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hook up

 [hook]   Origin

hook

1   [hook]
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.
EXPAND
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.
a.
the path described by a ball, as in baseball, bowling, or golf, that curves in a direction opposite to the throwing hand or to the side of the ball from which it was struck.
b.
a ball describing such a path.
11.
Boxing. a short, circular punch delivered with the elbow bent.
12.
Music.
a.
Also called pennant. a stroke or line attached to the stem of eighth notes, sixteenth notes, etc.
b.
an appealing melodic phrase, orchestral ornament, refrain, etc., often important to a popular song's commercial success.
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.
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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.
EXPAND
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.
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Hook up is always a great word to know.
So is zedonk. Does it mean:
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
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.
a.
(of a player) to hook the ball.
b.
(of a ball) to describe a hook in course.
31.
Slang. to depart hastily: We'd better hook for home.
Verb phrase
32.
hook up,
a.
to fasten with a hook or hooks.
b.
to assemble or connect, as the components of a machine: to hook up a stereo system.
c.
to connect to a central source, as of power or water: The house hasn't been hooked up to the city's water system yet.
d.
Informal. to join, meet, or become associated with: He never had a decent job until he hooked up with this company.
e.
Informal. to have casual sex or a romantic date without a long-term commitment: He doesn't know her very well, but he hooked up with her a couple of times.
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,
a.
out of trouble; released from some difficulty: This time there was no one around to get him off the hook.
b.
free of obligation: His brother paid all his bills and got him off the hook.
EXPAND
38.
on one's own hook, Informal. on one's own initiative or responsibility; independently.
39.
on the hook, Slang.
a.
obliged; committed; involved: He's already on the hook for $10,000.
b.
subjected to a delaying tactic; waiting: We've had him on the hook for two weeks now.
COLLAPSE
Origin:
before 900; 1830–40, Americanism for def. 36; Middle English hoke (noun and v.), Old English hōc (noun); cognate with Dutch hoek hook, angle, corner; akin to German Haken, Old Norse haki

Related forms
hook·less, adjective
hook·like, adjective

Can be confused: penance, pennants.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To hook up
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

hook
O.E. hoc, perhaps related to O.E. haca "bolt," from P.Gmc. *khokaz/*khakan- (cf. Du. haak, Ger. Haken "hook"), from PIE *keg- "bent object" (cf. Rus. kogot "claw"). For spelling, see hood. Boxing sense of "short, swinging blow with the elbow bent" is from 1898. Fig. sense was in M.E. (see
EXPAND
hooker); hooked "addicted" is from 1925, originally in ref. to narcotics. By hook or by crook (c.1380) probably alludes to tools of professional thieves. Hook, line, and sinker "completely" is 1838, a metaphor from angling.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary

hook definition


  1. tv.
    to cheat someone. : Watch the clerk in that store. He might try to hook you.
  2. tv.
    to steal something. : Lefty hooked a couple of candy bars just for the hell of it.
  3. tv.
    to addict someone (to something). (Not necessarily drugs.) : The constant use of bicarb hooked him to the stuff.
  4. n.
    the grade of C. : I didn't study at all and I still got a hook!
  5. tv.
    to earn or pull the grade of C on something in school. : History? I hooked it without any trouble.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

hook up

  1. Assemble or wire a mechanism, as in Dick helped us hook up the stereo system. [1920s]

  2. Connect a mechanism with a main source, as in The computer had not yet been hooked up to the mainframe. [1920s]

  3. hook up with. Form a tie or association, as in She had hooked up with the wrong crowd. [Slang; mid-1900s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
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