Also 7–8 croker. [f. CROAK v. + -ER.]
1. An animal that croaks; applied spec. to several North American fishes, also to the Mole Cricket.
1651. Ogilby, Æsop (1665), 11. While the long Vale with big-voiced Croakers [i.e., frogs] rings.
1676. T. Glover, Virginia, in Phil. Trans., XI. 625. In the Creeks are great store of small fish, as Perches, Crokers, Taylors, Eels.
1784. Mortimer, Carolina, ibid. XXXVIII. 315. Perca marina … the Croker.
1865. J. G. Wood, Homes without H., viii. 158. The Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris), called in some places the Croaker, or Churr-worm, on account of the peculiar sound which it produces.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4), 170. Salt-water fishes … Grunts, Croakers, and Drummers … the three last deriving their names from the sounds they utter when caught.
2. transf. One who talks dismally or despondingly, one who forebodes or prophesies evil.
1637. Bastwick, Litany, I. 20. A malignant and corrupt … brood of Crokers.
1771. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 79. There are croakers in every country, always boding its ruin.
1850. T. A. Trollope, Impress. Wand., v. 57. A few timid croakers shake their heads.
3. slang. (See quot.)
1874. Slang Dict., Croaker, a dying person beyond hope; a corpse.
1892. Star, 28 May, 2/7. The cow was a ‘croker,’ a beast killed to save it from dying.
