"I'm feeling crook, might chuck a sickie."
Where "Crook" Comes From
"Crook" is a shortening of "crooked," which in Australian English originally meant something dishonestly obtained or not straightforward — all senses recorded from the 1890s.
From that sense of something being "not straight" or "not right," Australians stretched "crook" to cover anything in a bad state — a crook knee, a crook feed, a crook football season — with "feeling crook" becoming by far the most common everyday use, for anything from a mild cold to a nasty flu.
How Aussies Actually Use It
"Feeling crook" is the go-to phrase for being unwell, used for humans and pets alike, and stretching to describe an injured or aching body part, like a "crook back."
It also covers anything unsatisfactory or in poor shape more generally — a crook attitude, a crook deal — and, in older or rural use, describes someone genuinely angry, as in "she went crook at me."
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