Other forms: crocodiles
A crocodile is a long dangerous river animal with a huge mouth full of teeth. A saltwater crocodile, crocodile teeth, the crocodile's jaws.
The bite is the strongest measured of any living animal, and the muscles that open the jaw are so weak that a hand can hold it shut. Crocodile tears means false grief, from an old story that the animal wept while eating. The Greek name means pebble worm.
1nouncrocodileA large river reptile with long jaws.
“A crocodile lay still in the muddy river, waiting for an animal to come and drink.”
crocodile is a reptile.
Also accepted in games: alligator
Greek krokodilos names the animal, apparently from words for a pebble and a worm — the lizard of the stones.
Ancient Greek
κροκόδειλος
Latin
crocodilus
Medieval Latin
cocodrillus
Old French
cocodril
Middle English
cocodrill
English, today
crocodile
Middle English cocodrill, cokadrill, cokedril, from Old French cocodril (modern French crocodile), from Medieval Latin cocodrillus, from Latin crocodilus, from Ancient Greek κροκόδειλος. The word was later refashioned after the Latin and Greek forms. a doublet of krokodil.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA