rook

• IPA^(key): /ɹʊk/
• (sometimes in Northern England; otherwise obsolete) IPA^(key): /ɹuːk/[1]

• Audio (US)

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• Homophone: ruck (most accents without foot-strut split)
• Rhymes: -ʊk

A rook (bird)

• From Middle English rok, roke, from Old English hrōc, from Proto-West Germanic *hrōk, from Proto-Germanic *hrōkaz (compare Old Norse hrókr, Saterland Frisian Rouk, Dutch roek, obsolete German Ruch), from Proto-Indo-European *kerk- (“crow, raven”) (compare Old Irish cerc (“hen”), Old Prussian kerko (“loon, diver”), dialectal Bulgarian кро́кон (krókon, “raven”), Ancient Greek κόραξ (kórax, “crow”), Old Armenian ագռաւ (agṙaw), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬵𐬭𐬐𐬀𐬙𐬀𐬝 (kahrkatat̰, “rooster”), Sanskrit कृकर (kṛkara, “rooster”)), Ukrainian крук (kruk, “raven”).
• (parson): Probably from the resemblance in plumage to a parson's garments.

rook (countable and uncountable, plural rooks)

1. A European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family.
   • 1768, Thomas Pennant, British Zoology, page 168:

     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 treated as the farmer's friend; as it clears his ground from caterpillars, that do incredible damage by eating the roots of the corn.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XV, page 24:

     To-night the winds begin to rise
     ⁠And roar from yonder dropping day:
     ⁠The last red leaf is whirl’d away,
     The rooks are blown about the skies; […]

2. A cheat or swindler; someone who betrays.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deceiver, Thesaurus:fraudster

   • 7 April 1705, William Wycherley, Letter to Alexander Pope in The Works of Alexander Pope 36:

     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.

3. A bad deal; a rip-off.
4. (British) 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.
   • 2007, Malcolm Bull, Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, page 174:

     Adventists still do not really know how to play cards, apart from the sanitized version of bridge, Rook.

6. (slang, archaic) A parson.

• squab

rook (third-person singular simple present rooks, present participle rooking, simple past and past participle rooked)

1. (transitive) To cheat or swindle.
   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 311:

     Some had spent a week in Jersey before coming to Guernsey; and, from what Paddy had heard, they really do know how to rook the visitors over there.

• (cheat): cheat, con, do, dupe, have, swindle, trick

• (cheat): Greek (at cards)

A rook (chess)

From Middle English rook, rooke, roke, rok, from Old French roc, ultimately from Persian رخ (rox), from Middle Persian lhw' (rox, “rook, castle (chess)”). Compare roc.

rook (plural rooks)

1. (chess) A piece shaped like a castle tower, that can be moved only up, down, left or right (but not diagonally) or in castling.
2. (rare) A castle or other fortification.

• (chesspiece): castle
• (castle): castle, fortress

• ♖, ♜

Chess pieces in English · chess pieces, chessmen (see also: chess) (layout · text)
king	queen	rook, castle	bishop	knight	pawn

From rookie.

rook (plural rooks)

1. (baseball, slang) A rookie.

From Middle English roke, rock, rok (“mist; vapour; drizzle; smoke; fumes”), from Old Norse *rauk, related to Icelandic rok, roka (“whirlwind; seafoam; seaspray”), Middle Dutch rooc, rok, Modern Dutch rook (“smoke; fog”).

rook (uncountable)

1. mist; fog; roke

rook (third-person singular simple present rooks, present participle rooking, simple past and past participle rooked)

1. (obsolete) To squat; to ruck.
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]:

     The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top

rook (third-person singular simple present rooks, present participle rooking, simple past and past participle rooked)

1. Pronunciation spelling of look. (mimicking Asian speech)

• Koro, Kroo, Orok, koro, kroo, roko

• IPA^(key): /rʊə̯k/

From Dutch rook (“smoke”), from Middle Dutch rôoc, from Old Dutch *rōk, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz.

rook (uncountable)

1. smoke

• rookwolk

From Dutch roken (“to smoke”).

rook (present rook, present participle rokende, past participle gerook)

1. (intransitive, transitive) to smoke (a tobacco product or surrogate)

• IPA^(key): /roːk/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: rook
• Rhymes: -oːk

From Middle Dutch rôoc, from Old Dutch *rōk, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz.

rook m (uncountable)

1. smoke

• Afrikaans: rook
• Negerhollands: rook

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

rook

1. inflection of roken:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

rook

1. singular past indicative of ruiken
2. singular past indicative of rieken

• koor