Crook (kr&oocr;k), n. [OE.
crok; akin to Icel. kr&onac;kr hook, bend, SW.
krok, Dan. krog, OD. krooke; or cf. Gael.
crocan 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 staff.
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.
Crook (kr??k), v. t. [imp.
& p. p. Crooked (kr??kt); p. pr. & vb.
n. Crooking.] [OE. croken; cf. Sw.
kr&?;ka, Dan. kr&?;ge. 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.
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.
