\Crook\ (kr[oo^]k), n. [OE. crok; akin to Icel. kr[onac]kr
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.
         Through lanes, and crooks, and darkness. --Phaer.
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}.
             He left his crook, he left his flocks. --Prior.
3. A pothook. ``As black as the crook.'' --Sir W. Scott.
4. An artifice; trick; tricky device; subterfuge.
         For all yuor brags, hooks, and crooks. --Cranmer.
5. (Mus.) A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet,
   horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.
6. A person given to fraudulent practices; an accomplice of
   thieves, forgers, etc. [Cant, U.S.]
{By hook or by crook}, in some way or other; by fair means or
   foul.

\Crook\ (kr??k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Crooked} (kr??kt);
p. pr. & vb. n. {Crooking}.] [OE. croken; cf. Sw. kr?ka, Dan.
kr?ge. See Crook, n.]
1. To turn from a straight line; to bend; to curve.
         Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee. --Shak.
2. To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to
   misapply; to twist. [Archaic]
         There is no one thing that crooks youth more than
         such unlawfull games.                 --Ascham.
         What soever affairs pass such a man's hands, he
         crooketh them to his own ends.        --Bacon.

\Crook\, v. i.
To bend; to curve; to wind; to have a curvature. `` The port
. . . crooketh like a bow.'' --Phaer.
      Their shoes and pattens are snouted, and piked more
      than a finger long, crooking upwards.    --Camden.