English
rook
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ɹʊk/
  • (sometimes in Northern England; otherwise obsolete) IPA: /ɹuːk/
Noun

rook (plural rooks)

  1. A European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family.
    • 1768, Thomas Pennant, British Zoology, 168 ↗:
      But what distinguishes the rook from the crow is the bill; the nostrils, chin, and sides of that and the mouth being in old birds white and bared of feathers, by often thrusting the bill into the ground in search of the erucæ of the Dor-beetle*; the rook then, instead of being proscribed, should be treated as the farmer's friend; as it clears his ground from caterpillars, that do incredible damage by eating the roots of the corn.
  2. A cheat or swindler; someone who betrays.
    • 7 April 1705, William Wycherley, Letter to Alexander Pope in The Works of Alexander Pope 36 ↗:
      So I am (like an old rook, who is ruined by gaming) forced to live on the good fortune of the pushing young men, whose fancies are so vigorous that they ensure their success in their adventures with Muses, by their strength and imagination.
  3. (British) A type of firecracker used by farmers to scare birds of the same name.
  4. A trick-taking game, usually played with a specialized deck of cards.
    • 2007, Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, 174 ↗:
      Adventists still do not really know how to play cards, apart from the sanitized version of bridge, Rook.
  5. A bad deal, a rip-off.
Synonyms Translations Translations Verb

rook (rooks, present participle rooking; past and past participle rooked)

  1. (transitive) To cheat or swindle.
    • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, p. 311:
      Some had spent a week in Jersey before coming to Guernsey; and, from what Paddy had heard, they really do know how to rook the visitors over there.
Synonyms Translations Noun

rook (plural rooks)

  1. (chess) A piece shaped like a castle tower, that can be moved only up, down, left or right (but not diagonally) or in castling.
  2. (rare) A castle or other fortification.
Synonyms Translations Translations Noun

rook (plural rooks)

  1. (baseball, slang) A rookie.
Noun

rook (uncountable)

  1. mist; fog; roke
Verb

rook (rooks, present participle rooking; past and past participle rooked)

  1. (obsolete) To squat; to ruck.
Verb

rook (rooks, present participle rooking; past and past participle rooked)

  1. Eye dialect spelling of look#English|look.


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