Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
CROCK, CROK, CROAK, CROOK, n.1 Also crog (after Gael. spelling). [krɔk, krok, kruk (obs.)]
1. An old ewe which has ceased bearing (Sc. 1808 Jam., crok; Bnff.2 1941, crock; Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 146; Nai. 1831 Edb. Ev. Courant (8 Dec.) 4; Arg. 1878 Trans. Highl. Soc. 20). Also found in n.Eng. dial. (E.D.D.) and often used attrib.Sc. 1724–27 Ramsay T. T. Misc. (1733) 182:
Twa croks that moup amang the heather.Sc. c.1754 H. G. Graham Soc. Life Scot. 18th Cent. (1899) I. 180:
His fingers and teeth did duty for knife and fork on the rare occasions when they were called into requisition by the death of “crock ewe.”Per. 1835 J. Monteath Dunblane Trad. 78:
The whisky-mongers . . . knew . . . that he would pay them plack and fardin . . . or with a few crook-yowes, when they chose to send for them.Gall.(D) 1901 Trotter Gall. Gossip 38:
[They] flockit roond him like corbies roon a deein crock, as sune as they heard o' his wun'fa'.s.Sc. 1871 H. S. Riddell Poet. Wks. II. 202:
Our croaks and our hoggs in the spring time might dee.Slk. a.1835 Hogg Tales, etc. (1837) II. 331:
Do you think . . . that a man o' taste canna distinguish . . . callar, fresh, lamb, frae auld crock mutton?
2. (See quot.)Sc. 1886 C. Scott Sheep-farming 18:
When they [ewes] have been crossed with rams of a different breed, they are called crones, crocks, or milled ewes.
†3. “A dwarf” (Ags. 1808 Jam., crok).
[O.Sc. crok, crock, an old ewe, from 1456 (D.O.S.T.), of uncertain origin. Phs. conn. with Norw. krok, a hook, a poor broken-down person, O.N. krókr, something bent, a hook, but cf. also Eng. crock, a broken-down horse.]
