crooked

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English croked,^[2][3][4] formed from English crook + -ed: the OED and Merriam-Webster see partly the past participle of the verb and partly the noun with an adjective suffix, the OED adding that the noun may have come first.^[5][3] Etymonline takes it as the participle only.^[6] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English think it was probably modelled on Old Norse krókóttr (“crooked, cunning”).^[7][8][9] The noun is from Old Norse krókr (“hook, corner”).^[6][7][10] The MED instead derives the Middle English word from Old English crōcod,^[2] a form recorded as gecrōcod (“crooked, bent”) in late Old English; the Gersum Project notes that its late date and the lack of Germanic cognates may point to Norse origin,^[10] and Holthausen derives it from the Norse noun.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bent from the straight form, and also, figuratively, not straight in conduct: both are in the Ancrene Riwle, dated about 1225.^[5] Etymonline dates the literal sense to the early 13th century and the figurative one to about 1200.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The physical and moral senses appear together, the second being the reverse of "straight" in its figurative senses.^[5] In Middle English the word was used of a staff with a curved head, a crescent moon and anything oblique or winding.^[2] From about 1290 it was also used of people bent with age or deformed.^[5] Chaucer's uses range from "crippled" to "evil" as a noun.^[12] Johnson (1755) listed "bent", "winding" and then "perverse; without rectitude of mind".^[13] Etymonline dates the narrower sense "dishonest" to 1708, the source of the American noun crook, a swindler (1879).^[6] From 1864, in Hotten's slang dictionary, the word also describes goods dishonestly come by.^[5] In slang it also meant drunk from 1770^[14] and wrong or out of order from 1865.^[14] Australian and New Zealand slang from 1945 uses it, usually in crooked on, for angry at someone.^[5] The dialects had phrases like as crooked as Dick's hatband in Shropshire, and crooked words for swear-words in Devon.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – bent, curved; and figuratively, not upright or straightforward.^[5]
• c. 1290 – of people, bent or deformed in body, or bowed with age.^[5]
• 1470–85 – of a horse, old and decrepit, in Malory.^[5]
• 1545 – adverb, in a crooked course or position, in Ascham.^[5]
• 1770 – slang, drunk.^[14]
• 1864 – dishonestly obtained or sold.^[5]
• 1865 – slang, wrong, out of order.^[14]
• 1945 – Australian and New Zealand slang, angry, in crooked on.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not straight; bent, curved or winding: a crooked mountain lane.^[16][3][5]
2. Set at an angle; askew: His tie was crooked.^[16]
3. Of a person or body, deformed or bowed with age: crooked fingers.^[16][5][8]
4. Dishonest or illegal; fraudulent: a crooked accountant.^[16][3][5]
5. (informal) Obtained or sold dishonestly; stolen.^[5][8]
6. crooked on: in Australian and New Zealand slang, hostile to or angry with.^[16][5][8]
7. (obsolete, 1470–1533) Of a horse, old and worn out.^[5][8]

Adverb

1. In or into a crooked position.^[5][8]

Word family

• crookedly
• crookedness

Related words

• crook
• crookback

Usage notes

The adjective has two syllables, /ˈkrʊkɪd/, but the Australian and New Zealand slang sense usually has one, /krʊkt/.^[16][5][8] The past tense of the verb crook also has one syllable.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins