- (also informal croc)[countable] a large reptile with a long tail, hard skin and very big jaws. Crocodiles live in rivers and lakes in hot countries.Topics Animalsb1
- [uncountable] crocodile skin made into leather
- crocodile shoes
- [countable] (British English) a long line of people, especially children, walking in pairs
- a school crocodile
Word OriginMiddle English cocodrille, cokadrill, from Old French cocodrille, via medieval Latin from Latin crocodilus, from Greek krokodilos ‘worm of the stones’, from krokē ‘pebble’ + drilos ‘worm’. The spelling was changed in the 16th cent. to conform with the Latin and Greek forms.
Idioms
See crocodile in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarycrocodile tears
- if somebody sheds (= cries) crocodile tears, they pretend to be sad about something, but they are not really sad at all
- Let’s have no more politicians shedding crocodile tears for the unemployed.
Check pronunciation:
crocodile