Crook Meaning
/kɹʊk/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.
nounA bending of the knee; a genuflection.
Sentence Examples
The weather is crook.
Sorry I didn't catch up after, but James was right crook so we left early.
One crook plus one crook is equal to zero crooks.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The elderly woman realized the repairman was a ____ after he charged her double.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The weather is ____.
Word Origin & History
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).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"In these early days of silent pictures, the accent was chiefly on thrills and danger as provided by supposedly unstoppable locomotives with crooks or maniacs on the footplate."
— 1958 February 26, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:
"No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, / And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee / Where thrift may follow fawning."
— c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The elderly woman realized the repairman was a ____ after he charged her double.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The weather is ____.