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crook

noun
/kɹʊk/

Etymology

From Middle English croke, crok, from Old English *crōc (“hook, bend, crook”), from Proto-West Germanic *krōk, 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”). Compare typologically Czech křivák (< křivý < Proto-Slavic *krivъ, whence also *krivьda).

  1. derived from *greg-✻
  2. inherited from *krōkaz✻
  3. inherited from *krōk✻
  4. inherited from *crōc✻ — “hook, bend, crook”
  5. inherited from croke

Definitions

  1. A bend

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

    • She held the baby in the crook of her arm.
    • he walks bye lanes, and crooks

  2. A bending of the knee

    A bending of the knee; a genuflection.

  3. A bent or curved part

    A bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion (of anything).

    • the crook of a cane
  4. ›+ 19 more definitions

    1. A lock or curl of hair.

    2. A support beam consisting of a post with a cross-beam resting upon it

      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.

    3. A specialized staff with a semi-circular bend (a "hook") at one end used by shepherds to…

      A specialized staff with a semi-circular bend (a "hook") at one end used by shepherds to control their herds.

      • 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.

    4. A bishop's standard staff of office.

    5. An artifice

      An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.

      • for all your brags, hooks, and crooks

    6. A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things

      A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal.

      • In these early days of silent pictures, the accent was chiefly on thrills and danger as provided by supposedly unstoppable locomotives with crooks or maniacs on the footplate.

    7. A pothook.

    8. A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or…

      A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.

    9. To bend, or form into a hook.

      • He crooked his finger toward me.
      • No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, / And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee / Where thrift may follow fawning.
      • 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.

    10. To become bent or hooked.

    11. To turn from the path of rectitude

      To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist.

    12. Bad, unsatisfactory, not up to standard.

      • That work you did on my car is crook, mate.
      • Not turning up for training was pretty crook.
      • The soup was crook. It was onkus. A yellow-bellied platypus couldn′t drink it […]

    13. Ill, sick.

      • I′m feeling a bit crook.

    14. Annoyed, angry

      Annoyed, angry; upset.

      • be crook at/about; go crook at
      • Ann explained to the teacher what had happened and the nuns went crook at me too.
      • 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.

    15. A town (unparished) in County Durham, England (OS grid ref NZ1635).

    16. A village and civil parish (served by Crook and Winster Parish Council) in Westmorland…

      A village and civil parish (served by Crook and Winster Parish Council) in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England, previously in South Lakeland district (OS grid ref SD4695).

    17. A statutory town in Logan County, Colorado, United States, named after George Crook.

    18. An unincorporated community in Osage County, Missouri, United States, so named because of…

      An unincorporated community in Osage County, Missouri, United States, so named because of a local merchant's business practices (thus being derived from crook (thief)).

    19. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

acrook, apple crook, arm in crook, by hook or by crook, by hook or crook, crookback, crookbacked, crookbill, crookery, crook in the lot, crookle, crookneck, Crook of Devon, crook of the arm, cruckle, cybercrook, on the crook, pool at the crook, throw-crook, crooked, crook one's elbow, knee-crooking, uncrook, crook as Rookwood, Crook County

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at crook. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01crook02genuflection03genuflecting04genuflect05behave06conduct07directing08direct09crooked

A definitional loop anchored at crook. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at crook

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA