crook

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɹʊk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊk

Etymology 1

From Middle English croke, crok, from Old English *crōc (“hook, bend, crook”), from Proto-Germanic *krōkaz (“bend, hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *greg- (“tracery, basket, bend”). Cognate with Dutch kreuk (“a bend, fold, wrinkle”), Middle Low German kroke, krake (“fold, wrinkle”), Danish krog (“crook, hook”), Swedish krok (“crook, hook”), Icelandic krókur (“hook”).

Noun

crook (plural crooks)

1. A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.

   She held the baby in the crook of her arm.

2. A bending of the knee; a genuflection.
3. A bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion (of anything).

   the crook of a cane

   • 1907, Robert Chambers, chapter 1/2, The Younger Set^[1]:

     It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue ; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current ; […] ; young men […], silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.

4. (obsolete) A lock or curl of hair.
5. (obsolete) A gibbet.
6. (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.
7. 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, page 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.

8. An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.
9. 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."

Synonyms

• (criminal): See Wikisaurus:criminal

Derived terms

• by hook or by crook
• by hook or crook (US)

Translations

a criminal who steals

• Bulgarian: крадец (bg) m (kradec)
• Dutch: oplichter (nl) m, oplichtster (nl) f, zwendelaar (nl) m, zwendelaarster (nl) f, afzetter (nl) m, afzetster (nl) f, bedrieger (nl) m, bedriegster (nl) f
• Finnish: rikollinen (fi), konna (fi)
• French: escroc (fr) m, arnaqueur (fr)
• German: Gauner (de) m, Ganove (de) m

• Icelandic: glæpamaður (is) m, þorpari (is) m
• Norwegian Bokmål: skurk (nb) m
• Portuguese: ladrão (pt) m, ladra (pt) f
• Russian: вор (ru) (vor)
• Serbo-Croatian: lopov (sh) m
• Slovene: lopov (sl) m
• Spanish: ladrón (es) m, ladrona (es) f, ratero (es) m, ratera (es) f, truhán (es) m, truhana (es) f

a staff with a hook at one end, particularly one used by shepherds

• Bulgarian: гега (bg) f (gega)
• Finnish: käyräsauva
• French: houlette (fr) f
• Georgian: კავი (ka) (kavi) , კაუჭი (ka) (kauči) 

• German: Krücke, Krückstock (Engl.:crutch, cane), Hirtenstab m, Krummstab m
• Greek: γκλίτσα (el) (gklítsa) f 
• Icelandic: hirðingjastafur (is) m
• Irish: crúca (ga) m
• Spanish: cayado (es) m

a bend

• Bulgarian: извивка (bg) f (izvivka)
• Finnish: taive (fi)

• French: courbe (fr) f
• Russian: изгиб (ru) (izgib)
• Spanish: doblez (es) m, curva (es) f, curvidad (es) f, torcedura (es) f

Verb

crook (third-person singular simple present crooks, present participle crooking, simple past and past participle crooked)

1. (transitive) To bend.

   He crooked his finger toward me.

   • 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 […] .

Derived terms

• crooked (adjective)

Translations

to bend

• Bulgarian: извивам (bg) (izvivam)
• Finnish: koukistaa (fi)

• French: courber (fr)
• German: krümmen
• Russian: сгибать (ru) (sgibatʹ)
• Spanish: curvar (es), doblar (es), torcer (es), enchuecar (es)

Etymology 2

From crooked (“dishonestly come by”).

Adjective

crook (comparative more crook, superlative most crook)

1. (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.

   Things are crook at Tallarook.

   • 2004, Robert Barnard, A Cry from the Dark, page 21,

     “Things are crook at home at the moment.”

     “They′re always crook at my home.”

2. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Ill, sick.

   I′m feeling a bit crook.

3. (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, 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, 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.

   • 2007, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Don′t Take Your Love to Town, page 100,

     I went crook at them for not telling me and as soon as she was well enough I took her home to the camping area and she soon picked up.

   • 2009, Carolyn Landon, Cups With No Handles: Memoir of a Grassroots Activist, page 234,

     Mum went crook at me for wasting money, but when Don got a job and spent all his money on a racing bike, she didn′t say a thing to him.

Derived terms

• crook as Rookwood