- a curved piece of metal, plastic or wire for hanging things on, catching fish with, etc.
- a picture/curtain/coat hook
- a fish hook
- Hang your towel on the hook.
- The key was hanging from a hook.
- Your coat’s hanging on a hook behind the door.
Definitions on the go
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- (in boxing) a short hard hit that is made with the elbow bent
- a left hook to the jaw
- (in cricket and golf) a way of hitting the ball so that it curves to the side instead of going straight ahead (usually by mistake in golf, but deliberately in cricket)Topics Sports: ball and racket sportsc2
- a thing that is used to make people interested in something
- The images are used as a hook to get children interested in science.
- Well-chosen quotations can serve as a hook to catch the reader’s interest.
Word OriginOld English hōc, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hoek ‘corner, angle, projecting piece of land’, also to German Haken ‘hook’.
Idioms
See hook in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryby hook or by crook
- using any method you can, even a dishonest one
hook, line and sinker
- completely
- What I said was not true, but he fell for it (= believed it) hook, line and sinker.
off the hook
- having got free from a difficult situation or a punishment
- I lied to get him off the hook.
- No way will she let you off the hook this time.
- I was finally off the hook.
- (becoming old-fashioned) if you leave or take a landline phone off the hook, you take the receiver (= the part that you pick up) off the place where it usually rests, so that nobody can call youTopics Phones, email and the internetc2
on the hook for something
- (North American English, informal) responsible for paying for something
- Citizens are increasingly on the hook for more of their own medical costs.
ring off the hook
- (usually used in the progressive tenses) (of a phone) to ring many times, with one phone call after another
- The phone has been ringing off the hook with offers of help.
sling your hook
- (British English, informal) (used especially in orders) to go away
Check pronunciation:
hook