crook

Meaning

1. A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.
2. A bending of the knee; a genuflection.
3. A bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion (of anything).
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.
7. A bishop's standard staff of office.
8. An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.
9. A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal.
10. A pothook.
11. A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.

bend

shepherd’s crook

yield

make crooked

strong-armer

hooked stick

shepherd’s staff

flexture

cross-head

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kɹʊk/

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”).