by hook or by crook en · ADP
Pronunciation
- /baɪ ˈhʊk‿ə baɪ ˈkɹʊk/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /baɪ ˈhʊk‿əɹ baɪ ˈkɹʊk/ (General-American)
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
From earlier by howke or crooke, by hoke ne by croke, etc., from Middle English wiþ hok or crok, wiþ hook or wiþ crok; further origin unknown. One suggestion is that the term is derived from the common of estovers, an ancient right in English law for tenants of land to gather dead wood on common land using blunt tools such as hooks and shepherd’s crooks.
Meanings
-
(idiomatic) By any means possible; one way or another.
Since we've looked up a little in the world, I saved up five guineas, by hook or by crook, and tried to get Poll back again, but the lady said she wouldn't take fifty guineas for him.
1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XXVII, in Peter Simple. […], volume III, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 373:Nor wyll suffre this boke / By hoke ne by croke / Prynted for to be, […]
1521–1522, John Skelton, “Here after Followeth a Litel Boke Called Colyn Cloute, […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 359, lines 1239–1241:In these fields of Mr. Tulkinghorn's inhabiting, where the shepherds play on Chancery pipes that have no stop, and keep their sheep in the fold by hook and by crook until they have shorn them exceeding close, every noise is merged, this moonlight night, into a distant ringing hum, as if the city were a vast glass, vibrating.
1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Closing In”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 469:She was determined to win the contract by hook or by crook.
Novv if you could put us in a vvay, by hook or by crook, to get her out of the convent—
1776 (first performance), Samuel Foote, “A Trip to Calais”, in [George] Colman, editor, A Trip to Calais; a Comedy […] To which is Annexed, The Capuchin; […] Altered from the Trip to Calais, […], London: […] T. Sherlock, for T[homas] Cadell, […], published 1778, →OCLC, Act II, scene [i], page 35:And, by hook or by crook, Hedger Luxellian was made a lord, and everything went on well till some time after, when he got into a most terrible row with King Charles the Fourth— […]
1872 September – 1873 July, Thomas Hardy, “‘’Twas on the Evening of a Winter’s Day’”, in A Pair of Blue Eyes. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1873, →OCLC, pages 15–16:I wouldn't have believed it of myself; but, then—you see—I felt somehow I must get there by hook or by crook.
1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198, column 1:Thus, by diverse little make shifts, in that ingenious way which is commonly denominated "by hook and by crook," the worthy pedagogue got on tolerably enough, and was thought, by all those who undersood nothing of the labour of headwork, to have a wonderful easy life of it.
1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, pages 62–63:Some out of that inſatiable deſire of filthy lucre, to enrich themſelues, care not hovv they come by it, per fas & nefas [by right and wrong], hooke or crooke, ſo they haue it.
1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Loue of Learning, or Overmuch Study. With a Digression of the Misery of Schollers, and Why the Muses are Melancholy.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 15, page 179:Can you not drive over and see me? Do come by hook or by crook.
1842 March (date written), George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “[March 1841 to April 1846: Coventry—Translation of [David] Strauss]”, in J[ohn] W[alter] Cross, editor, George Eliot’s Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1885, →OCLC, page 112:P.S. I hope you will be enabled by hook or by crook, to send B—— and H——, together with a certain Mr. Guthrie, to Philadelphia, for their winter quarters.
1794 October 26 (date written), George Washington, “Washington to [Alexander] Hamilton”, in John C[hurch] Hamilton, editor, The Works of Alexander Hamilton; Comprising His Correspondence, and His Political and Official Writings, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: John F[owler] Trow, […], published 1851, →OCLC, page 45:He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook.
1936 August, Ernest Hemingway, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 14 October 1938, →OCLC, page 158:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| by hook and by crook | alternative | lexicographic |
Relateds
Synonyms
no matter what · by any means · whatever it takes · at all costs · by fair means or foul · with hook or crook
Translations (36)
te ఏదో విధంగా (by any means possible) · de um jeden Preis (by any means possible) · sv på ett sätt eller annat (by any means possible) · hu mindenáron (by any means possible) · de auf Biegen und Brechen (by any means possible) · gd olc no èiginn (by any means possible) · gl como for (by any means possible) · fi puukoin ja puntarein (by any means possible) · es de grado o por fuerza (by any means possible) · sv på ett eller ett annat sätt (by any means possible) · hu bármilyen eszközzel (by any means possible) · pl nie przebierając w środkach (by any means possible) · de auf Teufel komm raus (by any means possible) · fr coûte que coûte (by any means possible) · de mit Haken und Ösen (by any means possible) · da koste hvad det vil (by any means possible) · sv på ett eller annat sätt (by any means possible) · pt como for (by any means possible) · fr de gré ou de force (by any means possible) · da med hiv og sving (by any means possible) · la unde unde (by any means possible) · es de una forma u otra (by any means possible) · ru не мытьём, так ка́таньем (by any means possible) · fr quoi qu'il en coûte (by any means possible) · fi keinolla millä hyvänsä (by any means possible) · ru все́ми пра́вдами и непра́вдами (by any means possible) · es por todos los medios (by any means possible) · pt por bem ou por mal (by any means possible) · kix thīehkǖmêikǜhò (by any means possible) · ca de grat o per força (by any means possible) · hu ha törik, ha szakad (by any means possible) · hu bármi áron (by any means possible) · it per amore o per forza (by any means possible) · ca de tota manera (by any means possible) · gd a dh'olc no a dh'èiginn (by any means possible) · gl por calquer xeito (by any means possible)