croak

Etymology

From Middle English *croken, crouken, (also represented by craken > crake), back-formation from Old English crācettan (“to croak”) (also in derivative crǣcettung (“croaking”)), from Proto-Germanic *krēk- (compare Swedish kråka, German krächzen), potentially from Proto-Indo-European *greh₂-g- (compare Sanskrit गर्जति (garjati, “to growl”); also Latin grāculus (“jackdaw”), Serbo-Croatian grákati from *greh₂-k-), of onomatopoeic origin.

noun

1. A faint, harsh sound made in the throat.
2. The call of a frog or toad. (see also ribbit)
3. The harsh call of various birds, such as the raven or corncrake, or other creatures.

verb

1. (intransitive) To make a croak.
2. (transitive) To utter in a low, hoarse voice.
3. (intransitive, of a frog, toad, raven, or various other birds or animals) To make its sound.
4. (slang) To die.
5. (transitive, slang) To kill someone or something.
   He'd seen my face, so I had to croak him.
   "It was me. And I'm glad, damned glad, I didn't croak him. With this slick guy after me, it would be me for the chair." June 1920, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 216, column 2
   If Wilton croaked the criminal he did a jolly good day's work, and there's an end of it. 1925, G. K. Chesterton, The Arrow of Heaven (first published in Nash's Pall Mall Magazine, Jul 1925)
6. To complain; especially, to grumble; to forebode evil; to utter complaints or forebodings habitually.