Adjacent Words

Crook definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CROOK, n. [G., the back, or ridge of an animal. L., a wrinkle, a circle; rough, hoarse. The radical sense of crook is to strain or draw; hence, to bend.]
1. Any bend, turn or curve; or a bent or curving instrument. We speak of a crook in a stick of timber, or in a river; and any hook is a crook.
2. A shepherd staff, curving at the end; a pastoral staff. When used by a bishop or abbot, it is called a crosier.
He left his crook, he left his flocks.
3. A gibbet.
4. An artifice; a trick.
CROOK, v.t.
1. To bend; to turn from a straight line; to make a curve or hook.
2. To turn from rectitude; to pervert.
3. To thwart. [Little used.]
CROOK, v.i. To bend or be bent; to be turned from a right line; to curve; to wind.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime [syn: criminal, felon, crook, outlaw, malefactor]
2: a circular segment of a curve; "a bend in the road"; "a crook in the path" [syn: bend, crook, twist, turn]
3: a long staff with one end being hook shaped [syn: crook, shepherd's crook] v
1: bend or cause to bend; "He crooked his index finger"; "the road curved sharply" [syn: crook, curve]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb Date: 12th century transitive verb bend intransitive verb curve, wind II. noun Etymology: Middle English crok, from Old Norse kr?kr hook Date: 13th century 1. an implement having a bent or hooked form: as a. pothook b. (1) a shepherd's staff (2) crosier 1 2. a part of something that is hook-shaped, curved, or bent <the crook of an umbrella handle> 3. bend, curve 4. a person who engages in fraudulent or criminal practices III. adjective Etymology: probably short for crooked Date: 1898 Australian & New Zealand not right: a. unsatisfactory b. dishonest, crooked c. irritable, angry — used especially in the phrase go crook d. ill, unwell

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n., v., & adj. --n. 1 the hooked staff of a shepherd or bishop. 2 a a bend, curve, or hook. b anything hooked or curved. 3 colloq. a a rogue; a swindler. b a professional criminal. --v.tr. & intr. bend, curve. --adj. 1 crooked. 2 Austral. & NZ colloq. a unsatisfactory, out of order; (of a person) unwell, injured. b unpleasant. c dishonest, unscrupulous. d bad-tempered, irritable, angry. Phrases and idioms: crook-back a hunchback. crook-backed hunchbacked. go crook (usu. foll. by at, on) Austral. & NZ colloq. lose one's temper; become angry. Derivatives: crookery n. Etymology: ME f. ON krókr hook

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Crook Crook (kr??k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Crooked (kr??kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Crooking.] [OE. croken; cf. Sw. kr?ka, Dan. kr?ge. See Crook, n.] 1. To turn from a straight line; to bend; to curve. Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee. --Shak. 2. To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist. [Archaic] There is no one thing that crooks youth more than such unlawfull games. --Ascham. What soever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends. --Bacon.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Crook Crook (kr[oo^]k), n. [OE. crok; akin to Icel. kr[onac]kr hook, bend, SW. krok, Dan. krog, OD. krooke; or cf. Gael. crocan crook, hook, W. crwca crooked. Cf. Crosier, Crotchet, Crutch, Encroach.] 1. A bend, turn, or curve; curvature; flexure. Through lanes, and crooks, and darkness. --Phaer. 2. Any implement having a bent or crooked end. Especially: (a) The staff used by a shepherd, the hook of which serves to hold a runaway sheep. (b) A bishop's staff of office. Cf. Pastoral staff. He left his crook, he left his flocks. --Prior. 3. A pothook. ``As black as the crook.'' --Sir W. Scott. 4. An artifice; trick; tricky device; subterfuge. For all yuor brags, hooks, and crooks. --Cranmer. 5. (Mus.) A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key. 6. A person given to fraudulent practices; an accomplice of thieves, forgers, etc. [Cant, U.S.] By hook or by crook, in some way or other; by fair means or foul.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Crook Crook, v. i. To bend; to curve; to wind; to have a curvature. `` The port . . . crooketh like a bow.'' --Phaer. Their shoes and pattens are snouted, and piked more than a finger long, crooking upwards. --Camden.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(crooks, crooking, crooked) 1. A crook is a dishonest person or a criminal. (INFORMAL) The man is a crook and a liar... N-COUNT 2. The crook of your arm or leg is the soft inside part where you bend your elbow or knee. She hid her face in the crook of her arm. N-COUNT: usu sing, the N of n 3. If you crook your arm or finger, you bend it. He crooked his finger: 'Come forward,' he said. VERB: V n 4. A crook is a long pole with a large hook at the end. A crook is carried by a bishop in religious ceremonies, or by a shepherd. ...a shepherd's crook. N-COUNT 5. If someone says they will do something by hook or by crook, they are determined to do it, even if they have to make a great effort or use dishonest means. They intend to get their way, by hook or by crook. PHRASE: PHR with cl, PHR with v

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Bend, flexure, curvature, turn. 2. Bent staff, shepherd's crook, bishop's crook or staff. 3. Trick, artifice, machination. II. v. a. Bend, curve, incurvate, bow, inflect, make crooked. III. v. n. Bend, curve, become crooked, wind, turn.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Sixpence.

