hookup
Americannoun
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hookups
plural
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an act or instance of hooking up.
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an assembly and connection of parts, components, or apparatus into a circuit, network, machine, or system.
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the circuit, network, machine, or system so formed.
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a device or connection, as a plug, hose, or pipe, for conveying electricity, a water supply, etc., from a source to a user.
Some campsites have electrical hookups for trailers.
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Informal. an association, alliance, or cooperative effort.
A closer hookup of Caribbean nations would be good for international trade.
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Informal.
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a sexual encounter without a long-term commitment.
I’m over these college boys who are only interested in meaningless hookups.
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a person with whom one has such an encounter.
I ran into an old hookup at the club, but I pretended not to remember her.
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Slang.
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a supplier of illicit goods, usually drugs.
My hookup is getting out of the game—can you introduce me to your guy?
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access to illegal drugs.
When you are trying to score on the street it is easy to see who has the hookup.
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Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hookup
An Americanism dating back to 1900–05; noun use of verb phrase hook up
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It takes five to 10 years to get a grid hookup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
Arbor portrays its solution as a flexible, carbon-negative and clean device: It can operate anywhere with a hookup for carbon sequestration.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025
"Getting the hookup, being proud of the food you bring in and giving meatballs to people. That's our people, and I'm happy with it."
From Salon ● Mar. 27, 2024
He wrote that the group has done other research, in addition to the analysis of dating and hookup apps.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 9, 2023
There were policemen, deputies, a state trooper or two; on the lawn, parked beside a couple of official-looking vehicles, was a remote radio-station hookup, a concessions truck, and a van from ActionNews Twelve.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Solar power and advanced water recycling systems would eliminate the need for utility hookups, only requiring occasional deliveries of potable water and propane to run the systems.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
Its customers need to build enough clean rooms to house the machines they want to buy, a massive undertaking that requires construction expertise, power hookups and abundant energy supplies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
First, its parcel of land provides easy access to fiber hookups, water, and the Hugoton and Panhandle gas fields, which span parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2025
Most people alive today carry traces of genes inherited from Neanderthals—the enduring legacy of prehistoric hookups with our extinct cousins.
From Science Magazine ● May 22, 2024
Then she starts tearing off the hookups to her senses.
From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
