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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Rook


ROOK, noun [Latin graculus; probably from its voice. See Crow and Croak.]

1. A fowl of the genus Corvus, the fowl mentioned by Virgil under this name. This fowl resembles the crow, but differs from it in not feeding on carrion, but on insects and grain. In crows also the nostrils and root of the bill are clothed with feathers, but in rooks the same parts are naked, or have only a few bristly hairs. The rook is gregarious.

2. A cheat; a trickish, rapacious fellow.

ROOK, noun A common man at chess.

ROOK, verb intransitive To cheat; to defraud.

ROOK, verb transitive To cheat; to defraud by cheating.

ROOK, verb intransitive To squat. [See Ruck.]