someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime
"The police arrested the man they had identified as a crook after finding stolen goods in his car."
a long staff with one end being hook shaped
"The old farmer used a wooden crook to gently lift the tangled vine off his prize-winning pumpkin."
A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.
"The old wooden fence was warped into a sharp crook where it had been hit by a storm."
Bad, unsatisfactory, not up to standard.
"The new batch of cookies tasted flat and were a crook of a dessert."
A town in County Durham, England.
"The local guidebook recommended a stop at Crook to see the historic railway museum before heading north."
The word "crook" comes from Old English, where it originally meant a hook or a bend. Its roots trace back to the Proto-Indo-European language, which used a term related to bending and baskets.