Hook Definition
ho͝ok
hooked, hooking, hooks
noun
hooks
A curved or bent piece of metal, wood, etc. used to catch, hold, or pull something.
Webster's New World
A curved metal implement for cutting grain, etc.
Webster's New World
A fishhook.
American Heritage
Something shaped like a hook.
Webster's New World
A sharp bend or curve, as in a river.
American Heritage
verb
hooked, hooking, hooks
To snare.
American Heritage
To catch with or as with a hook.
Webster's New World
To be fastened with a hook or hooks.
Webster's New World
To be caught by a hook.
Webster's New World
To take hold of with a hook.
Webster's New World
idiom
by hook or by crook
- By whatever means possible, fair or unfair.
American Heritage
get the hook
- To be unceremoniously dismissed or terminated.
American Heritage
hook, line, and sinker
- Without reservation; completely:
swallowed the excuse hook, line, and sinker.
American Heritage
off the hook
- Freed, as from blame or a vexatious obligation:
let me off the hook with a mild reprimand.
American Heritage
on (one's) own hook
- By one's own efforts.
American Heritage
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Hook
Origin of Hook
-
From Middle English hoke, from Old English hōc, from Proto-Germanic *hōkaz (cf. West Frisian/Dutch hoek 'hook, angle, corner', Low German Hook, Huuk 'id.'), variant of *hakô (“hook”) (compare Dutch Low Saxon hoake (“hook”)). Probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kog-, *keg-, *keng- (“peg, hook, claw”). More at hake.
From Wiktionary
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Middle English hok from Old English hōc keg- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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