a. and sb. Also 7–9 -ean. [f. L. crocodīl-us + -IAN.]
A. adj. † 1. Like a crocodile; making a hypocritical show of grief; treacherous. Obs.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. (1682), 454. The Soul-betraying Tears of her Crocodilean Sex.
1635. Quarles, Embl., I. iv. (1818), 27. O what a crocodilian world is this, Compos’d of treach’ries, and insnaring wiles.
2. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of, a crocodile; belonging to the crocodile family of reptiles.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 601/1. The crocodilian family.
1890. Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc., May, 284. An undoubtedly crocodilian jaw.
B. sb. An animal of the crocodile family.
1837. W. Buckland, Geol., I. 251, note. The modern broad-nosed Crocodileans.
1870. A. L. Adams, Nile Valley & Malta, 129. [Fossil] jaws of undetermined crocodilians.
