croak
verbEtymology From Middle English *croken, crouken, (also represented by craken > crake), back-formation from Old English crācettan (“to croak”) (also in derivative crǣcetung (“croaking”)), from Proto-Germanic *krēk-, from Proto-Indo-European *greh₂-g-, from *greh₂-k-, of onomatopoeic origin. See also Swedish kråka, German krächzen, Sanskrit गर्जति (garjati, “to growl”); also compare Latin grāculus (“jackdaw”), Serbo-Croatian grákati. More at crack, crake and craic.
7 senses
To make a croak sound.
To utter in a low, hoarse voice.
- The raven himself is hoarse, / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
- “I am so tired,” he croaked. “It’s ageing this nation in Tom Hanks in Castaway years.”2025 April 29, The Guardian, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2025:
Of a frog To make its vocal sound.
Toad; raven; or various other birds or animals; toad; raven; or various other birds or animals
Slang To die.
- “I would like to understand before I croak. I would like to understand, and then I’m perfectly fine to shuffle off my mortal coil.”2026, Sebastian Mallaby, “Introduction”, in The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence, Penguin, →ISBN:
Slang To kill.
- He'd seen my face, so I had to croak him.
- "It was me. And I'm glad, damned glad, I didn't croak him. With this slick guy after me, it would be me for the chair."1920 June 23, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 216, column 2:
1 more example
- If Wilton croaked the criminal he did a jolly good day's work, and there's an end of it.1925, G. K. Chesterton, The Arrow of Heaven (first published in Nash's Pall Mall Magazine, Jul 1925)
To complain; especially, to grumble; to forebode evil; to utter complaints or forebodings habitually.
- Marat […] croaks with such reasonableness.1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences Slang To abort the current program indicating a user or caller error.
- The accessor croaks if it's not an appropriate object reference.2002, Nathan Patwardhan, Ellen Siever, Stephen Spainhour, Perl, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 200:
- Derived terms
- croaker, croaking gourami, croakingly