hook, line, and sinker

1. To “fall for something hook, line, and sinker” is to be fooled completely. “Tom doubted that his ruse would fool anybody, but the boss fell for it hook, line, and sinker.” The reference is to fishing tackle.

Idioms and Phrases

Without reservation, completely, as in He swallowed our excuse hook, line, and sinker. This expression, first recorded in 1865, alludes to a fish swallowing not only the baited hook but the leaden sinker and the entire fishing line between them.

Example Sentences

So when I’m with somebody that’s really invested and committed to runes or tarot, I am hook, line and sinker in.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Cardinal David recalled how President Duterte "loved to wave" a book called "Altar of Secrets", an expose of alleged scandals in the Filipino church, and how he would say, "oh, those hypocrites. Don't listen to them. They don't practice what they what they preach. They are abusers. I must say some people swallowed it hook, line and sinker. So I am not surprised that our moral credibility has been challenged."

Read more on BBC

“It was false, but America bought it hook, line and sinker. Unfortunately, it unlocked a lot of the most extreme demons of capitalism.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

A few years after my drink with Brooks — and after the dubious ascent of Bush to the White House in 2000, and the Iraq War had caught and carried Brooks hook, line and sinker in his New York Times columns — I lacerated him in my own columns, perhaps especially this one.

Read more on Salon

"And they fell for it hook, line and sinker."

Read more on BBC