*crook*

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Crooked p. pr. & vb. n. Crooking. ] [ OE. croken; cf. Sw. kr&unr_;ka, Dan. kr&unr_;ge. See Crook, n. ] 1. To turn from a straight line; to bend; to curve. [ 1913 Webster ]

Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

There is no one thing that crooks youth more than such unlawfull games. Ascham. [ 1913 Webster ]

What soever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To bend; to curve; to wind; to have a curvature. “ The port . . . crooketh like a bow.” Phaer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their shoes and pattens are snouted, and piked more than a finger long, crooking upwards. Camden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. crok; akin to Icel. krōkr hook, bend, SW. krok, Dan. krog, OD. krooke; or cf. Gael. crocan crook, hook, W. crwca crooked. Cf. Crosier, Crotchet, Crutch, Encroach. ] 1. A bend, turn, or curve; curvature; flexure. [ 1913 Webster ]

Through lanes, and crooks, and darkness. Phaer. [ 1913 Webster ]

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 staff. [ 1913 Webster ]

He left his crook, he left his flocks. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A pothook. “As black as the crook.” Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An artifice; trick; tricky device; subterfuge. [ 1913 Webster ]

For all yuor brags, hooks, and crooks. Cranmer. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Mus.) A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A person given to fraudulent practices; an accomplice of thieves, forgers, etc. [ Cant, U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

By hook or by crook, in some way or other; by fair means or foul. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A crooked back; one who has a crooked or deformed back; a hunchback. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Hunched. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool) A New Zealand plover (Anarhynchus frontalis), remarkable for having the end of the beak abruptly bent to the right. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Characterized by a crook or curve; not straight; turning; bent; twisted; deformed. “Crooked paths.” Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

he is deformed, crooked, old, and sere. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Not straightforward; deviating from rectitude; distorted from the right. [ 1913 Webster ]

They are a perverse and crooked generation. Deut. xxxii. 5. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. False; dishonest; fraudulent; as, crooked dealings. [ 1913 Webster ]

Crooked whisky, whisky on which the payment of duty has been fraudulently evaded. [ Slang, U.S. ] Barlett. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a curved or crooked manner; in a perverse or untoward manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The condition or quality of being crooked; hence, deformity of body or of mind; deviation from moral rectitude; perverseness. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make crooked. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

[ After Sir William Crookes, English chemist, who first described it. ] (Physics) The dark space within the negative-pole glow at the cathode of a vacuum tube, observed only when the pressure is low enough to give a striated discharge; -- called also Crookes layer. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

(Phys.) A vacuum tube in which the exhaustion is carried to a very high degree, with the production of a distinct class of effects; -- so called from W. Crookes who introduced it. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Either of two varieties of squash, distinguished by their tapering, recurved necks. The summer crookneck is botanically a variety of the pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) and matures early in the season. It is pale yellow in color, with warty excrescences. The winter crookneck belongs to a distinct species (Cucurbita moschata) and is smooth and often striped. [ U. S. ]
Syn. -- crookneck squash. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Obsequious; fawning; cringing. “Knee-crooking knave.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]