1. A piece of metal, or other hard material, formed or bent into a curve or at an angle, for catching,
holding, or sustaining anything; as, a hook for catching fish; a hook for fastening a gate; a boat hook,
etc.
2. That part of a hinge which is fixed to a post, and on which a door or gate hangs and turns.
3. An implement for cutting grass or grain; a sickle; an instrument for cutting or lopping; a billhook.
Like slashing Bentley with his desperate hook.
Pope. 4. (Steam Engin.) See Eccentric, and V-hook.
5. A snare; a trap. [R.] Shak.
6. A field sown two years in succession. [Prov. Eng.]
7. pl. The projecting points of the thigh bones of cattle; — called also hook bones.
By hook or by crook,
one way or other; by any means, direct or indirect. Milton. "In hope her to attain
by hook or crook." Spenser. — Off the hooks, unhinged; disturbed; disordered. [Colloq.] "In the evening,
by water, to the Duke of Albemarle, whom I found mightly off the hooks that the ships are not gone
out of the river." Pepys. — On one's own hook, on one's own account or responsibility; by one's self.
[Colloq. U.S.] Bartlett. — To go off the hooks, to die. [Colloq.] Thackeray. — Bid hook, a small
boat hook. — Chain hook. See under Chain. — Deck hook, a horizontal knee or frame, in the
bow of a ship, on which the forward part of the deck rests. — Hook and eye, one of the small wire
hooks and loops for fastening together the opposite edges of a garment, etc. — Hook bill (Zoöl.), the
strongly curved beak of a bird. — Hook ladder, a ladder with hooks at the end by which it can be
suspended, as from the top of a wall. — Hook motion (Steam Engin.), a valve gear which is reversed
by V hooks. — Hook squid, any squid which has the arms furnished with hooks, instead of suckers,
as in the genera Enoploteuthis and Onychteuthis. — Hook wrench, a wrench or spanner, having a
hook at the end, instead of a jaw, for turning a bolthead, nut, or coupling.
Hook
(Hook), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hooked ; p. pr. & vb. n. Hooking.]
1. To catch or fasten with a hook or hooks; to seize, capture, or hold, as with a hook, esp. with a disguised
or baited hook; hence, to secure by allurement or artifice; to entrap; to catch; as, to hook a dress; to hook
a trout.
Hook him, my poor dear, . . . at any sacrifice.
W. Collins. 2. To seize or pierce with the points of the horns, as cattle in attacking enemies; to gore.
3. To steal. [Colloq. Eng. & U.S.]
To hook on,
to fasten or attach by, or as by, hook.
Hook
(Hook) v. i. To bend; to curve as a hook.
Hookah
(Hook"ah) n. [Per. or Ar. huqqa a round box or casket, a bottle through which the fumes pass
when smoking tobacco.] A pipe with a long, flexible stem, so arranged that the smoke is cooled by
being made to pass through water.
Hook-billed
(Hook"-billed`) a. (Zoöl.) Having a strongly curved bill.
Hooked
(Hooked) a.