Foolish Dictionary

One who exceeds the speed limit in Law & Order Ave. A Misfit in the Straight and Narrow Way.

Moby Thesaurus

Judas, L, Malacca cane, aberrancy, aberration, advocate, alpenstock, andiron, angle, angle off, apex, appropriate, arc, arch, arm, athletic supporter, back, backbone, backing, bad person, bandeau, baton, bear off, bearer, beat, bend, bend back, bent, betrayer, bias, bifurcate, bifurcation, bight, bilk, blackleg, body snatcher, booster, bow, bra, brace, bracer, bracket, branch, branching off, brassiere, buckle, buttress, caduceus, cane, cant, carrier, catacaustic, catenary, caustic, cervix, chain, chain of office, cheat, cheater, chevron, chicken thief, chisel, chiseler, chouse, circle, circuitousness, clout, coal tongs, coin, con man, conchoid, contort, convict, coon, cop, corner, corset, cozen, cozener, crane, crank, criminal, crosier, cross, cross-staff, crotchet, crumple, crutch, crutch-stick, curl, curve, damper, deceiver, declination, decurve, deflect, deflection, defraud, defrauder, delinquent, den of thieves, departure, desperado, desperate criminal, detour, deviance, deviancy, deviate, deviation, deviousness, diacaustic, diddle, diddler, diffract, diffuse, digression, discursion, disperse, distort, divagate, divagation, divarication, diverge, divergence, diversion, divert, do, dogleg, dome, double, double-dealer, drift, drifting, elbow, ell, ellipse, embezzler, embow, errantry, evildoer, excursion, excursus, exorbitation, fasces, felon, festoon, filch, filcher, fire hook, fire tongs, firedog, flex, flimflam man, flimflammer, fork, foundation garment, fugitive, fulcrum, furcate, furcation, gallows bird, ganef, gangster, gaolbird, gavel, ghoul, girdle, grafter, grate, grating, grave robber, grid, griddle, gridiron, grill, griller, guy, guywire, gyp artist, gypper, hairpin, handstaff, heist, hook, hump, hunch, hyperbola, incurvate, incurve, indirection, inflect, inflection, jailbird, jewel thief, jock, jockstrap, juggler, keys, knee, knot, land pirate, land shark, land-grabber, larcener, larcenist, lawbreaker, lifter, lituus, loop, lurch, mace, mainstay, maintainer, malefactor, malevolent, malfeasant, malfeasor, mantle, mast, misfeasor, miter, mobster, nab, neck, nook, oblique, obliquity, outlaw, pallium, parabola, pastoral staff, paterissa, peculator, pererration, petty thief, pilferer, pinch, poacher, point, poker, portfolio, pothook, prop, prowler, public enemy, pull, purloiner, quarterstaff, quisling, quoin, racketeer, rambling, recurve, red hat, reflect, reflex, refract, reinforce, reinforcement, reinforcer, rest, resting place, retroflex, rigging, ring, robber, rod, rod of office, round, sag, salamander, scatter, scepter, scofflaw, screw, scrounger, sheer, shift, shifting, shifting course, shifting path, shillelagh, shoplifter, shoulder, shroud, sinner, sinus, skew, slant, slue, sneak thief, spine, spit, spring, sprit, staff, standing rigging, stave, stay, steal, stealer, stick, stiffener, straying, strengthener, support, supporter, sustainer, swag, swagger stick, swanking stick, sway, sweep, swerve, swerving, swindle, swindler, swinging, tack, thief, thug, tiara, tongs, tracery, traitor, transgressor, triple crown, tripod, trivet, truncheon, turn, turn awry, turning, turnspit, twist, two-timer, upholder, variation, vault, veer, vertex, villain, walking stick, wand, wand of office, wandering, warp, white-collar thief, wind, worker of ill, wrench, wrest, wring, writhe, wrongdoer, yaw, zag, zig, zigzag