crook, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

crook adj.

[SE crooked, dishonest, illegal]

(Aus./N.Z.)

1. dishonest, illegal.

1898		S. Aus. Register (Adelaide) 11 May 5/1: Among the words [...] which called forth enquiring interjections from Mr Justice Holroyd were [...] a ‘crook' will (signifying a forged will).
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Her New Game’ Sporting Times 29 Sept. 1/4: All those who knew her felt convinced that, whether ‘crook’ or ‘square’, / Angelina had a new game on.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 Mar. 4/7: The other man’s firm of solicitors / Puts him down with the crook-cheque deficiters.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/8: Well, ’e’s gone dead crook. Fair dinkum crook ’e’s gone. But ’e was crook all the time, only I didn’t tumble to ’im till yesterday.
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘The Intro’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 20: An’ I kin take me oaf I wus perlite, [...] An’ never tried to maul ’er, or to do / A thing yeh might call crook.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 44: [P]rotesting the while in lurid language against what they styled ‘a crook trick’.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 454: Never struck a sweller layout than you’ve got here, except in crook investment-offices.
1936		G. Greene Gun for Sale (1973) 54: Nobody’s on my side [...] I’ve learned that. Even a crook doctor ...
1940		F. Sargeson ‘A Good Boy’ in Man And His Wife (1944) 71: They said it was a crook business right through like they say all racing is.
1954		K. Amis letter 20 Dec. in Leader (2000) 418: I love imagining the cobberess saying to you ‘Fer a Pommie yer top-hole, sport’, and the cobber finding you on the job and talking about crook deals.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 17: Did I ever tell you about the crookest raffle ever run in Australia?
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 32/1: crook [...] dishonest.
1999		Guardian Rev. 6 Nov. 8: Firms of crook lawyers would thumb their way through [...] novels looking for distinctively named characters.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

2. ill, out of sorts.

1898		Broadford Courier (Vic.) 25 Feb. 5/3: No one is ever ill only ‘a trifle off color,’ or, in more severe cases, ‘feel cronk,’ or ‘crook,’ or even ‘shicker’.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 25: Is she crook?
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Aug. 10/3: Teacher: ‘Kitchener Botrell, why were you not at school yesterday?’ / Boy: ‘I was crook, Miss.’ / Teacher: ‘What’s the meaning of crook?’ / Boy: ‘The opposite of boshter.’.
1919		(?) H. Lawson ‘Story of Dotty’ in Roderick (1972) 885: There was me shoulder that went crook gittin’ that kid from under the tram.
1928		A.W. Upfield House of Cain 92: William J. went terrible crook when I shot a couple of ’em.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 173: The kid’s crook.
c.1943		J.H. Taylor ‘The Digger’s Letter to His Wife’ in Baker (1966) Dear Liz — Last night I was shickered / To-day I’m as crook as can be.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 16: The two days in the lockup had made me feel pretty crook.
1955		P. White Tree of Man (1956) 375: What’s up, Stan? [...] Are you feeling crook? [Ibid.] 472: Only Mrs. La Touche, whose establishment it was, was goin’ crook over the good name of her house.
1960		J. McKinney Well II ii: I said about their Charlie hangin’ round. He went crook.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 10: All he does is go dead crook on the kid. ‘What’s the big idea?’ he says.
1969		A. Buzo Rooted I iii: Remember the time he got sick at Davo’s twenty-first and went for the big spit? He said to me, ‘Jees I feel crook’.
1971		B. Crump ‘Bastards I Have Met’ in Best of Barry Crump (1974) 255: They’d finally found him shoeing a horse before he left for a mate of his who had a crook back.
1987		B. Chatwin Songlines 84: I got a crook gut, Ark.
1996		K. Lette Mad Cows 114: Been a bit crook in the guts. [Ibid.] 198: Hey, come on now. Don’t cry. Mummy didn’t mean to go crook at you.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 55: crook ill or angry, deriving from cronk, obsolete word for ‘ill’, perhaps also from German krank [...] Often used in the phrase to go crook, meaning to display annoyance or anger. If you feel/look crook, you are ill or unhealthy.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] ‘Mate, you sure you’re all right? You crook or something?’.

