Crotchet /(kr?ch"?t; 224)/

Crotch·et

Crotchet

n.
  1. A forked support; a crotch.
    The crotchets of their cot in columns rise.
  2. 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. (Mus.)
  3. An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed. (Fort.)
  4. 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. (Mil.)
  5. A bracket. See Bracket. (Print.)
  6. An instrument of a hooked form, used in certain cases in the extraction of a fetus. (Med.)
  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.

Crotchet

v. i.
  1. To play music in measured time. [Obs.]