crook

Etymology 1

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”).

noun

1. A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.
   She held the baby in the crook of her arm.
   he walks bye lanes, and crooks 1842, William Edward Hoskins, De Valencourt
2. A bending of the knee; a genuflection.
3. A bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion (of anything).
   the crook of a cane
4. (obsolete) A lock or curl of hair.
5. (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.
6. A specialized staff with a semi-circular bend (a "hook") at one end used by shepherds to control their herds.
   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. 1970, The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, Oxford Study Edition, published 1976, Oxford University Press, Psalms 23-4, p.583
7. A bishop's standard staff of office.
8. An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.
   for all your brags, hooks, and crooks c. 1547, Thomas Cranmer, Against Transubstantiation
9. A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal.
   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."
10. A pothook.
11. (music) A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.

Etymology 2

From Middle English crooken, croken, crokien, from Old English *crōcian, from Proto-West Germanic *krōkōn (“to bend, wrinkle”), from the noun (see above). Cognate with Dutch kreuken (“to crease, rumple”), German Low German kröken (“to bend, offend, suppress”).

verb

1. (transitive) To bend, or form into a hook.
   He crooked his finger toward me.
   For if a damsel's blind or lame, / Or nature's hand has crooked her frame, / Or if she's deaf or is wall-eyed; / Yet if her heart is well inclined, / Some tender lover she shall find / That panteth for a bride. 1784, William Blake, Songs from, “An Island in the Moon”, in W. H. Stevenson, editor, Blake: The Complete Poems, 3rd edition, Routledge, published 2007, page 50
   “[…]In the following cases: physical defect in the married parties, desertion without communication for five years,” he said, crooking a short finger covered with hair[…]. 1917, Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnett, Anna Karenina, Part 4, Chapter 5
2. (intransitive) To become bent or hooked.
3. To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist.
   The referring of all to a man's self, is more tolerable in a sovereign prince; because themselves are not only themselves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune. But it is a desperate evil, in a servant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic. For whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends; which must needs be often eccentric to the ends of his master, or state. 1597, Francis Bacon, “Of Wisdom For a Man's Self,”, in The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Etymology 3

From crooked (“dishonestly come by”).

adj

1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Bad, unsatisfactory, not up to standard.
   That work you did on my car is crook, mate.
   Not turning up for training was pretty crook.
   The soup was crook. It was onkus. A yellow-bellied platypus couldn′t drink it […] 1981, Herman Charles Bosman, The Collected Works of Herman Charles Bosman, page 101
   Things are crook at home at the moment. “They′re always crook at my home.” 2004, Robert Barnard, A Cry from the Dark, page 21
2. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Ill, sick.
   I′m feeling a bit crook.
3. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Annoyed, angry; upset.
   be crook at/about; go crook at
   Ann explained to the teacher what had happened and the nuns went crook at me too. 2006, Jimmy Butt, Felicity Dargan, I've Been Bloody Lucky: The Story of an Orphan Named Jimmy Butt, page 17
   I went home on the tram, then Mum went crook at me because I was late getting home—I had tickets for Mum and her friend to go to the Regent that night and she was annoyed because I was late. 2007, Jo Wainer, Bess: Lost: Illegal Abortion Stories, page 159
   I went crook at them for not telling me and as soon as she was well enough I took her home to the camping area and she soon picked up. 2007, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Don′t Take Your Love to Town, page 100
   Mum went crook at me for wasting money, but when Don got a job and spent all his money on a racing bike, she didn′t say a thing to him. 2009, Carolyn Landon, Cups With No Handles, page 234