Crooked

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /kɹʊkt/

Definitions

1. Something bent or twisted out of a straight line or proper shape ; involving deceitful or fraudulent behavior or lacking honesty
2. Not aligned in a straight manner or having a warped shape ; characterized by unethical, underhanded, or illegal actions
3. Deviating from a linear or normal form in a bent or angled way ; operating in a dishonest or untrustworthy manner often violating rules or ethics

Etymology: "Crooked" began life as a verb. In Middle English, "croken" meant "to crook" or "to bend," and its past participle, "croked" or "crokid," was used to describe anything that had been bent out of a straight line. So a crooked road or a crooked stick was, in the most literal sense, one that had been bent into shape. The adjective kept that physical sense, and it still points to its origin in the word "crook," a shepherd's staff curved at the top. The same bending idea runs through the family: a crook is a bend, and crooked is the state of having been bent. The Danish "kroget," meaning the same thing, shows that the root was shared across the North Germanic and English branches.

Synonyms: bent, twisted, deformed, dishonest

Antonyms: straight, honest