Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Crook?

\Crook\ (kr[oo^]k), n. [OE. crok; akin to Icel. kr[onac]kr hook, bend, SW. krok, Dan. krog, OD. krooke; or cf. Gael. crocan crook, hook, W. crwca crooked. Cf. {Crosier}, {Crotchet}, {Crutch}, {Encroach}.] 1. A bend, turn, or curve; curvature; flexure. Through lanes, and crooks, and darkness. --Phaer. 2. Any implement having a bent or crooked end. Especially: (a) The staff used by a shepherd, the hook of which serves to hold a runaway sheep. (b) A bishop's staff of office. Cf. {Pastoral staff}. He left his crook, he left his flocks. --Prior. 3. A pothook. ``As black as the crook.'' --Sir W. Scott. 4. An artifice; trick; tricky device; subterfuge. For all yuor brags, hooks, and crooks. --Cranmer. 5. (Mus.) 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, U.S.] {By hook or by crook}, in some way or other; by fair means or foul.
\Crook\ (kr??k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Crooked} (kr??kt); p. pr. & vb. n. {Crooking}.] [OE. croken; cf. Sw. kr?ka, Dan. kr?ge. See Crook, n.] 1. To turn from a straight line; to bend; to curve. Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee. --Shak. 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. --Ascham. What soever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends. --Bacon.
\Crook\, v. i. To bend; to curve; to wind; to have a curvature. `` The port . . . crooketh like a bow.'' --Phaer. Their shoes and pattens are snouted, and piked more than a finger long, crooking upwards. --Camden.