rook¹ / roŏk/ • n. a gregarious Eurasian crow (Corvus frugilegus) with black plumage and a bare face, nesting in colonies in treetops.• v. [tr.] inf. take money from (someone) by cheating, defrauding, or overcharging them.rook² • n. a chess piece, typically with its top in the shape of a battlement, that can move in any direction along a rank or file on which it stands. Each player starts the game with two rooks at opposite ends of the first rank. See also castle.

rook1 in traditional belief, this black crow is associated with death. From the mid 16th century, rook also denoted a cheat or swindler, especially in gaming.

The term rookery, literally meaning a breeding colony of rooks, typically seen as a collection of nests high in a clump of trees, is used for a dense collection of housing, especially in a slum area.

rook Large gregarious European bird of the crow family. It has glossy black plumage, but commonly loses the feathers from about its face. It feeds on grain and insects, and has a characteristic raucous cry. Family Corvidae; species Corvus frugilegus.

rook1 harsh-voiced crow. OE. hrōc = (M)LG. rōk, MDu. roec (Du. roek), OHG. hruoch, ON. hrókr :- Gmc. *chirōkaz, prob. of imit. orig. In the sense ‘cheat, swindler, sharper’, with corr. vb., a gaming sl. use of late XVI.
Hence rookery XVIII.

rook2 a chess piece, typically with its top in the shape of a battlement, that can move in any direction along a rank or file on which it stands; a castle.

The word is recorded from Middle English and comes from Old French rock, based on an Arabic word of which the sense remains uncertain.