Word.ws English Dictionary

hook

UK/hʊk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/hɵk/

hook noun: a rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.

Noun (1)

hook (plural hooks)

  1. A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.
    • "If I were a pirate and lost my hand, I would ask them to replace it with a computer mouse rather than a hook. I use a computer mouse all day, and I only use a hook three to five times a day."¶ -Emma Stone¶ On hooks2019 February 19, Clickhole, archived from the original on 14 Jul 2022, This quote is falsely attributed to Emma Stone for humorous effect
  2. A barbed metal hook used for fishing; a fishhook.
  3. Any of various hook-shaped agricultural implements such as a billhook.
    • Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, / Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook / Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers: [...]1819 September 19, John Keats, “To Autumn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 2, page...
  4. The curved needle used in the art of crochet.
  5. The part of a hinge which is fixed to a post, and on which a door or gate hangs and turns.
  6. A loop shaped like a hook under certain written letters, for example, g and j.
  7. A tie-in to a current event or trend that makes a news story or editorial relevant and timely.
  8. A snare; a trap.
    • A shop of all the qualities, that man
      Loues woman for, besides that hooke of Wiuing,1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  9. An advantageous hold.
    • “What makes you so sure that nobody knows you've got a hook into him?” Ward asked.2020, Joel W. Barrows, Deep Red Cover
  10. (in plural) The projecting points of the thighbones of cattle; called also hook bones.
  11. (informal) Removal or expulsion from a group or activity.
    • He is not handling this job, so we're giving him the hook.
  12. A field sown two years in succession.
Show 25 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (informal) A grasp (of), an attachment (to).
    • Much of the Two in Twenty humor is insider stuff; this soap is clearly made for lesbians who have been around the city block, with a few road trips to Michigan. Gay men may love it as well, and others with a hook into contemporary urban dyke life.1988 February 7, Elizabeth Pincus, “A Romp Through Lavender Land”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 29, page 7
    • If you're struggling to get a hook on the scale of it, that's the North Stand at Leicester Tigers, plus six Peter Crouches, or half a Clock Tower.2022 September 12, leicsmiscellany, Twitter
  2. A brief, punchy opening statement intended to get attention from an audience, reader, or viewer, and make them want to continue to listen to a speech, read a book, or watch a play.
  3. A gimmick or element of a creative work intended to be attention-grabbing for the audience; a compelling idea for a story that will be sure to attract people's attention.
    • The hook of Good Boys, Hollywood's latest odyssey of comic adolescent mischief, is that the kids behaving badly are, for once, truly kids.2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2021
  4. (slang) A finesse.
  5. (slang) A jack (the playing card).
  6. A sharp bend or angle in the course or length of an object (e.g. a bend in a river, etc.).
  7. A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end, such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey.
  8. A catchy musical phrase which forms the basis of a popular song.
    • The song's hook snared me.
    • Guitarist Jade Puget and vocalist Davey Havok have distilled AFI’s strengths (a ferocious, post-hardcore rhythmic backbone; goth-tinctured, post-punky guitars; and Havok’s desperate, dramatic croon) into 14 taut, hook-driven songs.2017 January 20, Annie Zaleski, “AFI sounds refreshed and rejuvenated on its 10th album, AFI (The Blood Album)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 15 Apr 2017
  9. (informal) A ship's anchor.
  10. Part of a system's operation that can be intercepted to change or augment its behaviour.
    • We've added hooks to allow undefined message types to be handled with custom code.
    • In lieu of those unneeded hooks, write code to fail fast and prevent gaps from becoming a problem.2015, Rachel Alt-Simmons, Agile by Design, page 182
    Synonyms:
    endpoint
  11. An instance of playing a word perpendicular to a word already on the board, adding a letter to the start or the end of the word to form a new word.
    • Setup plays can also be made when you do not have the needed letter but believe your opponent doesn't know the hook owing to its obscurity.2003, Andrew Fisher, David Webb, The Art of Scrabble, →ISBN, page 58
  12. A diacritical mark shaped like the upper part of a question mark, as in ỏ.
  13. (rare) A háček.
    • Common diacritics in Slavonic language are the hook ˇ (as in haček – Czech for ‘hook’) and the stroke ´ (robić – Polish for ‘do/make’).2003, Language Issues, XV-XVIII, page 36
    • In Czech, palatalization is normally indicated by the symbol ˇ, called haček or “hook.”2003, David Adams, The Song and Duet Texts of Antonín Dvořák, page 168
  14. A curveball.
    • He threw a hook in the dirt.
  15. a basketball shot in which the offensive player, usually turned perpendicular to the basket, gently throws the ball with a sweeping motion of his arm in an upward arc with a follow-through which ends over his head. Also called hook shot.
  16. A ball that is rolled in a curved line.
    • However, for pins on the bowler's right, such as the 3, 6, 9, or 10, move more toward the center of the foul line if you bowl a straight ball or slightly to the left of the center of the foul line if you bowl a hook.1969, Harold Keith, Sports and Games, page 102
  17. a type of punch delivered with the arm rigid and partially bent and the fist travelling nearly horizontally mesially along an arc
    • The heavyweight delivered a few powerful hooks that staggered his opponent.
    • American Ward was too quick and too slick for his British rival, landing at will with razor sharp jabs and hooks and even bullying Froch at times.2011 December 18, Ben Dirs, “Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 10 Apr 2022
  18. A type of shot played by swinging the bat in a horizontal arc, hitting the ball high in the air to the leg side, often played to balls which bounce around head height.
  19. A golf shot that (for the right-handed player) curves unintentionally to the left. (See draw, slice, fade.)
  20. The amount of spin placed on a bowling ball.
  21. (Australia, Canada) Any of the chevrons denoting rank.
  22. (slang) A prostitute.
    • I was talkin' to a couple of the 'hooks' (female prostitutes) I know.1983, G. W. Levi Kamel, Downtown Street Hustlers, page 160
    Synonyms:
    hooker
  23. (UK, obsolete, slang) A pickpocket.
    • He preceded me to Dartmoor, where I found his fame even more loudly trumpeted than ever, especially by Manchester “hooks” (pickpockets), who boast of being the rivals of the “Cocks,” or Londoners, in the art of obtaining other people's property without paying for it.1885, Michael Davitt, Leaves from a Prison Diary, page 18
    • "Everybody's a tool over there. Everybody's a hook, except them four guys on the points of the compass. They are eight or ten strong over there." But all professional pickpockets, however expert or however clumsy, operate on the basis of the situation just outlined.2003, David W. Maurer, Whiz Mob: A Correlation of the Technical Argot of Pickpockets with Their Behavior Pattern, page 58
  24. Synonym of shoulder (“the part of a wave that has not yet broken”).
    • This maneuver involves a sharp turn, back into the hook of the wave.1963, Grant W. Kuhns, On Surfing, page 67
    Synonyms:
    shoulder
  25. (historical) A knee-shaped wooden join connecting the keel to the stem (post forming the frontmost part of the bow) or the sternpost in cog-like vessels or similar vessels.

