What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Crook vs Criminal - What's the difference?

crook | criminal |

As nouns the difference between crook and criminal

is that crook is a bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure while criminal is a person who is guilty of a crime, notably breaking the law.

As adjectives the difference between crook and criminal

is that crook is bad, unsatisfactory, not up to standard while criminal is being against the law; forbidden by law.

As a verb crook

is to bend.

crook

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) croke, crok, from (etyl) *.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.
  • :
  • *(Thomas Phaer) (c.1510-1560)
  • *:through lanes, and crooks , and darkness
  • A bending of the knee; a genuflection.
  • A bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion (of anything).
  • :
  • *
  • *:It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the 'crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.
  • (lb) A lock or curl of hair.
  • (lb) A gibbet.
  • (lb) A support beam consisting of a post with a cross-beam resting upon it; a bracket or truss consisting of a vertical piece, a horizontal piece, and a strut.
  • A shepherd's crook; a staff with a semi-circular bend ("hook") at one end used by shepherds.
  • *1970 , The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, Oxford Study Edition'', published 1976, Oxford University Press, ''Psalms 23-4, p.583:
  • *:Even though I walk through a / valley dark as death / I fear no evil, for thou art with me, / thy staff and thy crook are my / comfort.
  • A bishop's staff of office.
  • An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.
  • *(Thomas Cranmer) (1489-1556)
  • *:for all your brags, hooks, and crooks
  • A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal.
  • *1973 November 17, (Richard Nixon), reported 1973 November 18, The Washington Post'', ''Nixon Tells Editors, ‘I'm Not a Crook’ ,
  • *:"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook'. Well, I?m not a ' crook . I?ve earned everything I?ve got."
  • A pothook.
  • *Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
  • *:as black as the crook
  • (lb) A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.
    • Synonyms
    * (criminal) See
    Derived terms
    * by hook or by crook * by hook or crook (US)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To bend.
    • He crooked his finger toward me.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee.
  • * 1917 , , Part 4, Chapter 5,
    • “.
  • To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist.
  • * Ascham
    • There is no one thing that crooks youth more than such unlawful games.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends.
    Derived terms
    * crooked (adjective)

    Etymology 2

    From . Australian National Dictionary Centre Home » Australian words » Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms » C

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Bad, unsatisfactory, not up to standard.
    • That work you did on my car is crook , mate
    Not turning up for training was pretty crook .
    Things are crook at Tallarook.
  • * 2004 , , A Cry from the Dark , page 21,
    • “Things are crook at home at the moment.”
    “They?re always crook at my home.”
  • (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Ill, sick.
    • I?m feeling a bit crook .
  • (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Annoyed, angry; upset.
    • be crook''' at/about''; ''go '''crook at
  • * 2006 , Jimmy Butt, Felicity Dargan, I've Been Bloody Lucky: The Story of an Orphan Named Jimmy Butt , page 17,
    • Ann explained to the teacher what had happened and the nuns went crook at me too.
  • * 2007 , Jo Wainer, Bess'', ''Lost: Illegal Abortion Stories , page 159,
    • I went home on the tram, then Mum went crook at me because I was late getting home—I had tickets for Mum and her friend to go to the Regent that night and she was annoyed because I was late.
  • * 2007 , Ruby Langford Ginibi, Don?t Take Your Love to Town , page 100,
    • I went crook at them for not telling me and as soon as she was well enough I took her home to the camping area and she soon picked up.
  • * 2009 , Carolyn Landon, Cups With No Handles: Memoir of a Grassroots Activist , page 234,
    • Mum went crook at me for wasting money, but when Don got a job and spent all his money on a racing bike, she didn?t say a thing to him.

    Usage notes

    Synthetic comparative and superlative forms (crooker'', ''crookest ) also find frequent use.
    Derived terms
    * crook as Rookwood

    References

    criminal

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Being against the law; forbidden by law.
  • * Addison
    • Foppish and fantastic ornaments are only indications of vice, not criminal in themselves.
  • Guilty of breaking the law.
  • * Rogers
    • The neglect of any of the relative duties renders us criminal in the sight of God.
  • Of or relating to crime or penal law.
  • * Hallam
    • The officers and servants of the crown, violating the personal liberty, or other right of the subject were in some cases liable to criminal process.
    His long criminal record suggests that he is a dangerous man.
  • (figuratively) Abhorrent or very undesirable, even if allowed by law.
    • ''Printing such asinine opinions without rebuttal is criminal , even when not libel!

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "criminal" is often applied: law, justice, court, procedure, prosecution, intent, case, record, act, action, behavior, code, offence, liability, investigation, conduct, defense, trial, history, responsibility, lawyer, tribunal, appeal, process, background, mind, conspiracy, evidence, gang, organization, underworld, jurisprudence, offender, jury, police, past, group, punishment, attorney, violence, report, career, psychology.

    Synonyms

    * illegal

    Derived terms

    * criminal conversation * criminalisation * criminalist * criminalistics * criminality * criminalize * criminal law * criminal-law * criminally * criminal negligence * criminalness * criminal-offence * criminal offence * criminal procedure * criminal record

    Related terms

    * criminate * crimination * criminologist * criminology * criminousness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person who is guilty of a crime, notably breaking the law.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
    • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=3 citation , passage=‘[…] There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique. The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning—he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol in Horsemonger Lane, by the way—’}}

    Synonyms

    * lawbreaker * offender * perpetrator * See also