crocodiled

1. 1
   verbslang

   Simple past and past participle of crocodile.

   The mural on the south wall crocodiled after decades of heat and frost.

   The lacquer had crocodiled across the cabinet's surface.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty here. Besides serving as the cracked-paint adjective, it is the past form of a slang verb from Esperanto gatherings, where to crocodile means to speak some other language instead of Esperanto. That verb takes no object, so its perfect is built with have, as in "half the delegates had crocodiled all evening." It has no passive.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of paint or a similar coating: having developed a network of surface cracks.

   Like the crisscrossed cracks that spread across old, dried-out leather.

   Restorers carefully removed the crocodiled varnish before repainting the canvas.

   The crocodiled surface of the antique table told of decades near a sunny window.

   Similarcrazed, cracked, alligatored, crackled

   Oppositesmooth

   Note

   The reptile's hide gives this word its picture: crocodile plus -ed, because a cracked coat of paint or varnish breaks into small plates that resemble scales. It behaves as a true gradable adjective, so a finish can be more crocodiled or most crocodiled as the cracking spreads. Apply it to the coating itself, such as the varnish, lacquer or paint, rather than to the wood or canvas beneath.

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