3. of people and objects, defective, useless, unpleasant; of food, rotten.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 20/3: [cartoon caption] Cynthia: ‘Yah! ’nother one of these ’ere dead crook societies fer admiring pot-bellied earls and knock-kneed dukes, and other sich things. They kin ’ave them on their own.’.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Sept. 4/7: The Miners’ Institute [...] What a dead crook joint it was.
1910		Truth (Perth) 1 Oct. 4/7: You will ‘jerry’ when they tell, / Bishop Wright, / Of some ‘silvertail’ or ‘swell’ / Who got ‘tight,’ / That the ‘tanglefoot was crook,’ / And they ‘had him on a hook’ / Where ‘bazaar-maids’ help to ‘cook’ / Us at night.
1915		F. Garrett diary 21 Sept. 🌐 Both feet went crook so went to see the quack. He never even looked at them [...] I’m a bally malingerer I suppose.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Faltering Knight’ in Rose of Spadgers 19: ’E was a crook young coot, / While I’m a sturdy farmer.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 289: ‘What d’you think of it?’ ‘Pretty crook. Done in the bearing of the steam-chest valve too.’.
1940		H. Drake-Brockman Hot Gold I ii: bell: Don said you wouldn’t go to the pictures tonight? mac: Don’s a fusspot. It’s the programme was crook. Too much Kiss-me-Percy.
1944		A. Marshall These Are My People (1957) 142: They use crook meat because it’s too much trouble to keep it fresh.
1949		H.C. Bosman Cold Stone Jug (1981) II 22: But the lazaretto is crook, now.
1952		T.A.G. Hungerford Ridge and River (1966) 11: This weed crook, all right.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 27: You can look forward to crook weather [ibid.] 39: Some [officers] were crook and chased you around.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 247: Fancy telling Joe he had a crook ticker.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 72: Weather’s too crook, Pop. Can’t work today.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 108: What’s so crook about grog?
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Go West Young Man’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] The beer is crook.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 55: [P]rovided the weather wasn’t too crook, a team of the regulars used to tootle across The Bridge.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 192: ‘I’ve been married to the ugliest, fattest most horrible drop kick of a wife for over twenty years’ ‘Crook sort is she?’.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 32/1: crook [...] unpleasant people, and things out of order.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 18: The bank balance was looking decidely crook.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [W]hen he found out I had a crook back he suggested I take up yoga.

4. suspicious.

1908		E.S. Sorenson Quinton’s Rouseabout and other Stories 118: I thought there was something crook, ’cos that there dog sticks to the old woman like tar to a blanket.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘West’ in Digger Smith 🌐 ‘They talk uv love ’twixt men,’ said ’e. / ‘That sounds dead crook to you.’.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] When rumours first surfaced that things were crook in the National Safety Council [etc].

5. of a woman, promiscuous; venereally diseased.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 52: ‘She is crook’ meaning a woman is immoral or infected.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 3 Jan. 2/4: Charming Vivienne (she’s a Frenchie from an East Melbourne ’ouse) [...] And then there’s the lower orders of her kind — Crook Eadie from Prabran [etc.].
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Faltering Knight’ in Rose of Spadgers 21: I ’ear she’s took, / Or thinks uv takin’ on to ways that’s crook.

6. unfair, unacceptable, ‘wicked’.

1918		C.J. Dennis ‘Half A Man’ in Chisholm (1951) 104: She leads ’im on – it’s crook the way they scheme.
1945		F.J. Hardy Man From Clinkapella 5: Gawd, it’s crook, isn’t it?
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 95: It was a bit crook I had to carry ’em along with me, but they had the sugar.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 68: He got another four months tacked on for crook conduct.

7. (also crooked) annoyed; thus crooked on adj.

1915		Truth (Wellington) 22 May 7: Freddie, of course, went ‘crook’ because she was not looking after the four ‘kiddies‘.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 256: They all looked crooked at him.
1939		Williamstown Chron. (Vic.) 15 Apr. 2/2: I am a bit ‘crook’ on the shellbacks because they have been to France and no objection is taken in the general practice there.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 24 June [synd. cartoon strip] You should ’ave seen that Fritz go crook when I pinched his bloomin’ iron cross.
1945		N. Marsh Died in the Wool (1963) 153: Douglas [...] trod in a pool of blood. ‘And did he go crook!’.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 80: The real truth was that she was crooked because I didn’t take her out enough and kid her I was in love with her.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 40: Won’t she be crooked if you bring another bloke along without telling her?
1985		J. Sherwood Botanist at Bay 44: Just because she went crook at you.

