CROOK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does crook mean? 

• CROOK (noun)
  The noun CROOK has 3 senses:

1. someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

2. a circular segment of a curve

3. a long staff with one end being hook shaped

  Familiarity information: CROOK used as a noun is uncommon.

• CROOK (verb)
  The verb CROOK has 1 sense:

1. bend or cause to bend

  Familiarity information: CROOK used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CROOK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

criminal; crook; felon; malefactor; outlaw

Hypernyms ("crook" is a kind of...):

principal ((criminal law) any person involved in a criminal offense, regardless of whether the person profits from such involvement)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crook"):

arsonist; firebug; incendiary (a criminal who illegally sets fire to property)

law offender; lawbreaker; violator (someone who violates the law)

traitor; treasonist (someone who betrays his country by committing treason)

stealer; thief (a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it)

contrabandist; moon-curser; moon curser; runner; smuggler (someone who imports or exports without paying duties)

scofflaw (one who habitually ignores the law and does not answer court summonses)

habitual criminal; recidivist; repeater (someone who is repeatedly arrested for criminal behavior (especially for the same criminal behavior))

raper; rapist (someone who forces another to have sexual intercourse)

racketeer (someone who commits crimes for profit (especially one who obtains money by fraud or extortion))

drug dealer; drug peddler; drug trafficker; peddler; pusher (an unlicensed dealer in illegal drugs)

parolee; probationer (someone released on probation or on parole)

liquidator; manslayer; murderer (a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being))

gangster's moll; gun moll; moll (the girlfriend of a gangster)

mafioso (a member of the Mafia crime syndicate in the United States)

gaolbird; jail bird; jailbird (a criminal who has been jailed repeatedly)

accessary; accessory (someone who helps another person commit a crime)

blackmailer; extortioner; extortionist (a criminal who extorts money from someone by threatening to expose embarrassing information about them)

bootlegger; moonshiner (someone who makes or sells illegal liquor)

briber; suborner (someone who pays (or otherwise incites) you to commit a wrongful act)

coconspirator; conspirator; machinator; plotter (a member of a conspiracy)

desperado; desperate criminal (a bold outlaw (especially on the American frontier))

fugitive; fugitive from justice (someone who is sought by law officers; someone trying to elude justice)

gangster; mobster (a criminal who is a member of gang)

highbinder (a corrupt politician)

highjacker; hijacker (someone who uses force to take over a vehicle (especially an airplane) in order to reach an alternative destination)

goon; hood; hoodlum; punk; strong-armer; thug; tough; toughie (an aggressive and violent young criminal)

abductor; kidnaper; kidnapper; snatcher (someone who unlawfully seizes and detains a victim (usually for ransom))

Instance hyponyms:

Billie the Kid; Bonney; William H. Bonney (United States outlaw who was said to have killed 21 men (1859-1881))

James; Jesse James (United States outlaw who fought as a Confederate soldier and later led a band of outlaws that robbed trains and banks in the West until he was murdered by a member of his own gang (1847-1882))

MacGregor; Rob Roy; Robert MacGregor (Scottish clan leader and outlaw who was the subject of a 1817 novel by Sir Walter Scott (1671-1734))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A circular segment of a curve

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

bend; crook; turn; twist

Context example:

a crook in the path

Hypernyms ("crook" is a kind of...):

curve; curved shape (the trace of a point whose direction of motion changes)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crook"):

bight (a bend or curve (especially in a coastline))

Derivation:

crook (bend or cause to bend)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A long staff with one end being hook shaped

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

crook; shepherd's crook

Hypernyms ("crook" is a kind of...):

staff (a strong rod or stick with a specialized utilitarian purpose)

• CROOK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they crook    ... he / she / it crooks   
Past simple: crooked   
Past participle: crooked   
-ing form: crooking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bend or cause to bend

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

crook; curve

Context example:

the road curved sharply

Hypernyms (to "crook" is one way to...):

bend; flex (form a curve)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "crook"):

recurve (curve or bend (something) back or down)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

crook (a circular segment of a curve)

 Context examples 

“It would puzzle any crook to force that safe,” Von Bork answered.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the near side, the sea-wall makes an elbow crooked inversely, and its end too has a lighthouse.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“So my smile is crooked?” he queried a short while after.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Here is his reply: ‘The most dangerous crook in Chicago.’

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A common early symptom is that straight lines appear crooked.

(Macular Degeneration, NIH: National Eye Institute)

So the crooked courses will become crookeder, at any moment, for the least reason, or for none.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Did you not spy a crooked man upon the beach?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What Bill Warr says is straight, and what Joe Berks does is crooked.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The hand, with fingers crooked and spread apart, rubbed his stomach in a playful way and rolled him from side to side.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He made her no answer; and only observed, after again examining the room, that it was very low pitched, and that the ceiling was crooked.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)