hook

[hoo k]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hook ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a curved or angular piece of metal or other hard substance for catching, pulling, holding, or suspending something.

a fishhook.

anything that catches; snare; trap.

something that attracts attention or serves as an enticement: The product is good but we need a sales hook to get people to buy it.

something having a sharp curve, bend, or angle at one end, as a mark or symbol.

a sharp curve or angle in the length or course of anything.

a curved arm of land jutting into the water; a curved peninsula: Sandy Hook.

a recurved and pointed organ or appendage of an animal or plant.

a small curved catch inserted into a loop to form a clothes fastener.

Sports.

the path described by a ball, as in baseball, bowling, or golf, that curves in a direction opposite to the throwing hand or to the side of the ball from which it was struck.
a ball describing such a path.

Boxing. a short, circular punch delivered with the elbow bent.

Music.

Also called flag, pennant.a stroke or line attached to the stem of eighth notes, sixteenth notes, etc.
an appealing melodic phrase, orchestral ornament, refrain, etc., often important to a popular song's commercial success.

Metalworking. an accidental short bend formed in a piece of bar stock during rolling.

hooks, Slang. hands or fingers: Get your hooks off that cake!

Underworld Slang. a pickpocket.

Also called deck hook. Nautical. a triangular plate or knee that binds together the stringers and plating at each end of a vessel.

verb (used with object)

to seize, fasten, suspend from, pierce, or catch hold of and draw with or as if with a hook.

to catch (fish) with a fishhook.

Slang. to steal or seize by stealth.

Informal. to catch or trick by artifice; snare.

(of a bull or other horned animal) to catch on the horns or attack with the horns.

to catch hold of and draw (loops of yarn) through cloth with or as if with a hook.

to make (a rug, garment, etc.) in this fashion.

Sports. to hit or throw (a ball) so that a hook results.

Boxing. to deliver a hook with: The champion hooked a right to his opponent's jaw.

Rugby. to push (a ball) backward with the foot in scrummage from the front line.

to make hook-shaped; crook.

verb (used without object)

to become attached or fastened by or as if by a hook.

to curve or bend like a hook.

Sports.

(of a player) to hook the ball.
(of a ball) to describe a hook in course.

Slang. to depart hastily: We'd better hook for home.

Verb Phrases

hook up,

to fasten with a hook or hooks.
to assemble or connect, as the components of a machine: to hook up a stereo system.
to connect to a central source, as of power or water: The house hasn't been hooked up to the city's water system yet.
Informal.to join, meet, or become associated with: He never had a decent job until he hooked up with this company.
Informal.to have casual sex or a romantic date without a long-term commitment: He doesn't know her very well, but he hooked up with her a couple of times.

Idioms

by hook or by crook, by any means, whether just or unjust, legal or illegal.Also by hook or crook.

get/give the hook, Informal. to receive or subject to a dismissal: The rumor is that he got the hook.

hook it, Slang. to run away; depart; flee: He hooked it when he saw the truant officer.

hook, line, and sinker, Informal. entirely; completely: He fell for the story—hook, line, and sinker.

off the hook,

out of trouble; released from some difficulty: This time there was no one around to get him off the hook.
free of obligation: Her brother paid all her bills and got her off the hook.
Slang.extremely or shockingly excellent: Wow, that song is off the hook!

on one's own hook, Informal. on one's own initiative or responsibility; independently.

on the hook, Slang.

obliged; committed; involved: He's already on the hook for $10,000.
subjected to a delaying tactic; waiting: We've had him on the hook for two weeks now.

Origin of hook

before 900; 1830–40, Americanism for def 36; Middle English hoke (noun and v.), Old English hōc (noun); cognate with Dutch hoek hook, angle, corner; akin to German Haken, Old Norse haki

Related formshook·less, adjectivehook·like, adjective

Can be confusedpenance pennants

hook

[hoo k]

verb (used without object)

Slang. to work as a prostitute.

