Crook (kr??k), n. [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.] 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.]
By hook or by crook, in some way or other; by fair means or foul.
© Webster 1913.
Crook (kr??k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Crooked (kr??kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Crooking.] [OE. croken; cf. Sw. krka, Dan. krge. 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.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913. | 
