Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an old or broken-down horse.

1863		Bucks Herald 24 Oct. 4/6: He styles the knock-kneed, wall-eyed, old horse he drives ‘a rare old crock’.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Oct. 8/4: The aged crock was waddling along at a drowsy jog-trot, his lower lip dragging in the dust and his stump tail poking out like the handle of a pan.
1889		Bird o’ Freedom 7 Aug. 3: For five minutes that crock went about twice as fast as it had ever done.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 58: One of my hired crocks had bad luck.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 17 Aug. 1/5: As Herbert B. asleep did lay, / [...] / His two old crocks, who felt fresh and gay, In the middle of the night did clear away.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 July 24/1: ‘Teddy’ Knight’s reported ‘crock,’ ‘cripple’ &c., Prince Carbine [...] scooped the big thing of Rosehill meeting, Saturday.
1909		Gem 6 Feb. 24: By gum, if this crock of mine has wind in him for one dyin’ effort, I’ll try it!
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 July 14/3: In those days a bear-dog was a mighty valuable asset, and was sometimes swapped for a horse, and not a bad crock at that.
1929		K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 233: None of your old crocks.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 38: [A]s a trainer he was famed for his ability to resurrect crocks .

2. a bicycle.

1909		(ref. to 1870) J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 98/2: Crock (Youths’, 1870). A bicycle. One of the more obscure names for this apparatus.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 96: I could make a walking tour to see Milly by the canal. Or cycle down. Hire some old crock, safety.
1981		(con. 1920s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 220: crock an old bicycle.

3. a broken-down or physically debilitated person or thing, often as old crock.

1889		Illus. Bits 13 July n.p.: [...] You are getting a bit of a crock – failing fast, I should say [F&H].
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 23 Nov. 2/3: That herterogeneous [sic] collection of yellow- visaged, bilious old cranks and crocks known as the Victorian Presbyterian Assembly.
1903		Wodehouse ‘How Pillingshot Scored’ in Captain May 🌐 The young crock’s gone and got mumps, or the plague, or something.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 July 4/4: One speaker likened an opponent to ‘an old crock’.
1907		Lancs. Eve. Post 7 Nov. 5/7: Not an ‘Old Crock’ [...] The ‘soccer’ men have evidently been a little too previous in relegating Smith to the ranks of the ‘old crcoks’.
1917		‘Ian Hay’ Carrying On 223: The second [wound] gave me such a stiff leg that I am only an old crock now.
1923		P. MacGill Moleskin Joe 54: And the one woman, Moleskin, day and night, when you go to doss, when you wake up, when you have a crock [...] is more than mortal man can bear.
1929		N. Devitt Legal Atmospherics 131: lawyer : Would you describe them as old crocks? witness: Do you mean the committee – or the horses?
1936		(con. 1900s) F. Richards Old Soldier Sahib (1965) 32: Married men on the strength of the regiment were called the ‘married crocks.’.
1943		M. Panter-Downes ‘Cur Down the Trees’ Wartime Stories (1999) 146: You don’t want England populated with nothing but old crocks like you and me, do you?
1950		(con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 255: I seem to be getting such an old crock, just doddering along.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 171: The hospitals are full of crocks.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 151: There’d be enough to piece out both of a couple of old crocks like us.
1990		P.-D. Uys Part Hate Part Love (1994) 27: Not bad for an old crock who’s nearly 100.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 4 June 3: What does that sad old crock think he looks like?
2011		Observer Mag. 30 1 May. 29/2: This out-of-touch old crock of a ‘former rock chick’ is mistaken.

4. an invalid, a hypochondriac.

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Jan. 12/4: He parades his pathetic old crock all over the place, seeking influential persons.

5. a broken-down or mechanically unreliable car, aeroplane or any other vehicle.

1904		Kipling ‘Their Lawful Occasions Pt I’ in Traffics and Discoveries 123: ‘But if those cruisers are crocks, why does the Admiral let ’em out of Weymouth at all?’ I asked.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Aug. 16/4: When I saw these bikists they were wearily and dispiritedly pushing their crocks over a plain that carried about 7000 tons of stones to the acre.
1917		A.S.G. Lee letter in No Parachute (1968) 23 May 13: I’d been given the oldest crock in flight.
1938		F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 18: Their best speed was between forty and fifty miles an hour. It was this pair of old crocks [...] which first spread the magic of the Flying Squad.
1942		Whizzbang Comics 29: There was a bang in the old crock’s inside.
1949		Sessex Agricultural Exp. 15 Apr. 5/5: ‘Well, I always knew that Lewes was famous for its old crocks, but this takes the biscuit. ’He was referring to the procession of veteran motor cars and ‘bone-shaker’ bicycles.
1957		A. Buckeridge Thanks to Jennings (1988) 61: That ancient old crock of a car over there.
1980		M. Melamu ‘Bad Times, Sad Times’ in Mutloatse Forced Landing 53: Mthembu and me are to trudge those twelve miles to get a new fanbelt, while the two girls watch the crock – as if any self-respecting thief would want to steal that rubbish!
2000		Guardian G2 2 June 3: Some cowboy trying to peddle a clapped out old crock.