"By hook or by crook" is an English phrase meaning "by any means necessary", suggesting that one need not be concerned with morality or other considerations when accomplishing some goal. The origin of the phrase is obscure, with multiple different explanations and no evidence to support any particular one over the others.[1] For example, a commonly repeated suggestion is that it comes from Hook Head in Wexford, Ireland and the nearby village of Crook, in Waterford, Ireland. Another is that it comes from the customs which regulated 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[2]. The first recorded use of the phrase is in the Middle English text Controversial Tracts by John Wyclif in 1380.[3]
In the British TV show The Prisoner, the beginning of each episode contains the phrase, with Number Two stating that The Village authorities will gain information from the protagonist Number Six "by hook or by crook."