Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CROC'O-DILE, n. [Gr. κροκοδειλος; (qu. κροκος, saffron, and δειλος, fearing;) L. crocodilus; It. coccodrillo; Sp. cocodrilo.]

1. An amphibious animal of the genus Crocodilus. It has a naked body, with four feet and a tail; it has five toes on the fore feet, and four on the hind feet. It grows to the length of sixteen or eighteen feet, runs swiftly on land, but does not easily turn itself. It inhabits the large rivers in Africa and Asia, and lays its eggs, resembling those of a goose, in the sand, to be hatched by the heat of the sun. [See Alligator.] – Encyc.
2. In rhetoric, a captious and sophistical argument contrived to draw one into a snare.