rooks

Noun

rook (countable and uncountable, plural rooks)

1. 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
2. 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

3. A bad deal; a rip-off.
4. (UK) A type of firecracker used by farmers to scare birds of the same name.
5. (uncountable) 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
6. (archaic, slang) A parson.

See all 12 meanings of rook