"by hook or by crook" meaning in All languages combined

See by hook or by crook on Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase [English]

IPA: /baɪ ˈhʊk‿ə baɪ ˈkɹʊk/ [Received-Pronunciation], /baɪ ˈhʊk‿əɹ baɪ ˈkɹʊk/ [General-American] Audio: En-au-by hook or by crook.ogg
Rhymes: -ʊk Etymology: Origin unknown. One suggestion is that the term is derived from the common of estovers, an ancient right in English law for tenants of land to gather dead wood on common land using blunt tools such as hooks and shepherd’s crooks. Etymology templates: {{root|en|ine-pro|*keg-|*keng-|*greg-}}, {{unknown|en|Origin unknown}} Origin unknown, {{sup|1}} ¹ Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} by hook or by crook, {{en-prep phrase}} by hook or by crook
  1. (idiomatic) By any means possible; one way or another. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: at all costs, by any means, by fair means or foul, no matter what, whatever it takes, with hook or crook, by hook and by crook Related terms: stop at nothing Translations (by any means possible): de grat o per força (Catalan), de tota manera (Catalan), 不擇手段 (Chinese Mandarin), 千方百計 (Chinese Mandarin), koste hvad det vil (english: no matter the cost) (Danish), med hiv og sving (english: by a great effort) (Danish), keinolla millä hyvänsä (Finnish), puukoin ja puntarein (Finnish), coûte que coûte (French), de gré ou de force (French), quoi qu’il en coûte (French), como for (Galician), por calquer xeito (Galician), auf Biegen und Brechen (German), auf Teufel komm raus (German), mit Haken und Ösen (German), um jeden Preis (German), bármi áron (Hungarian), bármilyen eszközzel (Hungarian), ha törik, ha szakad (Hungarian), mindenáron (Hungarian), per amore o per forza (Italian), unde unde (Latin), nie przebierając w środkach (Polish), como for (Portuguese), por bem ou por mal (Portuguese), не мытьём, так ка́таньем (ne mytʹjóm, tak kátanʹjem) (Russian), все́ми пра́вдами и непра́вдами (vsémi právdami i neprávdami) (Russian), a dh'olc no a dh'èiginn (Scottish Gaelic), olc no èiginn (Scottish Gaelic), de grado o por fuerza (Spanish), de una forma u otra (Spanish), por todos los medios (Spanish), på ett eller annat sätt (Swedish), på ett eller ett annat sätt (Swedish), på ett sätt eller annat (Swedish), ఏదో విధంగా (ēdō vidhaṅgā) (Telugu)

Alternative forms

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        "3": "*keg-",
        "4": "*keng-",
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  "etymology_text": "Origin unknown. One suggestion is that the term is derived from the common of estovers, an ancient right in English law for tenants of land to gather dead wood on common land using blunt tools such as hooks and shepherd’s crooks.",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She was determined to win the contract by hook or by crook.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1521–1522, John Skelton, “Here after Followeth a Litel Boke Called Colyn Cloute, […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 359, lines 1239–1241:",
          "text": "Nor wyll suffre this boke / By hoke ne by croke / Prynted for to be, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Loue of Learning, or Overmuch Study. With a Digression of the Misery of Schollers, and Why the Muses are Melancholy.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 15, page 179:",
          "text": "Some out of that inſatiable deſire of filthy lucre, to enrich themſelues, care not hovv they come by it, per fas & nefas [by right and wrong], hooke or crooke, ſo they haue it.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1776 (first performance), Samuel Foote, “A Trip to Calais”, in [George] Colman, editor, A Trip to Calais; a Comedy […] To which is Annexed, The Capuchin; […] Altered from the Trip to Calais, […], London: […] T. Sherlock, for T[homas] Cadell, […], published 1778, →OCLC, Act II, scene [i], page 35:",
          "text": "Novv if you could put us in a vvay, by hook or by crook, to get her out of the convent—",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1794 October 26 (date written), George Washington, “Washington to [Alexander] Hamilton”, in John C[hurch] Hamilton, editor, The Works of Alexander Hamilton; Comprising His Correspondence, and His Political and Official Writings, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: John F[owler] Trow, […], published 1851, →OCLC, page 45:",
          "text": "P.S. I hope you will be enabled by hook or by crook, to send B—— and H——, together with a certain Mr. Guthrie, to Philadelphia, for their winter quarters.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, pages 62–63:",
          "text": "Thus, by diverse little make shifts, in that ingenious way which is commonly denominated \"by hook and by crook,\" the worthy pedagogue got on tolerably enough, and was thought, by all those who undersood nothing of the labour of headwork, to have a wonderful easy life of it.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XXVII, in Peter Simple. […], volume III, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 373:",
          "text": "Since we've looked up a little in the world, I saved up five guineas, by hook or by crook, and tried to get Poll back again, but the lady said she wouldn't take fifty guineas for him.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1842 March (date written), George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “[March 1841 to April 1846: Coventry—Translation of [David] Strauss]”, in J[ohn] W[alter] Cross, editor, George Eliot’s Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1885, →OCLC, page 112:",
          "text": "Can you not drive over and see me? Do come by hook or by crook.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Closing In”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 469:",
