crocodiley
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more crocodiley
form: most crocodiley
form: crocodilly
Etymology: From crocodile + -y.
Senses: examples: text: “Incongruous, but there you are,” Finlay added, giving Norma one of his crocodile smiles which had become even more crocodiley since he’d acquired an eye patch.
ref: 1987, Emma Blair [pseudonym; Iain Blair], When Dreams Come True, Anstey, Leics.: Charnwood, F. A. Thorpe (Publishing) Ltd., published 1989, →ISBN, page 594:
text: You, as Chuck, have to fight your way through myriad levels of baddies – dinosaurs, spiders and weird kind of little red… erm… squidgy things and other small units that suddenly become big crocodiley units.
ref: 1992 July, Patrick McCarthy, “chuck rock”, in Paul Lakin, editor, Game Zone, number 9, London: Dennis Publishing Ltd., page 36, column 3:
text: His crocodiley mouth seemed to smile at her, and one of the red eyes winked as if he knew what she was thinking. […] Sidri turned his glowing red eyes towards her and started to nod his head, but his big crocodiley jaws slowly opened wide and the nodding stopped. […] Look at him . . . with his crocodiley head and monkey body and frog’s legs. […] Sidri’s crocodiley face blushed pink with pleasure.
ref: 1993, Nigel Hinton, The Finders, London: Puffin Books, published 1994, →ISBN, pages 72, 78–79, 106, and 122–123:
text: A gorgeous story about companionship between a small crocodiley creature and a dad crocodiley creature.
ref: 2003, Kaz Cooke, “[Dads] More Info”, in Kidwrangling: The Real Guide to Caring for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers, Camberwell, Vic.: Viking, →ISBN, part 4 (Parenting), page 404:
text: My most interesting sighting is a bleach-blonde mother with a bleach-blonde daughter. They’re almost identical, dressed in matching blue jeans and lace tops. Only the mother’s skin gives her away. It’s wrinkly and crocodiley, especially around her eyes and neck, as if she’s been left out in the sun to dry. Kind of like a sun-dried tomato.
ref: 2005, Brigid Lowry, With Lots of Love from Georgia, Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, page 123:
text: It does not look human, although it is humaniform. It has huge, sharp, carnivorous teeth in a wide mouth, reptile eyes, grayish-crocodiley skin.
ref: 2008, Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, Stephen R. Bissette, “Tekno Comix”, in Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, part four (The Comics), page 281:
text: How can she open her eyes on him first thing in the morning? He has unattractive, crocodiley skin, eyes like fried eggs and garlands of spare tyres round his fat neck.
ref: 2009, Pratima Mitchell, Indian Summer, London: Walker Books, →ISBN, page 13:
text: ‘Our production is going to be much more faithful to the book.’ / ‘Are there any purple crocodiles in the book?’ / ‘Oh, we blagged that from a production of Robinson Crusoe at the Bristol Hippodrome,’ Grace explained. ‘Dad’s renovating it for us and giving it a fresh coat of paint so it looks a bit more, you know …’ / ‘Crocodiley?’ suggested Holly. / ‘Yeah, crocodiley. It has remote-control snapping jaws … if Dad can get them working again.’
ref: 2009, Zoë Barnes, Return to Sender, London: Piatkus, Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN, page 50:
text: “The evolution of birds was a complete mystery. People thought that birds probably didn’t evolve from dinosaurs. Maybe their ancestors were some nonspecific crocodiley thing, back in the Triassic”.
ref: 2011, Henry Gee, “Feathers of the Dinosaur”, in Ian Whates, editor, Fables from the Fountain, England: NewCon Press, →ISBN, pages 156–157:
text: “Perhaps it’s my accent?” said the Crocodile, as he and the Tiger were watching football on TV. “I have this terrible crocodiley way of speaking. Perhaps it’s putting employers off?” […] “Then it’s my accent?” said the Crocodile sadly. “I know it’s too crocodiley.”
