Library / English Dictionary

CROAK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A harsh hoarse utterance (as of a frog)

Synonyms:

croak; croaking

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("croak" is a kind of...):

utterance; vocalization (the use of uttered sounds for auditory communication)

Derivation:

croak (utter a hoarse sound, like a raven)

croaky (like the sounds of frogs and crows)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life

Example:

The old guy kicked the bucket at the age of 102

Synonyms:

buy the farm; cash in one's chips; choke; conk; croak; decease; die; drop dead; exit; expire; give-up the ghost; go; kick the bucket; pass; pass away; perish; pop off; snuff it

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "croak" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

Verb group:

break; break down; conk out; die; fail; give out; give way; go; go bad (stop operating or functioning)

die (suffer or face the pain of death)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "croak"):

abort (cease development, die, and be aborted)

asphyxiate; stifle; suffocate (be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen)

buy it; pip out (be killed or die)

drown (die from being submerged in water, getting water into the lungs, and asphyxiating)

predecease (die before; die earlier than)

famish; starve (die of food deprivation)

fall (die, as in battle or in a hunt)

succumb; yield (be fatally overwhelmed)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make complaining remarks or noises under one's breath

Example:

she grumbles when she feels overworked

Synonyms:

croak; gnarl; grumble; murmur; mutter

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "croak" is one way to...):

complain; kick; kvetch; plain; quetch; sound off (express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sense 3

Meaning:

Utter a hoarse sound, like a raven

Synonyms:

croak; cronk

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "croak" is one way to...):

emit; let loose; let out; utter (express audibly; utter sounds (not necessarily words))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

croak (a harsh hoarse utterance (as of a frog))

croaker (any of several fishes that make a croaking noise)

croaking (a harsh hoarse utterance (as of a frog))

Credits

 Context examples: 

"He's got it in him, I tell you, from his father," Mr. Higginbotham went on accusingly. "An' he'll croak in the gutter the same way. You know that."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I was often tempted, when all was at peace around me, and I the only unquiet thing that wandered restless in a scene so beautiful and heavenly—if I except some bat, or the frogs, whose harsh and interrupted croaking was heard only when I approached the shore—often, I say, I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities for ever.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“You croaking fellow!” cried Thorpe.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Copperfield! said he, in a croaking whisper, as he hung by the iron on the roof, I thought you'd be glad to hear before you went off, that there are no squares broke between us.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

On the way he passed by a marsh, in which a number of frogs were sitting croaking.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Foot by foot the Italian had retreated, his armor running blood at every joint, his shield split, his crest shorn, his voice fallen away to a mere gasping and croaking.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I tried to scream and was vaguely aware of some hoarse croak which was my own voice, but distant and detached from myself.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Don't croak any more, but come home jolly, there's a dear.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

At last the peasant pinched the raven once more till he croaked, and said: Fourthly, he says that there are some cakes under the bed.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Besides, bethink you how low is our purse, with bailiff and reeve ever croaking of empty farms and wasting lands.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)