Link Centre Dictionary

crook

UK/kɹɵk/ US/kɹʊk/ fairly common slang
noun (3) verb (1)

noun

1.
2.

a circular segment of a curve

  • “a bend in the road”
  • “a crook in the path”
Synonyms
3.

a long staff with one end being hook shaped

Synonyms

verb

1.

bend or cause to bend

  • “He crooked his index finger”
  • “the road curved sharply”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English croke, crok, from Old English *crōc (“hook, bend, crook”), 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 (“fold, wrinkle”), Danish krog (“crook, hook”), Swedish krok (“crook, hook”), Icelandic krókur (“hook”). Compare typologically Czech křivák (< křivý < Proto-Slavic *krivъ, whence also *krivьda).

Phrases

  • apple crook
  • arm in crook
  • by hook or by crook
  • by hook or crook
  • crook and nanny
  • crook as Rookwood
  • Crook County
  • crook in the lot
  • Crook of Devon
  • crook of the arm
  • crook one's elbow
  • on the crook

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.