ref: 2011, Terry Jones, “The Ambitious Crocodile”, in The Amazing Terry Jones Presents for the Very First Time His Incredible Animal Tales, London: Pavilion Children’s Books, →ISBN, pages 30 and 32:
text: ‘Er, Darren, we’re trying to do our TV show?’ I said, all shaking out of anger. / ‘What’s it called? Loseroid City?’ he said, and everyone laughed again including Bunky, which I couldn’t believe because it was so unfunny. / ‘No, it’s called Darren’s Face is All Crocodiley and He’s Fat from Too Many Fronkles,’ I shouted back.
ref: 2012, Jim Smith, I Am Not a Loser (Barry Loser), London: Jelly Pie, Egmont UK Ltd, published 2013, →ISBN, pages 27–28:
text: Possum Fishy, tough, crocodiley chicken
ref: 2012, Alexandra Parsons, The Iconoclast’s Guide to Foodies: Unraveling the Mindset of a Food Snob in 50 Digestible Chunks, London; New York, N.Y.: Dog ‘n’ Bone Books, →ISBN, page 95:
text: “And that’s what we were doing when you went to bed!” cackled Mr Odd, holding up a rusty old saw with one crocodiley hand and pointing a crocodiley finger at them with the other. “Sawing through the legs of your chairs!”
ref: 2012, Adam Perrott, The Odds, London: Stripes Publishing, →ISBN, page 25:
synonyms: crocodilelike
glosses: Resembling or characteristic of a crocodile.
examples: text: I went in for this remembering that I had been informed that there were very nasty crocodiles on the island, and that I had got to get past the mouth of that largest river—as crocodiley-looking a spot as you could wish for, if you had a gun.
ref: 1897, Mary H[enrietta] Kingsley, “Fernando Po and the Bubis”, in Travels in West Africa: Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, page 52:
text: We had to swim three separate channels of the river, each of considerable depth, but so narrow that a couple of strokes landed us on the other side; but they looked so “crocodiley”!
ref: 1899, F[rederick] Vaughan Kirby, “Hunting Elephants on the Mupe”, in Sport in East Central Africa: Being an Account of Hunting Trips in Portuguese and Other Districts of East Central Africa, London: Rowland Ward, Limited […], page 288:
text: This they found very similar in appearance to the swamp at the end of the creek—a pool or two of stagnant water surrounded by beds of giant reeds and water-plants and a few willowy trees. / Dick viewed it with suspicion. ‘It looks rather crocodiley,’ he remarked. ‘I’m not going poking about in those reeds, I can [t]ell you; I have seen one old gentleman at close quarters, and that’s enough—“his bright smile haun[t]s me still.”’
ref: 1916, William Rainey, “The Mystery of an Ancient Papyrus”, in Chatterbox, Boston, Mass.: Dana Estes & Co., […], chapter IX, page 159, column 2:
text: We passed many canoes, the paddlers balancing desperately against our wash, fearful lest their keel-less log craft should overbalance, and tip yams, sago, wife and babies into the crocodiley stream.
ref: 1943, Frank Clune, chapter XV, in Prowling through Papua, Sydney, N.S.W.; London: Angus and Robertson Ltd, page 212:
text: We watched the rising tide and the slow approach of the opposite bank with some anxiety for the quiet part of the river we were crossing looked very “crocodiley”!
ref: [1960?], L[ily] M[arion] Newton, “The Okavango”, in Faraway Sandy Trails, Johannesburg–Kaapstad: Afrikaanse Pers-Boekhandel (EDMS) BPK, →OCLC, page 172:
text: We cross the Mara River at the Karume Ferry. It is a broad, deep, crocodiley and hippopotamusy-looking stream.
ref: 1974, J[ames] H[art] McCown, “[Arrival] June 22”, in Elephants Have the Right of Way: A Year of Content in East Africa, June 21, 1968 – June 21, 1969, Liguori, Mo.: Liguori Publications, →LCCN, page 13:
text: She encouraged the image, making herself the butt of frequent jokes and delighting in the incongruity of a button-booted spinster paddling up a crocodiley river with only a naked cannibal for company, or wading through mangrove swamps to emerge with a ruff of leeches about the neck like an astrakhan collar.
ref: 1990, Jane Robinson, “The Means to an End”, in Wayward Women: A Guide to Women Travellers, Oxford, Oxon; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1991, →ISBN, page 137:
glosses: Of a body of water: inhabited by or typical of crocodiles.