Crock

The loose black particles collected from combustion, as on pots and kettles, or in a chimney; soot; smut; also, coloring matter which rubs off from cloth.

To soil by contact, as with soot, or with the coloring matter of badly dyed cloth.

To give off crock or smut.

A low stool.

Any piece of crockery, especially of coarse earthenware; an earthen pot or pitcher.

To lay up in a crock; as, to crock butter.

a black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink