crock

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a thick earthenware pot or jar used for cooking or storage

   The beans simmered slowly in a covered crock.

2. 2
   noun

   a statement or idea regarded as complete nonsense; informal

   His excuse was a crock, and nobody believed it.

3. 3
   noun

   soot or black matter that rubs off a pot, chimney, or similar surface; archaic

   The boy emerged from the forge grimed with crock and dirt.

4. 4
   verb

   to soil or blacken something with soot or crock

   The smoky pan crocked the cloth laid beneath it.

The vessel sense comes from Old English crocc, 'pot or earthen vessel,' with Germanic relatives. The soot sense is also old and refers to black matter that soils by contact; the informal nonsense sense is later, familiar from the phrase a crock of nonsense.

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