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Foul vs Crook - What's the difference?

foul | crook |

As nouns the difference between foul and crook

is that foul is foul (a breach of the rules of a game) while crook is a bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.

As a verb crook is

to bend.

As an adjective crook is

(australia|new zealand|slang) bad, unsatisfactory, not up to standard.

foul

English

(Webster 1913)

Etymology 1

From (etyl), from (etyl) . More at (l).

Adjective

(er)
  • Covered with, or containing unclean matter; polluted; nasty; defiled
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.}}
  • obscene or profane; abusive.
  • Hateful; detestable; unpleasant
  • * Milton
  • Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
  • Loathsome; disgusting; as, a foul disease.
  • (obsolete) Ugly; homely; poor.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares.
  • Not favorable; unpropitious; not fair or advantageous; as, a foul wind; a foul road; cloudy or rainy; stormy; not fair; -- said of the weather, sky, etc.
  • * Shakespeare
  • So foul a sky clears not without a storm.
  • Not conforming to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.; unfair; dishonest; dishonorable; cheating.
  • (nautical) Having freedom of motion interfered with by collision or entanglement; entangled; - opposed to clear; as, a rope or cable may get foul while paying it out.
  • (baseball) Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.
  • Usage notes
    * Nouns to which "foul" is often applied: play, ball, language, breath, smell, odor, water, weather, deed.
    Synonyms
    * shameful; odious; wretched
    Derived terms
    * afoul * befoul * fall foul * nonfoul * nonfouling

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make dirty.
  • to foul the face or hands with mire
    She's fouled her diaper.
  • To besmirch.
  • He's fouled his reputation.
  • To clog or obstruct.
  • The hair has fouled the drain.
  • (nautical) To entangle.
  • The kelp has fouled the prop.
  • (basketball) To make contact with an opposing player in order to gain advantage.
  • Smith fouled him hard.
  • (baseball) To hit outside of the baselines.
  • Jones fouled the ball off the facing of the upper deck.
  • To become clogged.
  • ''The drain fouled .
  • To become entangled.
  • The prop fouled on the kelp.
  • (basketball) To commit a foul.
  • Smith fouled within the first minute of the quarter.
  • (baseball) To hit a ball outside of the baselines.
  • Jones fouled for strike one.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (sports) A breach of the rules of a game, especially one involving inappropriate contact with an opposing player in order to gain an advantage; as, for example, foot-tripping in soccer, or contact of any kind in basketball.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 10 , author=Arindam Rej , title=Norwich 4 - 2 Newcastle , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.
    Gosling's plight worsened when he was soon shown a red card for a foul on Martin.}}
  • (bowling) A (usually accidental) contact between a bowler and the lane before the bowler has released the ball.
  • (baseball) A foul ball, a ball which has been hit outside of the base lines.
  • Jones hit a foul up over the screen.

    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