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.
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.
Their shoes and pattens are snouted, and piked more
than a finger long, crooking upwards. --Camden.