Part 397

The rook . . . should be treated as the farmer's friend.

Pennant.

2. A trickish, rapacious fellow; a cheat; a sharper. Wycherley.

Rook, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Rooked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Rooking.] To cheat; to defraud by cheating. "A band of rooking officials." Milton.

Rook"er*y (?), n.; pl. Rookeries (&?;). 1. The breeding place of a colony of rooks; also, the birds themselves. Tennyson.

2. A breeding place of other gregarious birds, as of herons, penguins, etc.

3. The breeding ground of seals, esp. of the fur seals.

4. A dilapidated building with many rooms and occupants; a cluster of dilapidated or mean buildings.

5. A brothel.

Rook"y (-), a. [See Roky.] Misty; gloomy. [Obs.]

Light thickens, and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood.

Shak.

Some make this Shakespearean word mean "abounding in rooks."

Room (rm), n. [OE. roum, rum, space, AS. rm; akin to OS., OFries. & Icel. rm, D. ruim, G. raum, OHG. rm, Sw. & Dan. rum, Goth. rms, and to AS. rm, adj., spacious, D. ruim, Icel. rmr, Goth. rms; and prob. to L. rus country (cf. Rural), Zend ravah wide, free, open, ravan a plain.] 1. Unobstructed spase; space which may be occupied by or devoted to any object; compass; extent of place, great or small; as, there is not room for a house; the table takes up too much room.

Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.

Luke xiv. 22.

There was no room for them in the inn.

Luke ii. 7.

2. A particular portion of space appropriated for occupancy; a place to sit, stand, or lie; a seat.

If he have but twelve pence in his purse, he will give it for the best room in a playhouse.

Overbury.

When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room.

Luke xiv. 8.

3. Especially, space in a building or ship inclosed or set apart by a partition; an apartment or chamber.

I found the prince in the next room.

Shak.

4. Place or position in society; office; rank; post; station; also, a place or station once belonging to, or occupied by, another, and vacated. [Obs.]

When he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod.