crook Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime
    malefactor; outlaw; criminal; felon.
  2. noun a circular segment of a curve
    twist; bend; turn.
    • a bend in the road
    • a crook in the path
  3. noun a long staff with one end being hook shaped
    shepherd's crook.
  4. verb bend or cause to bend
    curve.
    • He crooked his index finger
    • the road curved sharply

WordNet

Crook noun
Etymology
OE. crok; akin to Icel. krk hook,bend, SW. krok, Dan. krog, OD. krooke; or cf. Gael. crecan crook, hook, W. crwca crooked. Cf. Crosier, Crotchet, Crutch, Encroach.
Definitions
  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 stafu.
    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.
Crook transitive verb
Etymology
OE. croken; cf. Sw. krka, Dan. krge. See Crook, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Crooked present participle & verbal noun Crooking
Definitions
  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 intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. 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.

Webster 1913