crookery

English

Etymology

From crook +‎ -ery.

Noun

crookery (countable and uncountable, plural crookeries)

1. The activities of crooks; crime.
   • 1959, Roald Dahl, Parson's Pleasure:

     It was always intriguing to hear about some new form of crookery or deception.

   • 2003, Martin Howell, Predators and profits: 100+ ways for investors to protect their nest eggs:

     But this is small time crookery to the real manipulators and deceivers.

   • 2008, Alistair Cooke, Alistair Cooke's America:

     What the people never knew at the time was the scale and audacity of the crookeries of Harding's advisers. In 1923 the Senate investigated 'irregularities' in the Veterans' Bureau. It had been defrauded of tidy sums by its chief […]