acrook
English
Etymology
a- + crook
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈkɹʊk/
Adverb
acrook (not comparable)
- (archaic) In an oblique or crooked direction.
- Synonyms: askew, awry, crookedly, obliquely
- c. 1553, Nicholas Udall, Roister Doister, edited by Edward Arber, Birmingham, 1869, Act IV, Scene 3, p. 62,
- C. Custance. Wife, why cal ye me wife?
- Sim Sure. Wife? this gear goth acrook.
- 1625, William L’Isle (translator), “The Pillars, or fourth Booke of Noe” in Part of Du Barts English and French, London: John Haviland, p. 158,
- Loe, is not there the draught of some gold-sandy brooke
- That on this azure ground glydes (as it were) acrooke?
- 1881, Christina Rossetti, “Behold the Man!” in A Pageant and Other Poems, London: Macmillan, p. 177,
- […] our spirits immersed / In wilfulness, our steps run all acrook.
- 1905, Albert G. Latham (translator), Goethe’s Faust, London: J.M. Dent, 1908, Part 1, p. 25,
- And night ten years, o’er rough and smooth,
- And up and down, and acrook and across,
- I lead my pupils by the nose,
Adjective
acrook (not comparable)
- (regional, of a body part) Bent or formed into a hook.
- Synonyms: bent, crooked
- 1905, Eudorus C. Kenney, “Jack and the Sparrows” in Some More Thusettes, Cortland, NY: The Democrat Printery, p. 7,
- So Jack of salt a handful took /
- And slyly watched with neck acrook
- The sparrows.
- 1907, Barbara Baynton, Sally Krimmer; Alan Lawson, editors, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 198:
- "Arm acrook, too, a-thinkin’ thet in ther dark all cats is grey."
- 1954, Eilís Dillon, The San Sebastian, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, Chapter 3, p. 57,
- His knees were acrook and his feet lifted on their toes as if they were ready for flight.
- (regional) Not in its proper place or properly oriented.
- Synonym: askew
- 1994, Jean Brown, We’ll See the Cuckoo, Lancaster: Palatine Books, 2004, Chapter 26, p. 519,
- The whole evening […] lay empty ahead of us. What bliss! There was not a pin acrook in the house, the washing up would be done […]