rook
UK/ɹʊk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ɹɵk/
rook noun: a European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family. Also the pronunciation spelling of look.
Noun (1)
rook (countable and uncountable, plural rooks)
- A European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family.
- But what distinguishes the rook from the crow is the bill; the nostrils, chin, and sides of that and the mouth being in old birds white and bared of feathers, by often thrusting the bill into the ground in search of the erucæ of the Dor-beetle*; the rook then, instead of being proscribed, should be...1768, Thomas Pennant, British Zoology, page 168
- To-night the winds begin to rise
And roar from yonder dropping day:
The last red leaf is whirl’d away,
The rooks are blown about the skies; […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 24
- A cheat or swindler; someone who betrays.
- So I am (like an old rook, who is ruined by gaming) forced to live on the good fortune of the pushing young men, whose fancies are so vigorous that they ensure their success in their adventures with Muses, by their strength and imagination.7 April 1705, William Wycherley, Letter to Alexander Pope in The Works of Alexander Pope 36
- Synonyms:
- bamboozler, bouncer, bullshitter, cheat, cheater, cogger, cony-catcher, crammer, deceiver, deceptor
- A bad deal; a rip-off.
- A type of firecracker used by farmers to scare birds of the same name.
- A trick-taking game, usually played with a specialized deck of cards.
- Adventists still do not really know how to play cards, apart from the sanitized version of bridge, Rook.2007, Malcolm Bull, Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, page 174
- A parson.
Verb (1)
rook (third-person singular simple present rooks, present participle rooking, simple past and past participle rooked)
- To cheat or swindle.
- They rook one shockingly at these places.1935, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night
- Some had spent a week in Jersey before coming to Guernsey; and, from what Paddy had heard, they really do know how to rook the visitors over there.1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 311
Noun (2)
rook (plural rooks)
- A piece shaped like a castle tower, that can be moved only up, down, left or right (but not diagonally) or in castling.
- Synonyms:
- castle
- A castle or other fortification.
Noun (3)
rook (plural rooks)
- A rookie.
Noun (4)
rook (uncountable)
Verb (2)
rook (third-person singular simple present rooks, present participle rooking, simple past and past participle rooked)
Also used as
rook is also the pronunciation spelling of look.
rook meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
rook in Hindi
- chesspiece
- हाथी hāthī, रुख़ rux, किश्ती kiśtī
rook in Tamil
- chesspiece
- கோட்டை kōṭṭai
- fortification
- கோட்டை kōṭṭai
rook in Urdu
- chesspiece
- رخ rux
rook in Bengali
- chesspiece
- নৌকা nōuka
More languagesFewer languages
- rook in Telugu
- ఏనుగు ēnugu
- rook in Malayalam
- തേര് tērŭ
- rook in Arabic
- غُدَاف ḡudāf, قَلْعَة qalʕa, رُخّ ruḵḵ, طَابِيَة ṭābiya
- rook in Malay
- benteng, tir
- rook in Indonesian
- benteng
- rook in Persian
- زاغ zâġ, رخ rox, قلعه qal'e
- rook in Thai
- เรือ rʉʉa
- rook in Vietnamese
- xe
- rook in Myanmar
- ကျီးအ kyi:a., ရထား ra.hta:
Examples of rook in a sentence
- A handicap in chess often involves removal of the queen's rook.
- You want to bring the rook and then start pushing your pawns.
- A bishop moves only diagonally; a rook, only sideways, forward, and back.
Synonyms of rook
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of rook
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | rooks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | rooks |
| present participle | rooking |
| past participle | rooked |
| past | rooked |
Origin of rook
* Inherited from Middle English rok, roke, from Old English hrōc, from Proto-West Germanic *hrōk, from Proto-Germanic *hrōkaz (compare Old Norse hrókr, Saterland Frisian Rouk, Dutch roek, obsolete German Ruch), from Proto-Indo-European *kerk- (“crow, raven”) (compare Old Irish cerc (“hen”), Old Prussian kerko (“loon, diver”), dialectal Bulgarian кро́кон (krókon, “raven”), Ancient Greek κόραξ (kórax, “crow”), Old Armenian ագռաւ (agṙaw), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬵𐬭𐬐𐬀𐬙𐬀𐬝 (kahrkatat̰, “rooster”), Sanskrit कृकर (kṛkara, “rooster”)), Ukrainian крук (kruk, “raven”). * (parson): Probably from the resemblance in plumage to a parson's garments.
Inherited from Middle English rook, rooke, roke, rok, from Old French roc, ultimately from Persian رخ (rox), from Middle Persian lhw' (rox, “rook, castle (chess)”). Compare roc.
From rookie.
Words formed from rook
Phrases with rook
Words that rhyme with rook
38 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- brooke
- logbook
- stook
- jook
- mistook
- overcook
- shook
- sook
- talk like a book
- took
- undercook
- abrook
- betook
- bring to book
- by hook and by crook
- by hook or by crook
- checkbook
- cheque book
- chequebook
- Corner Brook
- forsook
- Glenburnie-Birchy Head-Shoal Brook
- gook
- Hughes Brook
- Knook
- log book
- log-book
- Main Brook
- mook
- overtook
- partook
- quook
- schnook
- shnook
- South Brook
- Steady Brook
- uncrook
- undertook
Questions about rook
- What does rook mean?
- Rook means a European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family.
- What is rook in Hindi?
- Rook in Hindi is हाथी (hāthī), रुख़ (rux), किश्ती (kiśtī). See Rook meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is rook?
- Rook can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce rook?
- Rook is pronounced /ɹʊk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of rook?
- The plural of rook is rooks.
Words near rook in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rook (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: en-us-rook.ogg.
Cite this entry: “rook.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rook. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.