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Rook
Definitions
- 1 A European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family. countable, uncountable
"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."
- 2 A piece shaped like a castle tower, that can be moved only up, down, left or right (but not diagonally) or in castling.
- 3 A rookie. slang
- 4 mist; fog; roke uncountable
- 5 common gregarious Old World bird about the size and color of the American crow wordnet
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- 6 A cheat or swindler; someone who betrays. countable, uncountable
"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."
- 7 A castle or other fortification. rare
- 8 (chess) the piece that can move any number of unoccupied squares in a direction parallel to the sides of the chessboard wordnet
- 9 A bad deal; a rip-off. countable, uncountable
- 10 A type of firecracker used by farmers to scare birds of the same name. British, countable, uncountable
- 11 A trick-taking game, usually played with a specialized deck of cards. uncountable
"Adventists still do not really know how to play cards, apart from the sanitized version of bridge, Rook."
- 12 A parson. archaic, countable, slang, uncountable
- 1 To cheat or swindle. transitive
"They rook one shockingly at these places."
- 2 To squat; to ruck. obsolete
"The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top"
- 3 Pronunciation spelling of look, mimicking Asian speech. alt-of, pronunciation-spelling
- 4 deprive of by deceit wordnet
Etymology
* Inherited 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.
* Inherited 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.
Inherited 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.
From rookie.
Inherited 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”).
See also for "rook"
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