What is "by hook or by crook"

Hook \Hook\ (h[oo^]k; 277), n. [OE. hok, AS. h[=o]c; cf. D. haak, G. hake, haken, OHG. h[=a]ko, h[=a]go, h[=a]ggo, Icel. haki, Sw. hake, Dan. hage. Cf. Arquebuse, Hagbut, Hake, Hatch a half door, Heckle.]

1. A piece of metal, or other hard material, formed or bent into a curve or at an angle, for catching, holding, or sustaining anything; as, a hook for catching fish; a hook for fastening a gate; a boat hook, etc.

2. That part of a hinge which is fixed to a post, and on which a door or gate hangs and turns.

3. An implement for cutting grass or grain; a sickle; an instrument for cutting or lopping; a billhook.

   Like slashing Bentley with his desperate hook.
   --Pope.

4. (Steam Engin.) See Eccentric, and V-hook.

5. A snare; a trap. [R.]
   --Shak.

6. A field sown two years in succession. [Prov. Eng.]

7. pl. The projecting points of the thigh bones of cattle; -- called also hook bones.

8. (Geog.) A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end; as, Sandy Hook in New Jersey.

9. (Sports) The curving motion of a ball, as in bowling or baseball, curving away from the hand which threw the ball; in golf, a curving motion in the direction of the golfer who struck the ball.

10. (Computers) A procedure within the encoding of a computer program which allows the user to modify the program so as to import data from or export data to other programs.

    By hook or by crook, one way or other; by any means, direct or indirect.
    --Milton. ``In hope her to attain by hook or crook.''
    --Spenser.

    Off the hook, freed from some obligation or difficulty; as, to get off the hook by getting someone else to do the job.

    Off the hooks, unhinged; disturbed; disordered. [Colloq.] ``In the evening, by water, to the Duke of Albemarle, whom I found mightly off the hooks that the ships are not gone out of the river.''
    --Pepys.

    On one's own hook, on one's own account or responsibility; by one's self. [Colloq. U.S.]
    --Bartlett.

    To go off the hooks, to die. [Colloq.]
    --Thackeray.

    Bid hook, a small boat hook.

    Chain hook. See under Chain.

    Deck hook, a horizontal knee or frame, in the bow of a ship, on which the forward part of the deck rests.

    Hook and eye, one of the small wire hooks and loops for fastening together the opposite edges of a garment, etc.

    Hook bill (Zo["o]l.), the strongly curved beak of a bird.

    Hook ladder, a ladder with hooks at the end by which it can be suspended, as from the top of a wall.

    Hook motion (Steam Engin.), a valve gear which is reversed by V hooks.

    Hook squid, any squid which has the arms furnished with hooks, instead of suckers, as in the genera Enoploteuthis and Onychteuthis.

    Hook wrench, a wrench or spanner, having a hook at the end, instead of a jaw, for turning a bolthead, nut, or coupling.

crook \crook\ (kr[oo^]k), n. [OE. crok; akin to Icel. kr[=o]kr hook, bend, SW. krok, Dan. krog, OD. krooke; or cf. Gael. crocan crook, hook, W. crwca crooked. Cf. Crosier, Crotchet, Crutch, Encroach.]

1. A bend, turn, or curve; curvature; flexure.

   Through lanes, and crooks, and darkness.
   --Phaer.

2. Any implement having a bent or crooked end. Especially:

   1. The staff used by a shepherd, the hook of which serves to hold a runaway sheep.

   2. A bishop's staff of office. Cf. Pastoral staff.

      He left his crook, he left his flocks.
      --Prior.

3. A pothook. ``As black as the crook.''
   --Sir W. Scott.

4. An artifice; trick; tricky device; subterfuge.

   For all yuor brags, hooks, and crooks.
   --Cranmer.

5. (Mus.) A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.

6. A person given to fraudulent practices; an accomplice of thieves, forgers, etc. [Cant, U.S.]

   By hook or by crook, in some way or other; by fair means or foul.

prep.phr. (context idiomatic English) By any means possible; one way or another.

adv. in any way necessary; "I'll pass this course by hook or by crook" [syn: by any means]

By Hook or by Crook is a 1980 Hong Kong kung fu film produced and directed by Karl Maka and starring Sammo Hung and Dean Shek.

" By hook or by crook" is an English phrase meaning "by any means necessary".

By hook or by crook may also refer to:

• By Hook or by Crook (1980 film), a Hong Kong kung fu film
• By Hook or by Crook (2001 film), an American queer buddy film

• By Hook or Crook, a multiplayer board game

By Hook or by Crook is a 2001 queer buddy film by writers/directors/actors Harry Dodge and Silas Howard and produced by Steakhaus Productions. Stanya Kahn was a contributing writer. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

"By hook or by crook" is an English phrase meaning "by any means necessary", suggesting that any means possible should be taken to accomplishing the goal. The phrase is very old, first recorded in the Middle English text Controversial Tracts by John Wyclif in 1380.

The origin of the phrase is obscure, with multiple different explanations and no evidence to support any particular one over the others. For example, a commonly repeated suggestion is that it comes from Hook Head in Wexford, Ireland and the nearby village of Crook, in Waterford, Ireland. Another is that it comes from the customs regulating which firewood local people could take from common land; they were allowed to take any branches that they could reach with a billhook or a shepherd's crook. The word crook has a shepherds crook, used to hook sheep, while hook may suggest a hook.

Another theory is that the expression dates from the days of the first Norman invasions of Ireland, when rudimentary sailing boats left from Bristol or Pembroke bound for Ireland. The first Norman king of Ireland was Richard III. Back in his day, depending on the weather, the voyage to Ireland could be extremely hazardous and many ships didn’t make it. For the Normans, the two most extreme points on the Irish southern coast with harbours where they could possibly dock were Hook Head in Waterford to the east, and Crookhaven in Cork to the west. If you didn’t make land between Hook and Crook you were going off towards the wild Atlantic and the treacherous west coast, where the seas were huge, the ports few and the native Irish not too friendly to the hapless Normans. Therefore, the Normans vowed to land in Ireland “by hook or by crook” and deploy any means necessary to do so because to miss the stretch between Hook Head and Crookhaven meant the voyage was a total failure.

The phrase was featured in the opening credits to the 1960s British television series The Prisoner. It also appears prominently (as "by hook and by crook") in the short stories "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Ernest Hemingway and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.