8. drunk.

1953

T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 101: It was Bellairs, drunk as usual. ‘Hey, Slim, what you doin’ there? You crook?’.

In compounds

crook house (n.) [sense 5 above + house n.¹ (1)]

(Aus.) a brothel.

1900–10

Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.].

In phrases

come crook (v.)

(Aus.) to menstruate.

1950, 1955

‘No. 35’ Argot in G. Simes DAUS (1993).

crook on (adj.)

see crooked on adj. (2)

crook up (v.)

(Aus.) to fall ill.

1957

D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 14: You know what made me crook up on top of that accident [...] Eating them damned cakes sprayed with fly-killer.

go crook (on) (v.) (Aus.)

1. to act dishonestly; of an honest person, to join the underworld.

1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Mar. 4/2: The brain, beer-chewing bummers who would prefer to go crook for a ‘caser’ than go straight for a sovereign.
1906		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Sept. 16/1: Thoughts of snatching pelf he spurned. / At suggestions to ‘go crook’ / Righteous wrath within him burned.
1919		(?) H. Lawson ‘The Story of Dotty’ in Roderick (1972) 885: Anyway, I went crook — but only on thievin’.
1935		G. Ingram Cockney Cavalcade 220: If you do go crook I believe I’ll kill you.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 85: If they can be tempted to ‘go crook’.

2. to lose one’s temper (with); to assail.

1911		L. Stone Jonah 190: Yer niver ’ad no cause ter go crook on me.
1919		Aussie (France) XII Mar. 1/2: Some brand new reinstoushments blew in the other night and went crook on him because he had nothing to give them better than hot soup.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 55: We are told to get a drink of tea there, but there’s none left, and we begin to go crook again.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: go crook. Become angry or abusive.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 213: We’re supposed to go crook on ’em for being there, but who cares?
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 149: They went crook when we spilt beer over their skirts.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 11: ‘You please your bloody self,’ Peter snorted, petulantly bunching his lips. ‘Ah, don’t go crook on me, Peter.’.
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 44: Wotta yer goin’ crook about? Yer gettin’ enough to eat, ain’t yer?
1974		D. Ireland Burn 5: Mary went crook when he threw back little fish.
1986		T. Winton That Eye, The Sky 117: Mum came in and went crook something awful.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 58: Doan go crook at mel You cook the bastards!
1994		Penguin Bk of Aus. Jokes 308: Why don’t you go crook at yer missus and git her to make yer somethin’ else?
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 63: You said six o’clock [...] so don’t go crook on us when you ponce in 20 minutes late.

3. of objects, to break down, to stop working, to deteriorate.

1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 June 2/3: Now I’ll show you, by describing her day’s work in a hospital, what a grafter she [i.e. a Primus stove] is, when she doesn’t elect to ‘go crook.’.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 115: This blanked drill’s a fair cow. The blank’s gone crook on me four times in the last ten minutes.
1950		(con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 273: My leg’s gone crook on me.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 63: All of a sudden his luck went crook on him.

4. of people, to experience difficulties.

1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Nov. 10/1: When I come home tanked and hopeless, / When I’ve strayed by the whisky brook – / Lord, keep a hold of my coat-tail, / And tug when I’m going crook.
1938		F. Anthony ‘Winter Feeding the Herd’ in Me And Gus (1977) 80: When he heard me answer he started to go crook.

5. to become ill.

1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 149: They’d not had any eater or tucker for four, five days and they really went crook. [Ibid.] 232/1: crook, to go – as in our ‘go off the deep end’; to feel ill; badly upset.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 65: to go crook, to be of inferior quality [...] or to be ill.

in crook (with)

(N.Z.) in trouble (with).

1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 91: Got a snitch on me and put me in crook with the boss.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 164: Tried to put me in crook with the missus – / I’m awake to that one.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 32/2: in crook with in trouble with somebody, or out of favour.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

put someone crook with (v.)

(Aus./N.Z.) to lower someone’s standing, to get someone into trouble.

1970		B. Crump ‘A Good Keen Girl’ in Best of Barry Crump (1974) 239: And in all that time have you ever known me put you crook?
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 939/2: since ca. 1930.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 32/2: put someone crook give bad advice.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].