Search

[hoo k] /hʊk/

noun
1.
a curved or angular piece of metal or other hard substance for catching, pulling, holding, or suspending something.
2.
a fishhook.
3.
anything that catches; snare; trap.
4.
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.
5.
something having a sharp curve, bend, or angle at one end, as a mark or symbol.
6.
a sharp curve or angle in the length or course of anything.
7.
a curved arm of land jutting into the water; a curved peninsula:
Sandy Hook.
8.
a recurved and pointed organ or appendage of an animal or plant.
9.
a small curved catch inserted into a loop to form a clothes fastener.
10.
Sports.

11.
Boxing. a short, circular punch delivered with the elbow bent.
12.
Music.

13.
Metalworking. an accidental short bend formed in a piece of bar stock during rolling.
14.
hooks, Slang. hands or fingers:
Get your hooks off that cake!
15.
Underworld Slang. a pickpocket.
16.
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)
17.
to seize, fasten, suspend from, pierce, or catch hold of and draw with or as if with a hook.
18.
to catch (fish) with a fishhook.
19.
Slang. to steal or seize by stealth.
20.
Informal. to catch or trick by artifice; snare.
21.
(of a bull or other horned animal) to catch on the horns or attack with the horns.
22.
to catch hold of and draw (loops of yarn) through cloth with or as if with a hook.
23.
to make (a rug, garment, etc.) in this fashion.
24.
Sports. to hit or throw (a ball) so that a hook results.
25.
Boxing. to deliver a hook with:
The champion hooked a right to his opponent’s jaw.
26.
Rugby. to push (a ball) backward with the foot in scrummage from the front line.
27.
to make hook-shaped; crook.
verb (used without object)
28.
to become attached or fastened by or as if by a hook.
29.
to curve or bend like a hook.
30.
Sports.

31.
Slang. to depart hastily:
We’d better hook for home.
Verb phrases
32.
hook up,

Idioms
33.
by hook or by crook, by any means, whether just or unjust, legal or illegal.
Also, by hook or crook.
34.
get / give the hook, Informal. to receive or subject to a dismissal:
The rumor is that he got the hook.
35.
hook it, Slang. to run away; depart; flee:
He hooked it when he saw the truant officer.
36.
hook, line, and sinker, Informal. entirely; completely:
He fell for the story—hook, line, and sinker.
37.
off the hook,

38.
on one’s own hook, Informal. on one’s own initiative or responsibility; independently.
39.
on the hook, Slang.

noun
1.
the contact of an aircraft in flight with the refuelling hose of a tanker aircraft
2.
an alliance or relationship, esp an unlikely one, between people, countries, etc
3.
the linking of broadcasting equipment or stations to transmit a special programme
verb (adverb)
4.
to connect (two or more people or things)
5.
(often foll by with) (slang) to get married (to)
/hʊk/
noun
1.
a piece of material, usually metal, curved or bent and used to suspend, catch, hold, or pull something
2.
short for fish-hook
3.
a trap or snare
4.
(mainly US) something that attracts or is intended to be an attraction
5.
something resembling a hook in design or use
6.

7.
(boxing) a short swinging blow delivered from the side with the elbow bent
8.
(cricket) a shot in which the ball is hit square on the leg side with the bat held horizontally
9.
(golf) a shot that causes the ball to swerve sharply from right to left
10.
(surfing) the top of a breaking wave
11.
(hockey:Ice) Also called hookcheck. the act of hooking an opposing player
12.
(music) a stroke added to the stem of a written or printed note to indicate time values shorter than a crotchet
13.
a catchy musical phrase in a pop song
14.
another name for a sickle
15.
a nautical word for anchor
16.
by hook or crook, by hook or by crook, by any means
17.
(US & Canadian, slang) get the hook, to be dismissed from employment
18.
(informal) hook, line, and sinker, completely: he fell for it hook, line, and sinker
19.
off the hook

20.
(slang, mainly US) on one’s own hook, on one’s own initiative
21.
(slang) on the hook

22.
(Brit, slang) sling one’s hook, to leave
verb
23.
(often foll by up) to fasten or be fastened with or as if with a hook or hooks
24.
(transitive) to catch (something, such as a fish) on a hook
25.
to curve like or into the shape of a hook
26.
(transitive) (of bulls, elks, etc) to catch or gore with the horns
27.
(transitive) to make (a rug) by hooking yarn through a stiff fabric backing with a special instrument
28.
(transitive) often foll by down. to cut (grass or herbage) with a sickle: to hook down weeds
29.
(boxing) to hit (an opponent) with a hook
30.
(hockey:Ice) to impede (an opposing player) by catching hold of him with the stick
31.
(golf) to play (a ball) with a hook
32.
(rugby) to obtain and pass (the ball) backwards from a scrum to a member of one’s team, using the feet
33.
(cricket) to play (a ball) with a hook
34.
(transitive) (informal) to trick
35.
(transitive) a slang word for steal
36.
(slang) hook it, to run or go quickly away
noun

a casual sexual relationship; also, a casual sex act; also written hookup
Examples

Instead of having real romance nowadays, many college students are resorting to hook-ups.
Word Origin

by 1987
Usage Note

slang
n.

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.
v.

“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.

noun

verb

Related Terms

buttonhook, on one’s own hook, shithook, skyhook

(1.) Heb. hah, a “ring” inserted in the nostrils of animals to which a cord was fastened for the purpose of restraining them (2 Kings 19:28; Isa. 37:28, 29; Ezek. 29:4; 38:4). “The Orientals make use of this contrivance for curbing their work-beasts…When a beast becomes unruly they have only to draw the cord on one side, which, by stopping his breath, punishes him so effectually that after a few repetitions he fails not to become quite tractable whenever he begins to feel it” (Michaelis). So God’s agents are never beyond his control. (2.) Hakkah, a fish “hook” (Job 41:2, Heb. Text, 40:25; Isa. 19:8; Hab. 1:15). (3.) Vav, a “peg” on which the curtains of the tabernacle were hung (Ex. 26:32). (4.) Tsinnah, a fish-hooks (Amos 4:2). (5.) Mazleg, flesh-hooks (1 Sam. 2:13, 14), a kind of fork with three teeth for turning the sacrifices on the fire, etc. (6.) Mazmeroth, pruning-hooks (Isa. 2:4; Joel 3:10). (7.) ‘Agmon (Job 41:2, Heb. Text 40:26), incorrectly rendered in the Authorized Version. Properly a rush-rope for binding animals, as in Revised Version margin.