hook and eye

American  

noun

1. a two-piece clothes fastener, usually of metal, consisting of a hook that catches onto a loop or bar.

2. a three-piece latching device consisting of a hook attached to a screw eye or an eyebolt and a separate screw eye or eyebolt that the hook engages as it bridges a gap, as one between a door and a jamb or a gate and a gatepost.

3. Also called eyehook.  the two-piece portion of such a device consisting of a hook and a screw eye.

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hook and eye British  

noun

1. a fastening for clothes consisting of a small hook hooked onto a small metal or thread loop

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Etymology

Origin of hook and eye

First recorded in 1620–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hook and eye

I can get them fer her easy enough; the twins have been helping her some, one with a sinker and the other with a hook and eye.

From The Best Short Stories of 1919 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story by Edward J. (Edward Joseph Harrington) O'Brien

—They're only in the hook and eye department, Myles Crawford said.

From Ulysses by James Joyce

He entered the sitting-room, and there sat his wife by the oblong center-table, sewing a hook and eye on one of Lillian, second's, petticoats.

From The Financier, a novel by Theodore Dreiser

The ends of the belt should be slightly tapered, and the hook and eye screwed firmly home.

From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Joshua Rose

Everybody knows it down to the last hook and eye… Oh, well, I'll stay home.

From Broken to the Plow by Charles Caldwell Dobie

Related Words

• hook
• snap