Adjacent Words

Rook definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ROOK, n. [L. graculus; probably from its voice. See Crow and Croak.]
1. A fowl of the genus Corvus, the fowl mentioned by Virgil under this name. This fowl resembles the crow, but differs from it in not feeding on carrion, but on insects and grain. In crows also the nostrils and root of the bill are clothed with feathers, but in rooks the same parts are naked, or have only a few bristly hairs. The rook is gregarious.
2. A cheat; a trickish, rapacious fellow.
ROOK, n. A common man at chess.
ROOK, v.i. To cheat; to defraud.
ROOK, v.t. To cheat; to defraud by cheating.
ROOK, v.i. To squat. [See Ruck.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (chess) the piece that can move any number of unoccupied squares in a direction parallel to the sides of the chessboard [syn: castle, rook]
2: common gregarious Old World bird about the size and color of the American crow [syn: rook, Corvus frugilegus] v
1: deprive of by deceit; "He swindled me out of my inheritance"; "She defrauded the customers who trusted her"; "the cashier gypped me when he gave me too little change" [syn: victimize, swindle, rook, goldbrick, nobble, diddle, bunco, defraud, scam, mulct, gyp, gip, hornswoggle, short-change, con]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hr?c; akin to Old High German hruoch rook Date: before 12th century a common Old World gregarious crow (Corvus frugilegus) that nests and roosts in usually treetop colonies II. transitive verb Date: circa 1590 to defraud by cheating or swindling III. noun Etymology: Middle English rok, from Anglo-French roc, from Arabic rukhkh, from Persian rukh Date: 14th century either of two pieces of each color in a set of chessmen having the power to move along the ranks or files across any number of unoccupied squares — called also castle IV. noun Date: 1905 rookie

Britannica Concise

Most abundant Eurasian bird (Corvus frugilegus) of the crow family (Corvidae). Rooks, 18 in. (45 cm) long, are black and have shaggy thigh feathers and bare white skin at the base of the sharp bill. They are migratory and range discontinuously from Britain to Iran and Manchuria. They dig for larvae and worms in meadows and plowed fields. They nest in large colonies (rookeries) in tall trees, sometimes within towns; the nest, solidly constructed of twigs and soil, is used year after year.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. & v. --n. 1 a black European and Asiatic bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family, nesting in colonies in tree-tops. 2 a sharper, esp. at dice or cards; a person who lives off inexperienced gamblers etc. --v.tr. 1 charge (a customer) extortionately. 2 win money from (a person) at cards etc. esp. by swindling. Etymology: OE hroc 2. n. a chess piece with its top in the shape of a battlement. Etymology: ME f. OF roc(k) ult. f. Arab. rukk, orig. sense uncert.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Roke Roke, n. [See Reek.] 1. Mist; smoke; damp [Prov. Eng.] [Written also roak, rook, and rouk.] 2. A vein of ore. [Pov.Eng.] --Halliwell.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rook Rook, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Rooked; p. pr. & vb. n. Rooking.] To cheat; to defraud by cheating. ``A band of rooking officials.'' --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rook Rook (r[oo^]k), n. Mist; fog. See Roke. [Obs.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rook Rook, v. i. To squat; to ruck. [Obs.] --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rook Rook, n. [F. roc (cf. Sp. roque), fr. Per. & Ar. rokh, or rukh, the rook or castle at chess, also the bird roc (in this sense perhaps a different word); cf. Hind. rath a war chariot, the castle at chess, Skr. ratha a car, a war car. Cf. Roll.] (Chess) One of the four pieces placed on the corner squares of the board; a castle.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rook Rook, n. [AS. hr[=o]c; akin to OHG. hruoh, ruoh, ruoho, Icel. hr[=o]kr, Sw. roka, Dan. raage; cf. Goth. hrukjan to crow.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) A European bird (Corvus frugilegus) resembling the crow, but smaller. It is black, with purple and violet reflections. The base of the beak and the region around it are covered with a rough, scabrous skin, which in old birds is whitish. It is gregarious in its habits. The name is also applied to related Asiatic species. The rook . . . should be treated as the farmer's friend. --Pennant. 2. A trickish, rapacious fellow; a cheat; a sharper. --Wycherley.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(rooks) 1. A rook is a large black bird. Rooks are members of the crow family. N-COUNT 2. In chess, a rook is one of the chess pieces which stand in the corners of the board at the beginning of a game. Rooks can move forwards, backwards, or sideways, but not diagonally. = castle N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Castle (in chess). 2. Cheat, trickish fellow. II. v. n. 1. Cheat, defraud, rob, ruck, cower. 2. Squat, sit close. III. v. a. Cheat, defraud by cheating, castle at chess.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

A cheat: probably from the thievish disposition of the birds of that name. Also the cant name for a crow used in house-breaking. To rook; to cheat, particularly at play.

Moby Thesaurus

beat, beguile of, bilk, bishop, bleed, bunco, burn, castle, cheat, chessman, chisel, chouse, chouse out of, cog, cog the dice, con, cozen, crib, defraud, diddle, do in, do out of, euchre, finagle, flam, fleece, flimflam, fob, fudge, gouge, gull, gyp, have, hocus, hocus-pocus, king, knight, man, milk, mulct, pack the deal, pawn, piece, pigeon, practice fraud upon, queen, scam, screw, sell gold bricks, shave, shortchange, stack the cards, stick, sting, sweat, swindle, take a dive, thimblerig, throw a fight, victimize