crook

noun

• 1the hooked staff of a shepherd.
• 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 that can be fitted to a brass instrument to lower the pitch by a set interval.
• a metal tube on which the reed of some wind instruments (such as the bassoon) is set.

• 2 informal a person who is dishonest or a criminal.

verb

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

adjective

• (especially of a situation) 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

  [ late 19th century: abbreviation of crooked]