          "text": "In these fields of Mr. Tulkinghorn's inhabiting, where the shepherds play on Chancery pipes that have no stop, and keep their sheep in the fold by hook and by crook until they have shorn them exceeding close, every noise is merged, this moonlight night, into a distant ringing hum, as if the city were a vast glass, vibrating.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1872 September – 1873 July, Thomas Hardy, “‘’Twas on the Evening of a Winter’s Day’”, in A Pair of Blue Eyes. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1873, →OCLC, pages 15–16:",
          "text": "And, by hook or by crook, Hedger Luxellian was made a lord, and everything went on well till some time after, when he got into a most terrible row with King Charles the Fourth— […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198, column 1:",
          "text": "I wouldn't have believed it of myself; but, then—you see—I felt somehow I must get there by hook or by crook.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1936 August, Ernest Hemingway, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 14 October 1938, →OCLC, page 158:",
          "text": "He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook.",
          "type": "quote"
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      "glosses": [
        "By any means possible; one way or another."
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      "id": "en-by_hook_or_by_crook-en-prep_phrase-XTDfKfK-",
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          "means",
          "means#Noun"
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          "possible",
          "possible#Adjective"
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          "one way or another",
          "one way or another"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) By any means possible; one way or another."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "stop at nothing"
        }
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      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "at all costs"
        },
        {
          "word": "by any means"
        },
        {
          "word": "by fair means or foul"
        },
        {
          "word": "no matter what"
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          "word": "whatever it takes"
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          "word": "with hook or crook"
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          "word": "by hook and by crook"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "de grat o per força"
        },
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "de tota manera"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "不擇手段"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "note": "不择手段 (bùzéshǒuduàn, literally “not choose between methods”)",
          "sense": "by any means possible"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "千方百計"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "note": "千方百计 (qiānfāngbǎijì, literally “a thousand methods and a hundred calculations”)",
          "sense": "by any means possible"
        },
        {
          "code": "da",
          "english": "no matter the cost",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "koste hvad det vil"
        },
        {
          "code": "da",
          "english": "by a great effort",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "med hiv og sving"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "keinolla millä hyvänsä"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "puukoin ja puntarein"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "coûte que coûte"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "de gré ou de force"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "quoi qu’il en coûte"
        },
        {
          "code": "gl",
          "lang": "Galician",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "como for"
        },
        {
          "code": "gl",
          "lang": "Galician",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "por calquer xeito"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "auf Biegen und Brechen"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "auf Teufel komm raus"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "mit Haken und Ösen"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "um jeden Preis"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "bármi áron"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "bármilyen eszközzel"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "ha törik, ha szakad"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "mindenáron"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "per amore o per forza"
        },
        {
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "unde unde"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "nie przebierając w środkach"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "como for"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "por bem ou por mal"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "ne mytʹjóm, tak kátanʹjem",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "не мытьём, так ка́таньем"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "vsémi právdami i neprávdami",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "все́ми пра́вдами и непра́вдами"
        },
        {
          "code": "gd",
          "lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "a dh'olc no a dh'èiginn"
        },
        {
          "code": "gd",
          "lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "olc no èiginn"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "de grado o por fuerza"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "de una forma u otra"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "por todos los medios"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "på ett eller annat sätt"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "på ett eller ett annat sätt"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "på ett sätt eller annat"
        },
        {
          "code": "te",
          "lang": "Telugu",
          "roman": "ēdō vidhaṅgā",
