English · Word pair Attested

by hook or by crook

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

By fair or foul means.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Bằng mọi cách

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

If she set her mind on something, then she had to acquire it, by hook or by crook.

Despite the problems, there is considerable optimism that most WIPers will, by hook or by crook, have been given contracts by the end of the year.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent thiên mưu bách kế by hook or by crook; by every possible means Tiếng Việt Near equivalent thiên phương bách kế by hook or by crook; by every possible means Tiếng Việt

Common questions

What does “by hook or by crook” mean?

By fair or foul means.

Is “by hook or by crook” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“thiên mưu bách kế” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.