Brewer's: Rook

(A). A cheat. “To rook,” to cheat; “to rook a pigeon,” to fleece a greenhorn. Sometimes it simply means, to win from another at a game of chance or skill. (See Rookery.)

“`My Lord Marquis,' said the king, `you rooked me at piquest last night, for which disloyal deed thou shalt now atone, by giving a couple of pieces to this honest youth, and five to the girl.” —SirWalterScott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. xxx.

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