Skip to main content
to crook

to crook

4 5.6
To bend a body part or small object so it curves
  • verb
  • /krʊk/
translation icon : doblar
  • The Kommander turns around and crooks a finger.
  • crook your finger
  • crook your head
  • crook your arm

Examples

  • Then the finger crooks once in a summoning gesture.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • And she summoned me to her by crooking her finger.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Crooking her neck, she tried to watch an individual sheet of water fall all the way.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Sunlight crooks across the water's surface, and shadows swim the face of the hills opposite.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • When the skeletal man crooks his finger and rattles his keys, I shall dawdle and smell just one more flower.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • He had a habit of crooking his finger at me and saying, sonorously, "I would have words with you" -- a courteous locution.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Carefully, crooking his elbows, he laid his head down beside Peg on the soft moss and looked up through the ancient branches, trying to see the midday stars.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • "Crooking her finger, Persephone led Aria from the throne room, guiding her down a wide winding stairway toward the hall below.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • He braces one hand against the tree, crooks a knee, stretches the other leg behind, and bends cautiously forward and down and down some more.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • He tried to crook his finger to get her attention.

Synonyms

to bend
vsto crook
268 1.0

To make something curved instead of straight

is used especially for causing a body part to angle or round
to curl
vsto crook
173 1.1

To form into a curved or spiral shape

is used for causing a body part to form a simple angle or arc
to twist
vsto crook
152 2.2

To turn a joint or part of your body so it becomes injured

is used for gently causing a body part to arch not to injure it
to curve
vsto crook
22 2.8

To bend into a smooth, rounded shape

is used especially for causing a body part to follow a smooth path
to flex
vsto crook
17 3.2

To curve under pressure, like a branch or metal

is used mainly for moving a body part by muscle action
to kink
vsto crook
3 5.4

To make a rope, wire or hose bend sharply

is used for making a body part follow a smooth arc
to clin
vsto crook
  • Archaic
9.9

To lean or bend in one direction, often slowly under extra weight

is used for causing a body part to move quickly instead of leaning slowly

Antonyms

114 2.5

Make something straight and in the right position

Idioms

1 8.1

Using any way to get something done no matter what it takes

Compounds

two-bit crook
  • Offensive
1 7.9

A person who steals or tricks people in small, unimportant ways

A long stick with a hooked end used to guide and catch sheep

How Bent

to crook
4 5.6
to bend
268 1.0
to curve
22 2.8

Surface Forms

crook infinitive
crooked past
crooked past participle
crooking present participle
crooks third person singular

Etymology

Crook comes from an old Norse word krókr that means 'hook', so to crook something is to bend it into a hooked shape, like when you crook your arm or finger.