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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rook.

A European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɹʊk/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵk/British, Southern, Standard/ɹuːk//ɾʉk/Scotland
  1. A European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A cheat or swindler; someone who betrays.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A bad deal; a rip-off.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A type of firecracker used by farmers to scare birds of the same name.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  5. A trick-taking game, usually played with a specialized deck of cards.

    uncountable
  6. A parson.

    archaic · countable · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

* 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.

verb/ɹʊk/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵk/British, Southern, Standard/ɹuːk//ɾʉk/Scotland
  1. To cheat or swindle.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

* 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.

noun/ɹʊk/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵk/British, Southern, Standard/ɹuːk//ɾʉk/Scotland
  1. A piece shaped like a castle tower, that can be moved only up, down, left or right (but not diagonally) or in castling.

  2. A castle or other fortification.

    rare
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/ɹʊk/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵk/British, Southern, Standard/ɹuːk//ɾʉk/Scotland
  1. A rookie.

    slang
Where this word comes from

From rookie.

noun/ɹʊk/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵk/British, Southern, Standard/ɹuːk//ɾʉk/Scotland
  1. mist; fog; roke

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/ɹʊk/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵk/British, Southern, Standard/ɹuːk//ɾʉk/Scotland
  1. To squat; to ruck.

    obsolete
verb/ɹʊk/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵk/British, Southern, Standard/ɹuːk//ɾʉk/Scotland
  1. Pronunciation spelling of look, mimicking Asian speech.

    alt-of · pronunciation-spelling
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.