Forms: α. 4–5 cokadrille, -yll(e, cokedril, -ill(e, 4–6 cocodrill(e, -yll(e, 5 cocodrile, coko-, coquodrille, cockadrylle, 5–6 cocadryll(e; β. 6– crocodile, (6 crocodrille, 6–7 -dil(l, 7 crockadell, crocadile, crokidile, -odile, 8 crocodyle). [ME. cocodrille, cokadrill, etc., a. OF. cocodrille (13–17th c.) = Pr. cocodrilh, Sp. cocodrilo, It. coccodrillo, med.L. cocodrillus, corruption of L. crocodīlus (also corcodilus), a. Gr. κροκόδειλος, found from Herodotus downward. The original form after Gr. and L. was restored in most of the mod. langs. in the 16–17th c.: F. crocodile (in Paré), It. crocodillo (in Florio), Sp. crocodilo (in Percival).]
1. A large amphibious saurian reptile of the genus Crocodilus or other allied genera. The name belongs originally and properly to the crocodile of the Nile (C. niloticus or vulgaris); but is extended to other species of the same or allied genera, and sometimes to the whole of the Crocodilia, including the Alligators of America and the Gavial or ‘crocodile’ of the Ganges.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 6597. What best is the cokadrille.
1382. Wyclif, Lev. xi. 29. A cokedril … that is a beest of foure feete, hauynge the nether cheke lap vnmeuable, and meuynge the ouere.
1483. Caxton, Cato, E viii b. The cockadrylle is so stronge and so grete a serpent.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, xxxvi. 112. The grete multytude of serpentes and cocodrylles.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 184. Crocodrilles whiche they cal Caymanes, or Lizarts of twenty foote long, with such Scales and head as a Dragon hathe.
1684. Evelyn, Diary, 22 Oct. A crocodile, brought from some of the West India Islands, resembling the Egyptian Crocodile.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 271. As a young Brood of Crocodiles, who swim In Ganges stream.
1842. H. Miller, O. R. Sandst., iii. (ed. 2), 63. Some huge salamander or crocodile of the Lias.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 491. This family … is divided into three genera, the Crocodiles, Alligators and Gavials…. The true crocodiles are inhabitants of Africa, India, and the hotter parts of America.
† b. Formerly applied with qualifications to various small saurians or lizards. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 693. A Scink or a Crocodile of the earth. Ibid. Of the Land Crocodile of Bresilia.
2. The crocodile was fabulously said to weep, either to allure a man for the purpose of devouring him, or while (or after) devouring him; hence many allusions in literature. (See also 5.)
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xxviii. 288. In that contre … ben gret plentee of Cokadrilles…. Theise Serpentes slen men, and thei eten hem wepynge.
1565. Sir J. Hawkins’ Voy., in Hakluyt (1600), III. 512. In this riuer we saw many Crocodils…. His nature is euer when hee would haue his prey, to cry and sobbe like a Christian body, to prouoke them to come to him, and then hee snatcheth at them.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. v. 18. A cruell craftie Crocodile
1604. Shaks., Oth., I. i. 257. If that the Earth could teeme with womans teares, Each drop she falls, would proue a Crocodile.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1608), 688.
1623. Cockeram, III. s.v.
1676. D’Urfey, Mad. Fickle, III. iii. More false than Crocodills, That mourn the Slain, and yet delight to kill ’em.
1700. Blackmore, Paraphr. Job v. 21. His plighted Faith the Crocodile shall keep, And seeing thee, for joy sincerely Weep.
b. Hence fig. A person who weeps or makes a show of sorrow hypocritically or with a malicious purpose.
1595. Barnfield, Cassandra, lxi. He … Sweetely salutes this weeping Crocodile.
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, V. iv. O, my nephew knowes you belike: away crocodile.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 199. Down he goes without hostages, where he finds the Crocodile ready to embrace him with tears of joy.
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, xliii. The amorous crocodile shed a tear, and persisted in her double-faced course.
3. Logic. Name of an ancient sophism or dilemma; see CROCODILITE.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Crocodile, in rhetoric, a captious sophistical kind of argumentation.
1798. Edgeworth, Pract. Educ., II. xxiii. 673. Many argue … with great … precision, who might … be caught on the horns of a dilemma, or who would … fall victims to the crocodile.
1884. trans. Lotze’s Logic, 295. Equally curious is the old dilemma of the crocodile.
4. humorous colloq. A girls’ school walking two and two in a long file. (In use before 1870.)
5. attrib. and Comb., often with allusion to the fabled weeping of the crocodile (see 2), esp. in crocodile tears.
1563. Grindal, in Strype, Life (1710), I. vii. 78. I begin to fear, lest his humility … be a counterfeit humility, and his tears crocodile tears.
1623. Cockeram, III. s.v., Thence came the Prouerb, he shed Crocodile teares, viz. fayned teares.
1678. Yng. Man’s Call., 156. Believe him not: his crocodile flatteries have undone thousands.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., III. Crit. Hist., 5. To a greater advantage of the Crocodyle-Jesuits.
1806. G. S. Faber, Dissert., II. 343. With a crocodile affectation of clemency.
1863. Sala, Capt. Dangerous, xvii. Saying with crocodile tears, that he was not the first who had an undutiful son.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 2 March, 6/1. The crocodile-skin bag may perhaps be called fashionable.
1892. Temple Bar, July, 348, note. Narrow gauge stock had also been conveyed westward in ‘crocodile’ trucks—ones with very low bodies.
Hence Crocodile v. (from sense 4).
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 April, 6/1. He urged in powerful language the desirability of substituting lawn tennis, rounders, and even cricket, for the everlasting ‘crocodiling’ about the streets, which is so dear to the hearts of all schoolmistresses.
