acrook meaning (archaic): definition, etymology and quotations

acrook

adv

/əˈkɹʊk/

Etymology From a- + crook.

Archaic In an oblique or crooked direction.

C. Custance. Wife, why cal ye me wife? Sim Sure. Wife? this gear goth acrook.c. 1553, Nicholas Udall, edited by Edward Arber, Roister Doister, Birmingham, published 1869, Act IV, Scene 3, p. 62:
Loe, is not there the draught of some gold-sandy brooke That on this azure ground glydes (as it were) acrooke?1625, “The Pillars, or fourth Booke of Noe”, in William L’Isle, transl., Part of Du Barts English and French, London: John Haviland, page 158:

2 more examples

[…] our spirits immersed / In wilfulness, our steps run all acrook.1881, Christina Rossetti, “Behold the Man!”, in A Pageant and Other Poems, London: Macmillan, page 177:
And night ten years, o’er rough and smooth, And up and down, and acrook and across, I lead my pupils by the nose,1905, Albert G. Latham, transl., Goethe’s Faust, London: J.M. Dent, published 1908, Part 1, p. 25:

adj

Etymology From a- + crook.

Of a body part Bent or formed into a hook.

1905, Eudorus C. Kenney, “Jack and the Sparrows” in Some More Thusettes, Cortland, NY: The Democrat Printery, p. 7, So Jack of salt a handful took / And slyly watched with neck acrook The sparrows.
"Arm acrook, too, a-thinkin’ thet in ther dark all cats is grey."1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 198:

1 more example

His knees were acrook and his feet lifted on their toes as if they were ready for flight.1954, Eilís Dillon, chapter 3, in The San Sebastian, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, page 57:

Uncommon Not in its proper place or properly oriented.

The whole evening […] lay empty ahead of us. What bliss! There was not a pin acrook in the house, the washing up would be done […]1994, Jean Brown, chapter 26, in We’ll See the Cuckoo, Lancaster: Palatine Books, published 2004, page 519:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.