          "sense": "by any means possible",
          "word": "ఏదో విధంగా"
        },
        {
          "code": "th",
          "lang": "Thai",
          "note": "ไม่ได้ด้วยเล่ห์ก็เอาด้วยกล ไม่ได้ด้วยมนต์ก็เอาด้วยคาถา (mâi-dâai-dûai-lêe-gɔ̂-ao-dûai-gon mâi-dâai-dûai-mon-gɔ̂-ao-dûai-kaa-tǎa, literally “If you can’t get it through tricks, use wiles; if you still can’t get it by spells, then use charms”)",
          "sense": "by any means possible"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/baɪ ˈhʊk‿ə baɪ ˈkɹʊk/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/baɪ ˈhʊk‿əɹ baɪ ˈkɹʊk/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
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    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-by hook or by crook.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a6/En-au-by_hook_or_by_crook.ogg/En-au-by_hook_or_by_crook.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/En-au-by_hook_or_by_crook.ogg"
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    {
      "rhymes": "-ʊk"
    }
  ],
  "word": "by hook or by crook"
}
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  "etymology_text": "Origin unknown. One suggestion is that the term is derived from the common of estovers, an ancient right in English law for tenants of land to gather dead wood on common land using blunt tools such as hooks and shepherd’s crooks.",
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
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    {
      "word": "stop at nothing"
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        "Terms with Catalan translations",
        "Terms with Danish translations",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with Galician translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Hungarian translations",
        "Terms with Italian translations",
        "Terms with Latin translations",
        "Terms with Mandarin translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "Terms with Portuguese translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "Terms with Scottish Gaelic translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations",
        "Terms with Swedish translations",
        "Terms with Telugu translations",
        "Terms with Thai translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She was determined to win the contract by hook or by crook.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1521–1522, John Skelton, “Here after Followeth a Litel Boke Called Colyn Cloute, […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 359, lines 1239–1241:",
          "text": "Nor wyll suffre this boke / By hoke ne by croke / Prynted for to be, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Loue of Learning, or Overmuch Study. With a Digression of the Misery of Schollers, and Why the Muses are Melancholy.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 15, page 179:",
          "text": "Some out of that inſatiable deſire of filthy lucre, to enrich themſelues, care not hovv they come by it, per fas & nefas [by right and wrong], hooke or crooke, ſo they haue it.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1776 (first performance), Samuel Foote, “A Trip to Calais”, in [George] Colman, editor, A Trip to Calais; a Comedy […] To which is Annexed, The Capuchin; […] Altered from the Trip to Calais, […], London: […] T. Sherlock, for T[homas] Cadell, […], published 1778, →OCLC, Act II, scene [i], page 35:",
          "text": "Novv if you could put us in a vvay, by hook or by crook, to get her out of the convent—",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1794 October 26 (date written), George Washington, “Washington to [Alexander] Hamilton”, in John C[hurch] Hamilton, editor, The Works of Alexander Hamilton; Comprising His Correspondence, and His Political and Official Writings, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: John F[owler] Trow, […], published 1851, →OCLC, page 45:",
          "text": "P.S. I hope you will be enabled by hook or by crook, to send B—— and H——, together with a certain Mr. Guthrie, to Philadelphia, for their winter quarters.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, pages 62–63:",
          "text": "Thus, by diverse little make shifts, in that ingenious way which is commonly denominated \"by hook and by crook,\" the worthy pedagogue got on tolerably enough, and was thought, by all those who undersood nothing of the labour of headwork, to have a wonderful easy life of it.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XXVII, in Peter Simple. […], volume III, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 373:",
          "text": "Since we've looked up a little in the world, I saved up five guineas, by hook or by crook, and tried to get Poll back again, but the lady said she wouldn't take fifty guineas for him.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1842 March (date written), George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “[March 1841 to April 1846: Coventry—Translation of [David] Strauss]”, in J[ohn] W[alter] Cross, editor, George Eliot’s Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1885, →OCLC, page 112:",
          "text": "Can you not drive over and see me? Do come by hook or by crook.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Closing In”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 469:",
          "text": "In these fields of Mr. Tulkinghorn's inhabiting, where the shepherds play on Chancery pipes that have no stop, and keep their sheep in the fold by hook and by crook until they have shorn them exceeding close, every noise is merged, this moonlight night, into a distant ringing hum, as if the city were a vast glass, vibrating.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1872 September – 1873 July, Thomas Hardy, “‘’Twas on the Evening of a Winter’s Day’”, in A Pair of Blue Eyes. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1873, →OCLC, pages 15–16:",
          "text": "And, by hook or by crook, Hedger Luxellian was made a lord, and everything went on well till some time after, when he got into a most terrible row with King Charles the Fourth— […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198, column 1:",
          "text": "I wouldn't have believed it of myself; but, then—you see—I felt somehow I must get there by hook or by crook.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1936 August, Ernest Hemingway, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 14 October 1938, →OCLC, page 158:",
          "text": "He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "By any means possible; one way or another."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "means",
          "means#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "possible",
          "possible#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "one way or another",
          "one way or another"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) By any means possible; one way or another."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "at all costs"
        },
        {
          "word": "by any means"
        },
        {
          "word": "by fair means or foul"
        },
        {
          "word": "no matter what"
        },
        {
          "word": "whatever it takes"
        },
        {
          "word": "with hook or crook"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/baɪ ˈhʊk‿ə baɪ ˈkɹʊk/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/baɪ ˈhʊk‿əɹ baɪ ˈkɹʊk/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-by hook or by crook.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a6/En-au-by_hook_or_by_crook.ogg/En-au-by_hook_or_by_crook.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/En-au-by_hook_or_by_crook.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʊk"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "by hook and by crook"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "de grat o per força"
    },
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "de tota manera"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "不擇手段"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "note": "不择手段 (bùzéshǒuduàn, literally “not choose between methods”)",
      "sense": "by any means possible"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "千方百計"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "note": "千方百计 (qiānfāngbǎijì, literally “a thousand methods and a hundred calculations”)",
      "sense": "by any means possible"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "english": "no matter the cost",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "koste hvad det vil"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "english": "by a great effort",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "med hiv og sving"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "keinolla millä hyvänsä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "puukoin ja puntarein"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "coûte que coûte"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "de gré ou de force"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "quoi qu’il en coûte"
    },
    {
      "code": "gl",
      "lang": "Galician",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "como for"
    },
    {
      "code": "gl",
      "lang": "Galician",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "por calquer xeito"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "auf Biegen und Brechen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "auf Teufel komm raus"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "mit Haken und Ösen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "um jeden Preis"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "bármi áron"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "bármilyen eszközzel"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "ha törik, ha szakad"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "mindenáron"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "per amore o per forza"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "unde unde"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "nie przebierając w środkach"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "como for"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "por bem ou por mal"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "ne mytʹjóm, tak kátanʹjem",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "не мытьём, так ка́таньем"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "vsémi právdami i neprávdami",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "все́ми пра́вдами и непра́вдами"
    },
    {
      "code": "gd",
      "lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "a dh'olc no a dh'èiginn"
    },
    {
      "code": "gd",
      "lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "olc no èiginn"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "de grado o por fuerza"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "de una forma u otra"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "por todos los medios"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "på ett eller annat sätt"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "på ett eller ett annat sätt"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "på ett sätt eller annat"
    },
    {
      "code": "te",
      "lang": "Telugu",
      "roman": "ēdō vidhaṅgā",
      "sense": "by any means possible",
      "word": "ఏదో విధంగా"
    },
    {
      "code": "th",
      "lang": "Thai",
      "note": "ไม่ได้ด้วยเล่ห์ก็เอาด้วยกล ไม่ได้ด้วยมนต์ก็เอาด้วยคาถา (mâi-dâai-dûai-lêe-gɔ̂-ao-dûai-gon mâi-dâai-dûai-mon-gɔ̂-ao-dûai-kaa-tǎa, literally “If you can’t get it through tricks, use wiles; if you still can’t get it by spells, then use charms”)",
      "sense": "by any means possible"
    }
  ],
  "word": "by hook or by crook"
}

Download raw JSONL data for by hook or by crook meaning in All languages combined (13.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.