crook
crook (krok) , noun
[Old English crok; akin to Icelandic krōkr hook, bend, SW. krok, Danish krog, OD. krooke; or compare Gael. crocan crook, hook, Welsh crwca crooked. Compare Crosier, Crotchet, Crutch, Encroach.]
1.
A bend, turn, or curve; curvature; flexure.
Through lanes, and crooks, and darkness.
2.
Any implement having a bent or crooked end.
(a)
The staff used by a shepherd, the hook of which serves to hold a runaway sheep.
(b)
A bishop's staff of office. Compare Pastoral staff.
He left his crook, he left his flocks.
3.
A pothook.
As black as the crook.
4.
An artifice; trick; tricky device; subterfuge.
For all yuor brags, hooks, and crooks.
5.
(Music) 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, United States]
Collocations (1)
By hook or by crook , in some way or other; by fair means or foul.
Crook (kr??k) , transitive verb
[Old English croken; compare Swedish kr{not transcribed}ka, Danish kr{not transcribed}ge. See Crook, n.]
1.
To turn from a straight line; to bend; to curve.
Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee.
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.
What soever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends.
Crook , intransitive verb
To bend; to curve; to wind; to have a curvature.
The port... crooketh like a bow.
Their shoes and pattens are snouted, and piked more than a finger long, crooking upwards.