > crake), back-formation from Old English crācettan (“to croak”) (also in derivative crǣcettung (“croaking”)), from Proto-Germanic *krēk- (compare Swedish kråka, German krächzen), potentially from Proto-Indo-European *greh₂-g- (compare Sanskrit गर्जति (garjati, “to growl”); also Latin grāculus (“jackdaw”), Serbo-Croatian grákati from *greh₂-k-), of onomatopoeic origin.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

croak (plural croaks)

  1. A faint, harsh sound made in the throat.
  2. The call of a frog or toad. (see also ribbit)
  3. The harsh call of various birds, such as the raven or corncrake, or other creatures.

TranslationsEdit

the harsh sound of various birds, particularly the raven or crow — see caw

VerbEdit

croak (third-person singular simple present croaks, present participle croaking, simple past and past participle croaked)

  1. (intransitive) To make a croak.
  2. (transitive) To utter in a low, hoarse voice.
  3. (intransitive, of a frog, toad, raven, or various other birds or animals) To make its sound.
  4. (slang) To die.
  5. (transitive, slang) To kill someone or something.
    He'd seen my face, so I had to croak him.
    • 1920 June 1, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 216, column 2:
      "It was me. And I'm glad, damned glad, I didn't croak him. With this slick guy after me, it would be me for the chair."
    • 1925, G. K. Chesterton, The Arrow of Heaven (first published in Nash's Pall Mall Magazine, Jul 1925)
      If Wilton croaked the criminal he did a jolly good day's work, and there's an end of it.
  6. To complain; especially, to grumble; to forebode evil; to utter complaints or forebodings habitually.

TranslationsEdit

of a raven, to make its sound — see caw
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