old crock
1
9.2
- noun
- UK
:
carro viejo
Examples
-
"Or for an old crock," I said.
Fiction book (1998) -
Well, bud, I think the old crock looked a little sick, except at the end when he kind of turned it on you.
-
- The old crock?
-
He finally decided to sell his old crock that barely started in the winter.
-
That rusty car is just an old crock; it barely moves anymore.
-
After years of neglect, the old crock sat unused in the garage, covered in dust.
Synonyms
373
1.1
Old or broken things that are no longer useful
4
6.1
An old car in bad condition that often breaks down
3
5.2
An old car that is worn out and often breaks down
An old car or machine that is very rusty and in poor condition
Antonyms
How Worn
Surface Forms
Morphology
old + crock
While 'old' is fully transparent, 'crock' is a low-frequency, dialectal word whose primary literal sense is a pot and which also has an extended sense 'a useless or worthless thing'. The MWE's sense 'an old/worn-out vehicle or machine' is a metaphorical extension of that extended sense and therefore partially derivable but requires prior exposure to the non-literal meaning of 'crock', so it is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Old crock may come from the word crock, which meant a heavy clay pot that could crack and become useless. People then used old crock for any old, broken thing, so today it means 'an old or worn-out object'.