Crook (kr??k), n. [OE. crok; akin to Icel. krk hook,bend, SW. krok, Dan. krog, OD. krooke; or cf. Gael. crecan 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 stafu.
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.
© Webster 1913.
Crook (kr??k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Crooked (kr??kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Crooking.] [OE. croken; cf. Sw. krka, Dan. krge. 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.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913.