crook

 
Pronunciation: /krʊk/

noun

  • 1the hooked staff of a shepherd: seizing his crook from behind the door, he set off to call his dogs
  • a bishop’s crozier.
  • a bend in something, especially at the elbow in a person’s arm: her head was cradled in the crook of Luke’s left arm
  • a piece of extra tubing which can be fitted to a brass instrument to lower the pitch by a set interval.
  • 2 informal a person who is dishonest or a criminal: the man’s a crook, he’s not to be trusted

verb

[with object]
  • bend (something, especially a finger as a signal): he crooked a finger for the waitress

adjective

Australian/NZ informal
  • bad, unpleasant, or unsatisfactory: it was pretty crook on the land in the early 1970s
  • (of a person or a part of the body) unwell or injured: a crook knee
  • dishonest; illegal: some pretty crook things went on there

Phrases

be crook on

Australian/NZ informal be annoyed by: you’re crook on me because I didn’t walk out with you

go crook

Australian/NZ informal lose one’s temper: we rolled him for his overcoat—you ought to have heard him go crook

Derivatives

crookery

noun

Origin:

Middle English (in the sense 'hooked tool or weapon'): from Old Norse krókr 'hook'. A noun sense 'deceit, guile, trickery' (compare with crooked) was recorded in Middle English but was obsolete by the 17th century The Australian senses are abbreviations of crooked