hooks

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
hook/hʊk/

▶noun

• 1 a piece of curved metal or other hard material for catching hold of things or hanging things on.

  ■ (also fish hook) a bent piece of metal, typically barbed and baited, for catching fish.

• 2 a thing designed to catch people's attention.

  ■ a catchy chorus or repeated passage in a pop or rock song.

• 3 a curved cutting instrument.

• 4 a short swinging punch made with the elbow bent and rigid.

• 5 a hooking stroke in sport.

• 6 Music an added stroke transverse to the stem in the symbol for a quaver or other note.

• 7 a curved promontory or sand spit.

▶verb

• 1 attach or fasten or become attached with a hook.

• 2 bend or be bent into a curved shape.

• 3 (hook up) link or be linked to electronic equipment.

  ■ informal (of two people) meet or form a relationship.

• 4 catch with a hook.

• 5 (be hooked) informal be captivated or addicted.

• 6 Rugby secure (the ball) and pass it backward with the foot in the scrum.

• 7 Cricket hit (the ball) round to the on side with an upward swing of the bat at shoulder height.

  ■ (in sport) strike (the ball) so that it deviates in the direction of the follow-through.

• 8 Boxing punch one's opponent with the elbow bent and rigid.

• 9 (hook it) Brit. informal, dated run away.

– phrases
by hook or by crook by any possible means.
get one's hooks into informal get hold of.
get (or give someone) the hook N. Amer. informal be dismissed (or dismiss someone) from a job.
hook, line, and sinker entirely: he fell hook, line, and sinker for the joke.
off the hook

• 1 informal no longer in difficulty.

• 2 (of a telephone receiver) not on its rest.

on the hook for N. Amer. informal (in a financial context) responsible for.
sling one's hook Brit. informal leave.

– derivatives
hookless adjective,
hooklet noun,
hook-like adjective.

– origin OE hōc, of Gmc origin.