different between bilk vs rook

English

Etymology

Origin uncertain; perhaps a variant form of balk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?lk/

• Rhymes: -?lk

Noun

bilk (plural bilks)

1. (cribbage) The spoiling of someone's score in the crib.
2. (obsolete) A deception, a hoax.
3. (obsolete) A cheat or swindler.

Verb

bilk (third-person singular simple present bilks, present participle bilking, simple past and past participle bilked)

1. (transitive) To spoil the score of (someone) in cribbage.
2. (transitive) To do someone out of their due; to deceive or defraud, to cheat (someone).
   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, p. 615:

     They also perpetrate nonviolent crimes like bilking elderly couples out of their life savings and running a business with ruthless disregard for the welfare of the workforce or stakeholders.

3. (archaic, transitive) To evade, elude.

Translations

Anagrams

• blik

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??k/
• (sometimes in Northern England; otherwise obsolete) IPA^(key): /?u?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English rok, roke, from Old English hr?c, from Proto-West Germanic *hr?k, from Proto-Germanic *hr?kaz (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 ??????? (krókon, “raven”), Ancient Greek ????? (kórax, “crow”), Old Armenian ????? (ag?aw), Avestan ????????????????????????????????????? (kahrkatat?, “rooster”), Sanskrit ???? (k?kara, “rooster”)), Ukrainian ???? (kruk, “raven”).

Noun

rook (countable and uncountable, plural rooks)

1. A European bird, Corvus frugilegus, of the crow family.
   • 1768, Thomas Pennant, British Zoology, 168:

     But what distinguishes the rook from the crow is the bill; the nostrils, chin, and sides of that and the mouth being in old birds white and bared of feathers, by often thrusting the bill into the ground in search of the erucæ of the Dor-beetle*; the rook then, instead of being proscribed, should be treated as the farmer's friend; as it clears his ground from caterpillars, that do incredible damage by eating the roots of the corn.

2. A cheat or swindler; someone who betrays.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deceiver, Thesaurus:fraudster

   • 7 April 1705, William Wycherley, Letter to Alexander Pope in The Works of Alexander Pope 36:

     So I am (like an old rook, who is ruined by gaming) forced to live on the good fortune of the pushing young men, whose fancies are so vigorous that they ensure their success in their adventures with Muses, by their strength and imagination.

3. A bad deal; a rip-off.
4. (Britain) A type of firecracker used by farmers to scare birds of the same name.
5. (uncountable) A trick-taking game, usually played with a specialized deck of cards.
   • 2007, Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, 174:

     Adventists still do not really know how to play cards, apart from the sanitized version of bridge, Rook.

Derived terms

• rookery

Translations

See also

• squab

Verb

rook (third-person singular simple present rooks, present participle rooking, simple past and past participle rooked)

1. (transitive) To cheat or swindle.
   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, p. 311:

     Some had spent a week in Jersey before coming to Guernsey; and, from what Paddy had heard, they really do know how to rook the visitors over there.

Synonyms

• (cheat, swindle): cheat, con, do, dupe, have, swindle

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English rook, roke, rok, from Old French roc, ultimately from Persian ??? (rox), from Middle Persian lhw' (rox, “rook, castle (chess)”), possibly from Sanskrit ?? (ratha, “chariot”). Compare roc.

Noun

rook (plural rooks)

1. (chess) A piece shaped like a castle tower, that can be moved only up, down, left or right (but not diagonally) or in castling.
2. (rare) A castle or other fortification.

Synonyms

• (chesspiece): castle
• (castle): castle, fortress

Translations

See also

Etymology 3

From rookie.

Noun

rook (plural rooks)

1. (baseball, slang) A rookie.

Etymology 4

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”).

Noun

rook (uncountable)

1. mist; fog; roke

Etymology 5

Verb

rook (third-person singular simple present rooks, present participle rooking, simple past and past participle rooked)

1. (obsolete) To squat; to ruck.

Etymology 6

Verb

rook (third-person singular simple present rooks, present participle rooking, simple past and past participle rooked)

1. Pronunciation spelling of look.

References

Anagrams

• Koro, Kroo, koro, kroo, roko

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /r???k/

Etymology 1

From Dutch rook (“smoke”), from Middle Dutch rôoc, from Old Dutch *r?k, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz.

Noun

rook (uncountable)

1. smoke

Derived terms

• rookwolk

Etymology 2

From Dutch roken (“to smoke”).

Verb

rook (present rook, present participle rokende, past participle gerook)

1. (intransitive, transitive) to smoke (a tobacco product or surrogate)

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ro?k/
• Hyphenation: rook
• Rhymes: -o?k

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch rôoc, from Old Dutch *r?k, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz.

Noun

rook m (uncountable)

1. smoke

Derived terms

• roken
• rookontwikkeling
• rooksignaal
• rookwolk

Descendants

• Afrikaans: rook

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

rook

1. first-person singular present indicative of roken
2. imperative of roken

Verb

rook

1. singular past indicative of ruiken
2. singular past indicative of rieken

Anagrams

• koor