If you know enough about the standard Perl warn() and die(), it turns out: croak(): (slang) To die[1] confess(): to provide information, commonly[2] as one is

If you know enough about the standard Perl warn() and die(), it turns out: croak(): (slang) To die[1] confess(): to provide information, commonly[2] as one is dying[3] carp(): To complain, often at length and of minor details[4] cluck(): Not actually sure about this one, although 'clucking their disapproval' seems to be something of an english idiom. So yeah, there's some logic to the choices, even if it is rather whimsical. It's a valid point to say it's not immediately obvious, but it doesn't take long (from experience) to figure what they do and out which one you want for a given situation. [1] http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/01/croak.html http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/01/croak.html [2] Obviously some religions promote regular confession, but the 'deathbed confession' is afaik common even among the less pious/religious. [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathbed_confession https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathbed_confession [4] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/carping http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/carping