crooked, a.
(ˈkrʊkɪd)
Forms: 3–6 croked, 4–6 -id, -yd, (4 kr-), 5 cruked, (crowkyt), 6 Sc. crukit, 7 (Shaks.) crook'd, 4– crooked.
[Partly pa. pple. of crook v., partly f. crook n. + -ed, as in hunched, etc.: the formation from the n. may even have been the earlier.]
1. a. Bent from the straight form; having (one or more) bends or angles; curved, bent, twisted, tortuous, wry. Applied to everything which is not ‘straight’ (of which crooked is now the ordinary opposite).
| a 1225 Ancr. R. (MS. Cleop.) Þe cat of helle..wið crokede crokes. 1382 Wyclif Isa. xxvii. 1 Leuyathan a crookid wounde serpent. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. iii. 29 Shal neuere..on croked kene þorne kynde fygys wexe. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour 23 Al her lyff after she hadd her nose al croked. c 1460 Medulla Gram. (in Promp. Parv. 80), Cambuca, a buschoppys cros or a crokid staf. 1534 Tindale Luke iii. 5 Crocked thinges shalbe made streight. 1551 Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i, All other lines, that go not right forth..but boweth any waye..are called Croked lynes. 1591 Lyly Sappho ii. i, Juniper, the longer it grew, the crookeder it wexed. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 62 If the drinke..touch my Palat aduersly, I make a crooked face at it. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xvi. 111 Shipwrights and boat makers will choose those crooked pieces of timber. 1717 Berkeley Tour in Italy §27 Streets open..but crooked. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. xxiii, That falchion's crooked blade. |
b. crooked stick: see stick n.1 12.
2. a. Of persons: Having the body or limbs bent out of shape; deformed; bent or bowed with age. Hence transf. as an epithet of age.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 34/18 He..maude hole..Meseles and þe crokede. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 186 Ac calleth þe careful þer-to þe croked and þe pore. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. xxx, In my croked age. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xxiii. 68 The crokyd dwarfe. 1628 Milton Vac. Exerc. 69 A Sybil old, bow-bent with crooked age. 1718 Freethinker No. 92. 258 You would have thought she had been crooked from her Infancy. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. xv, A pert crooked little chit. |
† b. of an old decrepit horse. Obs.
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur x. lxxxiv, Whan that knyghte sawe sire palomydes bounden vpon a croked courser. a 1533 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) Q, There is not so croked a hors. |
3. fig. a. The reverse of ‘straight’ in figurative senses (esp. with reference to moral character and conduct); deviating from rectitude or uprightness; not straightforward; dishonest, wrong, perverse; perverted, out of order, awry.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 102 Þe cat of helle..mid clokes of crokede & of kene uondunges. a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxxi. 14 Krokid of hert ere þa. 1508 Fisher Wks. (1876) I. 240 The wyll of some is so croked. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. iv. i. 22 If crooked fortune had not thwarted me. 1611 Bible Deut. xxxii. 5 They are a peruerse and crooked generation. 1660 H. More Myst. Godliness v. xvii. 204 A very crooked Objection both from the Jew and Atheist. 1711 Pope Temp. Fame 411 Of crooked counsels and dark politicks. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones vii. xv, This young gentleman, though somewhat crooked in his morals, was perfectly straight in his person. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 245 Perfect in the practice of crooked ways. |
b. colloq. Dishonestly come by; made, obtained, or sold in a way that is not straightforward.
| 1864 Hotten Slang. Dict. (ed. 3) 112 Crooked, a term used among dog-stealers, and the ‘fancy’ generally, to denote anything stolen. 1876 N. Amer. Rev. CXXIII. 301 Another house testified..that half its entire annual product was ‘crooked’. 1891 Farmer Dict. Amer., Crooked whiskey, illicitly distilled whiskey upon which no excise has been paid. 1892 R. Boldrewood Nevermore I. x. 180 He was riding a crooked horse when he was took. 1898 Daily News 27 Aug. 6/6 Telling him that he rather thought he had bought ‘a crooked lot’. 1902 Daily Chron. 26 Aug. 6/6 In the event of his being found..to be dealing in ‘crooked’ things, or refusing to give information as to where he got his stuff. |
c. Austral. and N.Z. slang. = crook a. 2 c; esp. in phr. crooked on, angry at. Usu. pronounced (krʊkt).
| 1944 L. Glassop We were Rats i. viii. 48 Ya oughtn' ter feel crooked on things. I s'pose it's because Bertha's outa town? 1957 ‘N. Culotta’ They're a Weird Mob (1958) vi. 86 ‘Are you not ashamed of yourself?’ ‘Yeah, I'm real crooked on me.’ |
4. quasi-adv. In a crooked course or position; not straight.
| 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (R.), If the younge tree growe croked. 1549 Compl. Scot. xix. 159 Sche ȝeid crukit, bakuart, and on syd. 1864 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 220 Pictures..which were hung up all crooked. |
5. Comb., as crooked-bill, a name for the avocet; † crooked-rig (rig = back), crook-back; b. parasynthetic, as crooked-backed, crooked-clawed, crooked-eyed, crooked-houghed, crooked-legged, crooked-lined, crooked-lipped, crooked-neck(ed) (spec. applied to a variety of squash: cf. crook-neck; U.S.), crooked-pated, crooked-shouldered, etc. adjs.
| 1382 Wyclif Lev. xxi. 20 If crokid rigge or bleer eyed. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xxi. 63 He is..crokyd shulderyd. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 86 A crooked-pated olde..Ramme. 1691 Lond. Gaz. No. 2691/4 A dark brown-bay Mare..crooked Legg'd behind. 1705 W. Bosman Guinea 264 Crooked-bills and several sorts of Snipes. 1784 Massachusetts Spy 22 Apr. 1/1 Crooked neck squash. 1796–1801 Fessenden Orig. Poems (1806) 134 Like a nice crook'd neck'd squash on the ground. 1853 Hickie tr. Aristoph. (1887) I. 321 These here crooked-clawed birds. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. xiii. 142 Small and crooked-backed. 1871 C. D. Warner Summer in Garden viii. 104 The summer squash..was nearly all leaf and blow, with only a sickly crooked-necked fruit after a mighty fuss. |