Word.ws English Dictionary

crooked

/kɹʊkt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/kɹɵkt/

crooked is the simple past and past participle of crook.

Adjective

UK/kɹʊkɪd/British/kɹɵkɪd/

crooked (comparative more crooked, superlative most crooked)

  1. Not straight; having one or more bends or angles.
    • We walked up the crooked path to the top of the hill.
  2. Set at an angle; not vertical or square.
    • That picture is crooked - could you straighten it up for me?
  3. (figuratively) Dishonest or illegal; corrupt.
    • He was trying to interest me in another one of his crooked deals.
    • He's so crooked that everyone avoids interacting with him as much as they can help it.
  4. (Newfoundland, dialectal) Ill-tempered; grumpy; cranky.
    • I wouldn't try to talk to him just now, b'y! He's some crooked today!
    • [A]and the farther they got an the bridge, the loudher he yelled; till at last Mick cud hould out no longer; so givin' him a skelp o' the whip he had in his han', "Divil choke you, you crukked brat," sez he; "will you nivir stop bawlin'? a body can't hear their ears for you."1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 526

Meaning of crook

Verb

crook (third-person singular simple present crooks, present participle crooking, simple past and past participle crooked)

  1. (transitive) To bend, or form into a hook.
    • He crooked his finger toward me.
  2. (intransitive) To become bent or hooked.
  3. To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist.
    • For the foundation of youthe well ſet (as Plato doth ſaye) the whole bodye of the common wealthe ſhall flouriſhe thereafter. If the younge tree growe croked, when it is oulde, a man ſhall rather breake it than ſtreight it. And I thincke there is no one thinge that crokes youthe more then ſuch...1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […]...

See all 22 meanings of crook

Forms of crooked

comparativemore crooked
superlativemost crooked

Origin of crooked

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

From Middle English croked, crokid, past participle of croken (“to crook, bend”). Cognate with Danish kroget (“crooked”). More at crook.

Words formed from crooked

Phrases with crooked

Words that rhyme with crooked

Questions about crooked

What does crooked mean?
Crooked means not straight; having one or more bends or angles.
What is crooked the simple past and past participle of?
Crooked is the simple past and past participle of crook.
What part of speech is crooked?
Crooked is an adjective.
How do you pronounce crooked?
Crooked is pronounced /kɹʊkt/ (UK).

Words near crooked in the dictionary

  1. crookbacked
  2. crookbacks
  3. crookbill
  4. crookbills
  5. Crooke
  6. crooked
  7. crooked as a barrel of fish hooks
  8. crooked as a barrel of snakes
  9. crooked as a dog's hind leg
  10. Crooked Corner
  11. Crooked Creek

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crooked (page history and authors); crook (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-crooked (verb).wav.

Cite this entry: “crooked.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crooked. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.