crook (English) - Vocabulary & GRE App

crook

EN • English

//kɹʊk//

Direct German Translations & Equivalents:

Click any term below to jump straight to its full vocabulary entry in German:

[DE]krümmen

Verb Conjugation Tables & Inflections

Key Verb Forms & Inflections

Third-person singular (he/she/it):crooks

Present Participle (-ing):crooking

Past Participle:crooked

Simple Past:crooked

Definitions & Usage

noun

A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.

Example: “She held the baby in the crook of her arm.”

Synonyms:

criminal

Translations:

noun

A bending of the knee; a genuflection.

Synonyms:

criminal

Translations:

noun

A bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion (of anything).

Example: “the crook of a cane”

Synonyms:

criminal

noun

(obsolete) A lock or curl of hair.

Synonyms:

criminal

noun

(obsolete) A support beam consisting of a post with a cross-beam resting upon it; a bracket or truss consisting of a vertical piece, a horizontal piece, and a strut.

Synonyms:

criminal

noun

A specialized staff with a semi-circular bend (a "hook") at one end used by shepherds to control their herds.

Example: “Even though I walk through a / valley dark as death / I fear no evil, for thou art with me, / thy staff and thy crook are my / comfort.”

Synonyms:

criminal

noun

A bishop's standard staff of office.

Synonyms:

criminal

noun

An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.

Synonyms:

criminal

noun

A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal.

Example: “1973 November 17, Richard Nixon, reported 1973 November 18, The Washington Post, Nixon Tells Editors, ‘I'm Not a Crook’, "People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I′m not a crook. I′ve earned everything I′ve got."”

Synonyms:

criminal

noun

#10

A pothook.

Synonyms:

criminal

noun

#11

(music) A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.

Synonyms:

criminal

verb

#12

(transitive) To bend, or form into a hook.

Example: “He crooked his finger toward me.”

Translations:[DE]krümmen

verb

#13

(intransitive) To become bent or hooked.

verb

#14

To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist.

adjective

#15

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Bad, unsatisfactory, not up to standard.

Example: “That work you did on my car is crook, mate.”

Example: “Not turning up for training was pretty crook.”

adjective

#16

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Ill, sick.

Example: “I′m feeling a bit crook.”

adjective

#17

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Annoyed, angry; upset.

Example: “be crook at/about; go crook at”

Notable Literary & Historical Quotes

“he walks bye lanes, and crooks”

— 1842, William Edward Hoskins, De Valencourt:

“It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.”

— 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 6:

“for all your brags, hooks, and crooks”

— c. 1547, Thomas Cranmer, Against Transubstantiation: