by hook or by crook

Language: en

Meaning: (idiomatic)By anymeanspossible;one way or another.[from 14th c.]Synonyms:at all costs,by any means,by fair means or foul,no matter what,whatever it takes,(obsolete)with hook or crookShe was determined to win the contractby hook or by crook.1521–1522,John Skelton, “Here after Followeth a Litel Boke Called Colyn Cloute,[…]”, inAlexander Dyce, editor,The Poetical Works of John Skelton:[…], volume I, London:Thomas Rodd,[…], published1843,→OCLC,page359, lines1239–1241:Nor wyll suffre this boke /By hoke ne by croke/ Prynted for to be,[…]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.”, inThe Anatomy of Melancholy,[…], Oxford, Oxfordshire:[…]John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps,→OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 15,page179: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.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, forT[homas]Cadell,[…], published1778,→OCLC, Act II, scene[i],page35:Novv if you could put us in a vvay,by hook or by crook, to get her out of the convent—1794October 26 (date written),George Washington, “Washington to[Alexander]Hamilton”, inJohn 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,[…], published1851,→OCLC,page45:P.S. I hope you will be enabledbyhookor bycrook, to send B—— and H——, together with a certain Mr. Guthrie, to Philadelphia, for their winter quarters.1820March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym;Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, inThe Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.:[…]C[ornelius]S. Van Winkle,[…],→OCLC,pages62–63: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.1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XXVII, inPeter Simple.[…], volume III, London: Saunders and Otley,[…], published1834,→OCLC,page373: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.1842March (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, published1885,→OCLC,page112:Can you not drive over and see me? Do comeby hook or by crook.1852March –1853September,Charles Dickens, “Closing In”, inBleak House, London:Bradbury and Evans,[…], published1853,→OCLC,page469: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 foldby hook and by crookuntil 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.1872September –1873July,Thomas Hardy, “‘’Twas on the Evening of a Winter’s Day’”, inA Pair of Blue Eyes.[…], volume I, London:Tinsley Brothers,[…], published1873,→OCLC,pages15–16: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—[…]1899February,Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, inBlackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company,[…],→OCLC, part I,page198, column 1:I wouldn't have believed it of myself; but, then—you see—I felt somehow I must get thereby hook or by crook.1936August,Ernest Hemingway, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, inThe Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, New York, N.Y.:Charles Scribner’s Sons, published14 October 1938,→OCLC,page158: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.

Examples:

EN: -Gainsay by hook or by crook.
ES: ¡Ud. niéguelo!
EN: Oh... She'd get it back to me by hook or by crook.
ES: Ella venía a casa y me lo traía.
EN: Sam has done a foolish thing, we must cover it up by hook or by crook.
ES: Parece olvidar de donde viene su dinero. Sam ha hecho una tontería, debemos taparlo a las buenas o a las malas.
EN: No, you're to find Vogel by hook or by crook.
ES: Al contrario, debe encontrar a Vogel por todos los medios.
ES: No, debes encontrar a Vogel por las buenas o por las malas.
EN: You'll talk by hook or by crook.
ES: - Me lo dirás por las buenas o por las malas.
EN: We must get him, by hook or by crook
ES: Debemos colgarlo, en un gancho
EN: I'll take away his revolver, by hook or by crook.
ES: Le quito su arma voluntariamente o por la fuerza.
EN: ~ You're coming by hook or by crook!
ES: -¡Vas a venir por las buenas o por las malas!
EN: I tried by hook or by crook, he did not listen, he had his own head.
ES: Traté de todas las maneras, él no escuchó.
EN: You mean you'll win by hook or by crook.
ES: Al jefe no le va a gustar.
EN: Gotta win this election by hook or by crook.
ES: Tengo que ganar esta elección por las buenas o por las malas.
EN: My debtors are so evil that perhaps only you can collect it by hook or by crook.
ES: Mis deudores son tan malvados que quizás sólo tú puedas cobrarla por las buenas o por las malas.
EN: You're keeping it going by hook or by crook. All right, what do you suggest?
ES: Muy bien. ¿Qué sugieres, suicidio u homicidio?
EN: But you will understand it by hook or by crook.
ES: Pero lo entenderás por las buenas o por las malas.
EN: Or, rather, yes... There still survived, by hook or by crook, in the hamlet of Les Gourdiflots, two exotics, two fossils from the dawn of time, two pathetic creatures.
ES: O, más bien, sí... allí todavía sobrevivían, pirateando o estafando, en la aldea de Les Gourdiflots, dos exóticos, dos fósiles de los albores de los tiempos, dos criaturas patéticas.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).

Validation Count: 0

Sourced from Wiktionary