by hook or by crook by one means or another; by fair means or foul.

☞ The hook referred to here is probably a billhook or heavy curved pruning knife; the crook is a hooked staff. One of the earliest recorded instances of the phrase is in Gower's Confessio Amantis (1390), which uses the rare word hepe (meaning 'a pruning knife') in place of hook. In 1822 William Cobbett wrote of people who lived near woodland being allowed, under the ancient forest law of England, to gather dead branches for fuel, which they may have brought down from the trees literally by hook or by crook.

1998Adèle GerasSilent Snow, Secret Snow Till then, she would hang on. By hook or by crook. Come what may.