by hook or by crook
1
8.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
por las buenas o por las malas
- I know it’s going to be really tough to get the truth out of Ogechi but by hook or by crook, we will get this done.
And so I'll do it by hook or by crook with the filming in the prison.
- And so I'll do it by hook or by crook with the filming in the prison.
Examples
-
If you do this they will hate us, and by hook or by crook, they'll find a way to close us down.
-
Man must live by hook or by crook.
Fiction book (1991) -
I knew that by hook or by crook, I had to go check it out.
Blog text (24) -
And so I'll do it by hook or by crook with the filming in the prison.
-
How then to get to the head of the procession, by hook or by crook?
Academic text (2007) -
It will happen by hook or by crook.
Blog text (25) -
I told you, Gran, I'd get him here by hook or by crook.
-
Which means we've each got thirty days to find our way out of here, by hook or by crook.
Fiction book (2002) -
Together, we'll sell these books, by hook or by crook, and then—here's the fun part—together we'll ask: What next?
Blog text (33) -
I will finish this project on time, by hook or by crook.
Synonyms
5
7.0
To do whatever is needed to reach a goal, even if the actions are difficult or harmful
1
8.9
Using whatever is available and acting without a plan
Antonyms
How Determined
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'by any method possible' is idiomatic and not transparently built from the constituents: knowing 'hook' (or the given sense 'enticing element') and 'crook' (a thief) does not allow a learner to infer the sense 'by any means'. The historical/original senses are obscure and the construction is language-specific, so a B1 learner who knows the words would still not reliably derive the MWE meaning.
Etymology
By hook or by crook may come from a simple image: people using a hook or a shepherd's crook to pull fruit or goods that were hard to reach. So it came to mean 'using any method possible' to get something, even if it's difficult.