crook

Meanings

Noun

  • A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.
  • A bending of the knee; a genuflection.
  • A bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion (of anything).
  • A lock or curl of hair.
  • 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.
  • A shepherd's crook; a specialized staff with a semi-circular bend (a "hook") at one end used by shepherds to control their herds.
  • A bishop's standard staff of office.
  • An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.
  • A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal.
  • A pothook.
  • A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.

Verb

  • To bend, or form into a hook.
  • To become bent or hooked.
  • To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist.

Adjective

Origin

  • From Middle English croke, crok, from Old English *crōc, 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, Danish krog ("crook, hook"), Swedish krok ("crook, hook"), Icelandic krókur ("hook").
  • From crooked.

Modern English dictionary

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