by hook or crook

1. By any means possible, in one way or another. For example, The car broke down, but I'll get there by hook or crook. This term has a disputed origin. A widely held theory is that it comes from the custom of allowing commoners to take as much wood from royal forests as they could reach with a shepherd's crook and cut down with a billhook. [1300s] Also see the synonym by any means.

Example Sentences

“Catastrophe” felt more like the first decade of my marriage, which was very confusing, trying by hook or crook to shed bad habits that I had.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

And Jack Smith knows that by hook or crook, Trump will try to get those false stories before a jury.

Read more on Slate

By hook or crook, she was going to see Beyoncé.

Read more on Washington Post

In a jukebox musical set to songs by the pop whisperer Max Martin, May is obviously going to sing, by hook or crook, Britney Spears’s “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” while pondering exactly where on the gender spectrum feels right.

Read more on New York Times

It was the last-chance opportunity for Donald Trump to remain president, by hook or crook.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• anyway