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Added 9 October 2026

crook

/kɹʊk/ noun

In Latin: pedum, agolum Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about crook at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime.
A circular segment of a curve.
a bend in the road
A long staff with one end being hook shaped.

verb

Bend or cause to bend.
He crooked his index finger

Origin

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).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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