by hook or by crook

{{Short description|English phrase}}

{{other uses}}

"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.{{cite web |url=http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifbyhookorbycrook.shtml |first=Mark |last=Israel |title=Phrase Origins: "by hook or by crook"', The alt.usage.english FAQ file, (line 4953) |date=29 Sep 1997 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213062818/http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifbyhookorbycrook.shtml |archive-date=2008-02-13 }}{{Cite book |url=http://lf-oll.s3.amazonaws.com/titles/1474/0743-03_Bk.pdf| title=Select English Works of John Wyclif|last=Arnold |first=Thomas |publisher=Clarendon |year=1871 |location=Oxford |pages=331 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190920172507/http://lf-oll.s3.amazonaws.com/titles/1474/0743-03_Bk.pdf |archive-date=2019-09-20 }}

The origin of the phrase is obscure, with multiple different explanations and no evidence to support any particular one over the others.{{cite web|url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/82400.html|title=By hook or by crook|author=Martin, Gary |website=Phrases.org.uk}} For example, a commonly repeated suggestion is that it comes from Hook Head in Wexford, Ireland and the nearby village of Crooke, in Waterford, Ireland. As such, the phrase would derive from a vow by Oliver Cromwell to take Waterford by Hook (on the Wexford side of Waterford Estuary) or by Crooke (a village on the Waterford side); although the Wyclif tract was published at least 260 years before Cromwell.

Another is that it comes from the customs regulating which firewood local people could take from common land; they were allowed to take any branches that they could reach with a billhook or a shepherd's crook (used to hook sheep).{{cite web|url=http://info.sjc.ox.ac.uk/forests/glossary.htm|title=Forests and Chases of England and Wales: A Glossary|website=Info.sjc.ox.ac.uk}}

The phrase was featured in the opening credits to the 1960s British television series The Prisoner.{{cite web|url=http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Prisoner|title=The Prisoner|website=Wikiquote.org}} It appears prominently (as "by hook and by crook") in the short stories "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Ernest Hemingway{{cite web|url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/heming.html|title=The Snows of Kilimanjaro - E. Hemingway|website=Virginia.edu|access-date=2015-01-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402073342/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/heming.html|archive-date=2016-04-02|url-status=dead}} and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.{{cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41/41-h/41-h.htm|title=The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving|website=Gutenberg.org}} It was also used as the title of the 2001 film By Hook or by Crook directed by Silas Howard and Harry Dodge. It was also used as a lyric in the chorus of Radiohead's song "Little by Little".{{Cite web|url=https://genius.com/6492936/Radiohead-little-by-little/Little-by-little-by-hook-or-by-crook|title=Little by little, by hook or by crook|website=Genius.com|access-date=9 August 2022}}