k]
| 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.
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| 11. | Boxing. a short, circular punch delivered with the elbow bent. |
| 12. | Music.
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| 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. |
| 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. |
| 28. | to become attached or fastened by or as if by a hook. |
| 29. | to curve or bend like a hook. |
| 30. | Sports.
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| 31. | Slang. to depart hastily: We'd better hook for home. |
| 32. | hook up,
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| 33. | by hook or by crook, by any means, whether just or unjust, legal or illegal. Also, by hook or crook. |
| 34. | get or 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.
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hook (hŏŏk) n.
v. tr.
hook up
Idiom(s): by hook or by crookBy whatever means possible, fair or unfair. Idiom(s): get the hook Slang To be unceremoniously dismissed or terminated. Idiom(s): hook, line, and sinker Informal Without reservation; completely: swallowed the excuse hook, line, and sinker. Idiom(s): off the hook Informal Freed, as from blame or a vexatious obligation: let me off the hook with a mild reprimand. Idiom(s): on (one's) own hookBy one's own efforts. [Middle English hok, from Old English hōc; see keg- in Indo-European roots.] |
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.
hook
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hook, line, and sinker
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hook, line, and sinker
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.