Origin of hook

back formation from hooker¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for hook

curve, fasten, fix, pin, angle, holder, lock, crook, grapple, link, catch, peg, hasp, clasp, grapnel, secure, entrap, ensnare, bag, enmesh

Examples from the Web for hook

Contemporary Examples of hook

“I think for trans men who are dating every time they hook up they have another coming out,” Sandler said.
Grindr’s Trans Dating Problem
David Levesley
January 9, 2015
They “hook up” in a manner that makes the casual sex of the 1960s seem like an arranged marriage in Oman.
Up to a Point: They Made Me Write About Lena Dunham
P. J. O’Rourke
December 13, 2014
Zuckerberg himself has bragged that he is able to predict which site members will hook up with whom based on their site activity.
How Four Upstarts Built and Crashed the Anti-Facebook
Jake Whitney
November 12, 2014
In the near term, the state will only be on the hook for 10 percent of its costs by 2020.
Arkansas’s Blue Collar Social Conservatives Don’t Know What’s Coming
Monica Potts
November 10, 2014
After six months of intermittent interrogations and several lie detector tests, Elahi got off the hook.
Art in the Age of National Security
Terry Greene Sterling
September 26, 2014

Historical Examples of hook

As we came into the Hook, we were hailed by a gun-boat, and heard of the "Little Embargo."
Ned Myers
James Fenimore Cooper
He had been lightly hooked on the angle of the right jaw, and the hook had not wearied him.
American Notes
Rudyard Kipling
Mrs. Wilson put down her hook again, and leaned back in her chair.
Meadow Grass
Alice Brown
Seizing a match-box, he struck a light and held it to the hook.
The Channings
Mrs. Henry Wood
I am an outlaw, and get my living by hook and by crook in a manner it boots not now to tell of.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Howard Pyle

British Dictionary definitions for hook

hook

noun

a piece of material, usually metal, curved or bent and used to suspend, catch, hold, or pull something

short for fish-hook

a trap or snare

mainly US something that attracts or is intended to be an attraction

something resembling a hook in design or use

a sharp bend or angle in a geological formation, esp a river
a sharply curved spit of land

boxing a short swinging blow delivered from the side with the elbow bent

cricket a shot in which the ball is hit square on the leg side with the bat held horizontally

golf a shot that causes the ball to swerve sharply from right to left

surfing the top of a breaking wave

Also called: hookcheck ice hockey the act of hooking an opposing player

music a stroke added to the stem of a written or printed note to indicate time values shorter than a crotchet

a catchy musical phrase in a pop song

another name for a sickle

a nautical word for anchor

by hook or crook or by hook or by crook by any means

get the hook US and Canadian slang to be dismissed from employment

hook, line, and sinker informal completelyhe fell for it hook, line, and sinker

off the hook

slangout of danger; free from obligation or guilt
(of a telephone receiver) not on the support, so that incoming calls cannot be received

on one's own hook slang, mainly US on one's own initiative

on the hook slang

waiting
in a dangerous or difficult situation

sling one's hook British slang to leave

verb

(often foll by up) to fasten or be fastened with or as if with a hook or hooks

(tr) to catch (something, such as a fish) on a hook

to curve like or into the shape of a hook

(tr) (of bulls, elks, etc) to catch or gore with the horns

(tr) to make (a rug) by hooking yarn through a stiff fabric backing with a special instrument

(tr often foll by down) to cut (grass or herbage) with a sickleto hook down weeds

boxing to hit (an opponent) with a hook

ice hockey to impede (an opposing player) by catching hold of him with the stick

golf to play (a ball) with a hook

rugby to obtain and pass (the ball) backwards from a scrum to a member of one's team, using the feet

cricket to play (a ball) with a hook

(tr) informal to trick

(tr) a slang word for steal

hook it slang to run or go quickly away

Word Origin for hook

Old English hōc; related to Middle Dutch hōk, Old Norse haki

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hook

Old English hoc "hook, angle," perhaps related to Old English haca "bolt," from Proto-Germanic *hokaz/*hakan- (cf. Old Frisian hok, Middle Dutch hoek, Dutch haak, German Haken "hook"), from PIE *keg- "hook, tooth" (cf. Russian kogot "claw"). For spelling, see hood (n.1).

Boxing sense of "short, swinging blow with the elbow bent" is from 1898. Figurative sense was in Middle English (see hooker). By hook or by crook (late 14c.) probably alludes to tools of professional thieves. Hook, line, and sinker "completely" is 1838, a metaphor from angling.

"to bend like a hook," c.1200; see hook (n.). Meaning "to catch (a fish) with a hook" is from c.1300. Related: Hooked; hooking.

Idioms and Phrases with hook

hook

In addition to the idioms beginning with hook

hook or crook
hook up

also see:

by hook or crook
off the hook
on one's own account (hook)