crook

plural crooks

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

   She held the baby in the crook of her arm.

   1 more example

   he walks bye lanes, and crooks

   1842, William Edward Hoskins, De Valencourt

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

   1 more example

   It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 6

4. A person who steals, lies, cheats, or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal; a scoundrel, scofflaw, lawbreaker, rogue, or miscreant.

   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."

   1 more example

   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.

   1958 February 28, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 88

   Synonyms: criminal

5. obsoleteA lock or curl of hair.
6. obsoleteA 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 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.

   1970, The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, Oxford Study Edition, published 1976, Oxford University Press, Psalms 23-4, p.583

8. A bishop's standard staff of office.
9. An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.

   for all your brags, hooks, and crooks

   c. 1547, Thomas Cranmer, Against Transubstantiation

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

present singular third person crooks · participle present crooking · participle past crooked · past crooked

1. transitiveTo bend, or form into a hook.

   He crooked his finger toward me.

   3 more examples

   No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, / And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee / Where thrift may follow fawning.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

   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.

   1784, William Blake, Songs from, “An Island in the Moon”, in W. H. Stevenson, editor, Blake: The Complete Poems, 3rd edition, Routledge, published 2007, page 50

   “[…]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[…].

   1917, Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnett, Anna Karenina, Part 4, Chapter 5

2. intransitiveTo become bent or hooked.
3. To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist.

   2 more examples

   For the foundation of youthe well ſet (as Plato doth ſaye) the whole bodye of the common wealthe ſhall flouriſhe thereafter. If the younge tree growe croked, when it is oulde, a man ſhall rather breake it than ſtreight it. And I thincke there is no one thinge that crokes youthe more then ſuch unlawful games.

   1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC, book 1, page 88

   The referring of all to a man's self, is more tolerable in a sovereign prince; because themselves are not only themselves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune. But it is a desperate evil, in a servant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic. For whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends; which must needs be often eccentric to the ends of his master, or state.

   1597, Francis Bacon, “Of Wisdom For a Man's Self,”, in The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

comparative crooker · superlative crookest

1. AustraliaNew ZealandslangBad, unsatisfactory, not up to standard.

   That work you did on my car is crook, mate.

   3 more examples

   Not turning up for training was pretty crook.

   The soup was crook. It was onkus. A yellow-bellied platypus couldn′t drink it […]

   1981, Herman Charles Bosman, The Collected Works of Herman Charles Bosman, page 101

   Things are crook at home at the moment. “They′re always crook at my home.”

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

2. AustraliaNew ZealandslangIll, sick.

   I′m feeling a bit crook.

3. AustraliaNew ZealandslangAnnoyed, angry; upset.

   be crook at/about; go crook at

   4 more examples

   Ann explained to the teacher what had happened and the nuns went crook at me too.

   2006, Jimmy Butt, Felicity Dargan, I've Been Bloody Lucky: The Story of an Orphan Named Jimmy Butt, page 17

   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, Jo Wainer, Bess: Lost: Illegal Abortion Stories, page 159

   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.

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

   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.

   2009, Carolyn Landon, Cups With No Handles, page 234

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

   Shevels, who the court heard was known in the town of Crook to be a nuisance when drunk, annoyed the Greensmith family by sitting nearby and trying to talk to them.

   2026 September 2, Duncan Leatherdale, “Man found guilty of killing his dad in pub garden”, in BBC News, retrieved 04 Sep 2026

2. 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).

1. A surname.

1. A statutory town in Logan County, Colorado, United States, named after George Crook.
2. 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)).