By hook or by crook, phr. (colloquial).—By some means or other; by fair means or foul; at al hazards. [Probably of forestal origin.]
d. 1298. Thomas the Rhymer, On Parliaments. Their work was by hook or crook to rap and bring all under the emperor's power.
1525. Bodmin Register. Dynmure Wood was ever open and common to the . . . inhabitants of Bodmin . . . to bear away upon their backs a burden of lop, crop, hook, crook, and bag wood.
d. 1529. Skelton, Collyn Cloute. Nor wyll suffer this boke By hooke ne by crooke Prynted for to be.
1550. Bacon, Fortress of the Faithful. Whatsoever is pleasant or profitable must be theirs by hook or by crook.
1557. Tusser, Good Husbandrie, 30 Mar. Watch therefore in Lent, to thy sheepe go and look, For dogs will have vittels BY HOOKE AND BY CROOKE.
1566. Archbp. Parker, Correspondence (Parker Soc.), p. 252. To win him in time, by hook or crook.
1596. Spenser, Faery Queen, v., 2, 27. The spoyle of people's euill gotten good, The which her sire had scrapt by HOOKE AND CROOKE.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Barocco, a shift made for good cheere, meate and drinke gotten by hooke or CROOKE.
1621. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, xi., 186 (1836). By hook and by crook he will obtain it.
1629. Fonseca [Eng. by J. M.]. Devout Contemplations. Bee it by hooke or by crooke, by right or wrong.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, iii., 1. Which he by hook, or crook, had gather'd.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. By Hedge or By Style, by Hook or by Crook.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s v.
1781. Cowper, Letter to Newton, 12 July. And by hook or crook, with another book, If I live and am here, another year.
1820. Reynolds [Peter Corcoran]. The Fancy. Father, ere our purpose cool, Get down by hook or crook to Liverpool.
1824. Hitchings and Drewe, Hist. Cornwall, ii., 214. The prior's cross, on which is cut the figure of a hook and a crook, in memory of the privilege granted . . . to the poor . . . for gathering such boughs and branches of such trees . . . as they could reach with a hook or by a crook . . . whence . . . they will have it by HOOK AND BY CROOK.
1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 363. We must be manned by hook or crook, you know, however unwilling to distress running ships.
1868. Reade and Boucicault, Foul Play, p. 54. Several fellow-creatures have cheated me. Well, I must get as much back, by hook or by crook, from several fellow-creatures.
1883. W. Black, Yolande, ch. xlix. I should get you a ticket by hook or by crook, if I failed at the ballot; I heard that one was sold for £40 the last time.
1888. Rider Haggard, 'Mrs. Meeson's Will' [in Illustrated News, Summer Number, p. 5, c. 1]. Somehow or other, it would go hard if, with the help of the one hundred a year that he had of his own, he did not manage, with his education, to get a living by hook or by crook.
With a hook at the end, phr. (common).—A reservation of assent; over the left (q.v.); IN A HORN (q.v.). Cf., HOOK, intj.: and Hookey Walker.
1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Hookey Walker—and with a hook, usually accompanied by a significant upliftment of the hand and crooking of the forefinger, implying that what is said is a lie, or is to be taken contrary-wise.
1843. Moncrieff, Scamps of London, i., 1. Bob. Will you have some gin? Fogg. Gin—Yes! Bob (turning away). Ha—ha!—With a hook . . . I wish you may get it.
1870. Traill, Saturday Songs, p. 22. It's go and go over the left, It's go WITH A HOOK AT THE END.
Off the hooks, phr. (old).—Out of temper; vexed; disturbed; out of sorts. Fr., sortir de ses gonds = off the hinges (q.v.). For synonyms, see Nab THE RUST.
