crocodile

Pluralcrocodiles

Formscrocodiles, crocodiling, crocodiled

1. 1
   nouncountable

   Any of the large predatory amphibious reptiles of the family Crocodylidae; more loosely, any member of the order Crocodilia, including alligators, caimans, and gavials.

   The crocodile seized the wildebeest as it crossed the swollen river.

   Crocodiles can remain submerged for over an hour while waiting for prey.

   Note

   Medieval English had the animal without its first r: cocodrill, cokadrill, cokedril, borrowed from Old French cocodril. The r came back only when the word was refashioned after Latin crocodilus and Greek krokódeilos, which is why modern English and French spell it alike. Careful writing keeps crocodile for the family Crocodylidae and uses crocodilian for the wider order that also takes in alligators, caimans and gavials.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A long line of people, especially schoolchildren, walking along together, often in pairs.

   The whole school filed out in a long crocodile toward the chapel.

   Two crocodiles of children wound their way along the seafront path.

   Similarline, procession, file, column

   Note

   Children walk in a crocodile rather than as one, so the usual construction is in a crocodile or in crocodiles. George Orwell's Coming Up for Air (1939) has boys from the smart schools of Eastbourne "led round in crocodiles" to visit wounded soldiers. The figure borrows the long, winding body of the reptile and suits any orderly file of walkers following a leader.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A fallacious dilemma, said in legend to have first been posed by a crocodile.

   The sophist trapped his opponent with a crocodile, ensuring defeat whichever way the man answered.

   Ancient logicians delighted in crocodiles and similar paradoxes that punish every possible reply.

   Note

   A logician's term, and a countable one: you can pose a crocodile, and a teacher can collect crocodiles the way he collects syllogisms. Maria Edgeworth's Practical Education (1798) lists crocodiles alongside syllogisms, enthymemes and sorites as forms tried on a boy of nine or ten in playful conversation. It belongs to the toolkit of trick arguments that train the wits, not to the stock of sound reasoning.

4. 4
   nounfigurativelyPhilippinescountable

   A person given to greed or corruption, particularly someone in politics or public service.

   The newspaper branded the minister a crocodile feeding on public funds.

   A pack of crocodiles ran the ministry, each grabbing whatever he could.

   Similarvulture, shark, leech, parasite

   Note

   Philippine English turns the reptile into a political insult, picturing officials who devour public money as a predator devours its prey. It is a figure of public talk aimed at politicians and functionaries. Outside the Philippines, listeners may not catch the charge of corruption, so writing for a wider readership is safer with greedy or corrupt spelled out.

5. 5
   verbslangintransitive

   To speak a language other than Esperanto at a gathering meant to be held in Esperanto.

   Two delegates at the Esperanto congress slipped into French and kept crocodiling through the whole excursion.

   Newcomers crocodile constantly until they feel confident enough to hold every conversation in Esperanto.

   Note

   An in-group verb borrowed whole from Esperanto: English crocodile copies krokodili, which Esperanto built from its own word for the animal. It is intransitive, so people crocodile or keep crocodiling, but they never crocodile a language. The word lives in the slang of the Esperanto community itself, and outside those circles it usually needs a word of explanation.

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