rook

plural rooks

1. countableuncountableA European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family.

   To-night the winds begin to rise ⁠And roar from yonder dropping day: ⁠The last red leaf is whirl’d away, The rooks are blown about the skies; […]

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 24

   1 more example

   But what distinguishes the rook from the crow is the bill; the nostrils, chin, and sides of that and the mouth being in old birds white and bared of feathers, by often thrusting the bill into the ground in search of the erucæ of the Dor-beetle*; the rook then, instead of being proscribed, should be treated as the farmer's friend; as it clears his ground from caterpillars, that do incredible damage by eating the roots of the corn.

   1768, Thomas Pennant, British Zoology, page 168

2. countableuncountableA cheat or swindler; someone who betrays.

   So I am (like an old rook, who is ruined by gaming) forced to live on the good fortune of the pushing young men, whose fancies are so vigorous that they ensure their success in their adventures with Muses, by their strength and imagination.

   7 April 1705, William Wycherley, Letter to Alexander Pope in The Works of Alexander Pope 36

   Synonyms: bamboozler, bouncer, bullshitter, cheat, cheater, cogger, cony-catcher, crammer

3. countableuncountableA bad deal; a rip-off.
4. UKcountableuncountableA type of firecracker used by farmers to scare birds of the same name.
5. uncountableA trick-taking game, usually played with a specialized deck of cards.

   Adventists still do not really know how to play cards, apart from the sanitized version of bridge, Rook.

   2007, Malcolm Bull, Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, page 174

6. archaiccountableslanguncountableA parson.

present singular third person rooks · participle present rooking · participle past rooked · past rooked

1. transitiveTo cheat or swindle.

   They rook one shockingly at these places.

   1935, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

   1 more example

   Some had spent a week in Jersey before coming to Guernsey; and, from what Paddy had heard, they really do know how to rook the visitors over there.

   1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 311

   Synonyms: cheat, con, do, dupe, have, swindle, trick

plural rooks

1. board gamesA piece shaped like a castle tower, that can be moved only up, down, left or right (but not diagonally) or in castling.

   Synonyms: castle

2. rareA castle or other fortification.

plural rooks

1. slangball gamesA rookie.

1. uncountablemist; fog; roke

present singular third person rooks · participle present rooking · participle past rooked · past rooked

1. obsoleteTo squat; to ruck.

   The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]

present singular third person rooks · participle present rooking · participle past rooked · past rooked

1. pronunciation spellingPronunciation spelling of look, mimicking Asian speech.