By Cook or Crook?

"By hook or by crook" is an English phrase meaning "by any means necessary", suggesting that any means possible should be taken to accomplish a goal. The phrase was first recorded in the Middle English Controversial Tracts of John Wyclif in 1380.

Where does by hook or by crook come from?

Either by hooke or crooke, by night or day. - Suggestion number one is that 'by hook or by crook' derives from the custom in medieval England of allowing peasants to take from royal forests whatever deadwood they could pull down with a shepherd's crook or cut with a reaper's bill-hook.

Is by hook or crook an idiom?

By Hook or By Crook Meaning

This idiom means that anything required to achieve a goal will be done, whether it be fair or foul play. The person is determined to execute the task and will use any method necessary to do it, even if it is generally thought to be unfair, unreasonable, or illegal.