Crook

Is it any wonder the boys being crook after 5 months of fighting and being fed mostly on those hard biscuits and bacon?

Digger Ronald Mills, Gallipoli, 1915.

I've been a bit crook

Swimming Super Star, Ian Thorpe, after smashing yet another world record, 1999.

I feel crook in the guts

Every Australian child at some stage or another

When you have a situation where someone like Schapelle Corby is sentenced to 20 years for the importation of marijuana, and someone who is ultimately responsible for the mass murder of nearly 100 Australians is sentenced to only 30 months, people think that is pretty crook

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd, Indonesia cuts Bali bombers' jail terms, SMH, 18 August 2005

Crook - Australian for sick, or no good.  Someone can have crook knees, or be as crook as a dog or be forced to drink crook beer.  Unfortunately, the cracks are starting to appear in some some aspects of the crook usage.  Some younger Australians, for instance, consider that crook is a "fuddy-duddy word used by old people", to quote one 22 year old Queenslander.  However, it is still very much alive, as evidenced by young Thorp's quote above.

All up to the nearest rubbity, eh?
Bloody oath. Get some decent bloody beer for a change
Yeah. Not a bad drop, the old Swan.
Even it it was crook, it'd be better than bloody Pommy piss
Yeah, you can say that again.

Your Shout Mate!, John O'Grady, 1972

I remember I called the play to switch the ball to Ruddsy [Newcastle five-eighth Sean Rudder] and as I called it, I heard them [the Dragons] calling it, so I dummied and took off... Rylesy [Dragons prop Jason Ryles] got me and sort of drove me... It was the worst feeling I've ever felt. I was crook, I just couldn't get my breath, and the pain - it ended up making me crook in the guts and I was dry-retching.

Andrew Johns, Johns: I'm Shattered, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 September 2002

"Having a go at the ref, yelling abuse. It's part of the Australian way." Mr Latham, a talented schoolboy batsman, couldn't recall "flipping the bird" at an umpire while playing for Sydney University. "It's pretty hard when you've got (batting) gloves on," he said. "It was a pretty crook LB (leg before) and I let him know that and got reported ... these things happen in the nature of competitive sport." Mr Latham recalled attending World Series Cricket matches in his final year of high school. "With some mates we loaded up a plastic garbage bin ... we would have had the first garbage bin full of beers into the SCG under lights. We didn't cause any trouble that night, but others did."

Mark Latham, Leader of the Opposition, News.com.au, 16 July 2004

Max Raymond Ryan, 64, told police: "I've never had one - never seen the need." He pleaded guilty to charges of driving with a blood alcohol level of .156, careless driving, and driving without a licence. Magistrate David Loadman said he recognised Ryan had been "pretty crook" and had little money.

Forty years without driving licence, Bob Watt, News.com.au, Nov 10 2004

Yesterday, it was revealed that Mr Latham's silence since the tragedy was due to the fact he had been struck down by pancreatitis and been bedridden for ten days... "Mark's been crook ...," Mr Rudd told Channel 7's Sunrise today.

Latham 'would back aid response', The Courier Mail, 7 Jan 05

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