Definition

1. Noun:

   • An earthenware jar or pot: A container, typically made of baked clay.
   • Nonsense; foolish talk: Something said that is absurd, untrue, or insincere.
   • A black, sooty substance: A black colloidal substance, primarily amorphous carbon, historically used in making pigments and ink.
   • (Informal, dated) A worn-out person or thing: A person who is old, ill, or incapacitated; or a dilapidated vehicle.

2. Verb:

   • To soil or blacken with soot or dirt: To become dirty or stained, especially with a black substance like soot.
   • To release color when rubbed: Said of a fabric where the dye is not fast and comes off.
   • (Informal, dated) To become disabled or break down: To become ill, exhausted, or cease functioning properly.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • She stored the homemade jam in a large crock.
  • His excuse for being late was a complete crock.
  • The old miner's hands were covered in crock.
  • After the long illness, he felt like an old crock.

• Verb:

  • The chimney sweeper's clothes were crocked with soot.
  • This cheap red fabric crocks terribly onto my white shirt.
  • His knee crocked up during the marathon, forcing him to stop.

Advanced Usage

• "a crock of...": Used to intensify the noun "crock" in its meaning of "nonsense."
  • That story is a crock of lies. (That story is full of lies.)
• "to cry crock": An archaic or dialect phrase meaning to complain or make excuses.

Variants and Related Words

• Crockery (n): Earthenware or china dishes collectively.
  • She washed the breakfast crockery.
• Crocked (adj, informal, dated): Drunk; intoxicated.
  • He got completely crocked at the party.

Synonyms

• Noun (jar): Pot, jar, vessel, urn.
• Noun (nonsense): Baloney, rubbish, hogwash, drivel.
• Verb (soil): Blacken, dirty, smudge, stain.
• Verb (break down): Fail, collapse, give out, conk out (informal).

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Crock up (verb, informal, dated): To become ill, exhausted, or incapacitated; for machinery, to break down.
  • He crocked up with flu just before the holidays.
  • The car's engine finally crocked up on the mountain road.

Related Idioms

• "That's a crock!": An exclamation stating that something is nonsense or untrue.
  • You expect me to believe that? That's a crock!

Noun

1. an earthen jar (made of baked clay)
2. nonsense; foolish talk
   • that's a crock
3. a black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink

Verb

1. soil with or as with crock
2. release color when rubbed, of badly dyed fabric