Pronunciation Noun
crook (plural crooks)
- A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.
- She held the baby in the crook of her arm.
- through lanes, and crooks, and darkness
- A bending of the knee; a genuflection.
- A bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion (of anything).
- the crook of a cane
- 1907, Robert William Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326 ↗, page 6 ↗:
- It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.
- (obsolete) A lock or curl of hair.
- (obsolete) A gibbet.
- (obsolete) A support beam consisting of a post with a cross-beam resting upon it; a bracket or truss consisting of a vertical piece, a horizontal piece, and a strut.
- A shepherd's crook; a staff with a semi-circular bend ("hook") at one end used by shepherds.
- 1970, The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, Oxford Study Edition, published 1976, Oxford University Press, Psalms 23-4, p.583:
- Even though I walk through a / valley dark as death / I fear no evil, for thou art with me, / thy staff and thy crook are my / comfort.
- 1970, The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, Oxford Study Edition, published 1976, Oxford University Press, Psalms 23-4, p.583:
- A bishop's staff of office.
- An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.
- for all your brags, hooks, and crooks
- A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal.
- 1973 November 17, Richard Nixon, reported 1973 November 18, The Washington Post, Nixon Tells Editors, ‘I'm Not a Crook’ ↗,
- "People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I′m not a crook. I′ve earned everything I′ve got."
- 1973 November 17, Richard Nixon, reported 1973 November 18, The Washington Post, Nixon Tells Editors, ‘I'm Not a Crook’ ↗,
- A pothook.
- (music) A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.
- (criminal) See Thesaurus:criminal
- French: escroc, arnaqueur
- German: Gauner, Ganove
- Italian: furfante, ladro, truffatore
- Portuguese: ladrão, ladra
- Russian: вор
- Spanish: ladrón, ladrona, ratero, ratera, truhán, truhana, maleante
- French: houlette
- German: Krücke, Krückstock (crutch, cane), Hirtenstab, Krummstab
- Italian: pastorale, vincastro
- Portuguese: cajado
- Russian: по́сох
- Spanish: cayado
crook (crooks, present participle crooking; past and past participle crooked)
- (transitive) To bend, or form into a hook.
- He crooked his finger toward me.
- c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2,
- No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, / And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee / Where thrift may follow fawning.
- 1784, William Blake, Songs from An Island in the Moon, in Blake: The Complete Poems, edited by W. H. Stevenson, Routledge, 3rd edition, 2007, p. 50,
- For if a damsel's blind or lame, / Or nature's hand has crooked her frame, / Or if she's deaf or is wall-eyed; / Yet if her heart is well inclined, / Some tender lover she shall find / That panteth for a bride.
- 1917, Leo Tolstoy, Constance Garnett (translator) Anna Karenina, Part 4, Chapter 5,
- “ […] In the following cases: physical defect in the married parties, desertion without communication for five years,” he said, crooking a short finger covered with hair […] .
- (intransitive) To become bent or hooked.
- To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist.
- (Can we date this quote?), Roger Ascham, (please specify the title of the work), London; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: Printed for R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, OCLC 642424485 ↗, page 88 ↗:
- For the foundation of youthe well ſet (as ''{{w
- 1597, Francis Bacon, "Of Wisdom For a Man's Self," The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral,
- The referring of all to a man's self, is more tolerable in a sovereign prince; because themselves are not only themselves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune. But it is a desperate evil, in a servant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic. For whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends; which must needs be often eccentric to the ends of his master, or state.
- French: courber
- German: krümmen
- Portuguese: curvar
- Russian: сгиба́ть
- Spanish: curvar, doblar, torcer, enchuecar
crook (comparative crooker, superlative crookest)
- (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Bad, unsatisfactory, not up to standard.
- That work you did on my car is crook, mate.
- Not turning up for training was pretty crook.
- 1981, Herman Charles Bosman, The Collected Works of Herman Charles Bosman, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hNZHAAAAYAAJ&q=%22onkus%22+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&dq=%22onkus%22+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_YPHT9qHGM2biQfRicC3Dg&redir_esc=y page 101],
- The soup was crook. It was onkus. A yellow-bellied platypus couldn′t drink it […]
- “They′re always crook at my home.”
- (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Ill, sick.
- I′m feeling a bit crook.
- (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Annoyed, angry; upset.
- be crook at/about; go crook at
- 2006, Jimmy Butt, Felicity Dargan, I've Been Bloody Lucky: The Story of an Orphan Named Jimmy Butt, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hpLU50pmCs0C&pg=PA17&dq=%22go|gone|went+crook+at%22+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0oUzT8KBE4X5mAX58pWJAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22go|gone|went%20crook%20at%22%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false page 17],
- Ann explained to the teacher what had happened and the nuns went crook at me too.
- 2007, Jo Wainer, Bess, Lost: Illegal Abortion Stories, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ln97vrDVN58C&pg=PA159&dq=%22go|gone|went+crook+at%22+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0oUzT8KBE4X5mAX58pWJAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22go|gone|went%20crook%20at%22%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false page 159],
- I went home on the tram, then Mum went crook at me because I was late getting home—I had tickets for Mum and her friend to go to the Regent that night and she was annoyed because I was late.
Crook
Proper noun
- A town in County Durham, England.
- A village in South Lakeland, Cumbria.
- A statutory town in Logan County, Colorado, named after George Crook
- An unincorporated community in Osage County, Missouri, so named because of a local merchant's business practices (thus being derived from crook).
- Surname
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