To croak is to make a rough, low, harsh sound, like a frog or a sick person’s voice. Informally, it can also mean to die.
Probably imitative of the sound itself, like “crooook,” and related to words in other European languages for frog sounds. The death meaning grew later in slang, as if someone’s last sound was a croak.
Croak is one of those words born straight from sound—your mouth almost imitates a frog when you say it slowly. The dark slang meaning ‘to croak’ for ‘to die’ shows how humans often connect rough, broken sounds with the end of life.
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