Verb

hook (third-person singular simple present hooks, present participle hooking, simple past and past participle hooked)

  1. (transitive) To attach a hook to.
    • Hook the bag here, and the conveyor will carry it away.
  2. (intransitive) To become attached, as by a hook.
    • The utensil holder hooks onto the side of the dishrack.
  3. (transitive) To catch with a hook (hook a fish).
    • He hooked a snake accidentally, and was so scared he dropped his rod into the water.
  4. (transitive) To work yarn into a fabric using a hook; to crochet.
    • No one seems to want anything but hooked mats now.1917, L M Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams
  5. (transitive) To insert in a curved way reminiscent of a hook.
    • He hooked his fingers through his belt loops.
  6. (transitive) To ensnare or obligate someone, as if with a hook.
    • She's only here to try to hook a husband.
    • A free trial is a good way to hook customers.
  7. (UK, US, archaic, slang) To steal.
  8. (transitive) To connect (hook into, hook together).
    • If you hook your network cable into the jack, you'll be on the network.
  9. (usually passive voice) To make addicted; to captivate.
    • He had gotten hooked on cigarettes in his youth.
    • I watched one episode of that TV series and now I'm hooked.
  10. To acquire as a spouse.
    • People talk about so and so getting married and they always comment about the class or potential class status of the person this woman had "hooked." You know, "He comes from a working class background but he's studying to be a lawyer and she's going to be all set."1990 February 4, Vanessa Nemeth, Stephanie Poggi, “Bumps And All”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 12
  11. To play a hook shot.
    • "Hey, Sara! Watch this hook shot!" he shouted as he hooked the ball right through the net—swish!2012, Roland Johnson, Jeremya Jones: A King's Kid, page 93
  12. To succeed in heeling the ball back out of a scrum (used particularly of the team's designated hooker).
Show 9 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (field hockey) To use the hockey stick to trip or block another player
    • The opposing team's forward hooked me, but the referee didn't see it, so no penalty.
  2. To swerve a ball; kick or throw a ball so it swerves or bends.
    • The Reds carved the first opening of the second period as Glen Johnson's pull-back found David Ngog but the Frenchman hooked wide from six yards.2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 17 Mar 2011
  3. (intransitive, slang) To engage in prostitution.
    • I had a cheap flat in the bad part of town, and I could watch the working girls hooking from my bedroom window.
  4. To play a word perpendicular to another word by adding a single letter to the existing word.
  5. (slang) To finesse.
  6. (transitive) To seize or pierce with the points of the horns, as cattle in attacking enemies; to gore.
  7. (intransitive) To bend; to be curved.
    • 10 mins later, at the point where the road hooks sharp to the left, continue straight on through the wood along a mule track […]2020, Roman Martin, Azores: The finest coastal and mountain walks, page 229
  8. (intransitive) To move or go with a sudden turn.
  9. (slang) To play hooky; to skip school or a class
    • They hooked English, sneaking out behind the school and smoking cigarettes.

Proper noun capitalized: Hook

Hook (countable and uncountable, plural Hooks)

  1. A surname.
  2. A hamlet in Wimblington parish, Fenland district, Cambridgeshire (OS grid ref TF4293).
  3. A hamlet in Chardstock parish, East Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref ST3005).
  4. A village and civil parish near Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE7625).
  5. A suburb in the borough of Kingston upon Thames, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ1865).
  6. A large village and civil parish in Hart district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU7254).
  7. A hamlet in Fareham borough, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU5005).
  8. A hamlet in Timsbury parish, Bath and North East Somerset district, Somerset (OS grid ref ST6758).
  9. A village in Lydiard Tregoze parish, near Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref SU0784).
  10. A village and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales (OS grid ref SM9711).
  11. A rural locality in South Canterbury, Canterbury, New Zealand, on the Hook River.

Noun (2) capitalized: Hook

Hook (plural Hooks)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Hoek (“member of Dutch faction”)

hook meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

hook in Hindi

rod bent into a curved shape
अंकुश aṅkuś, आंकड़ा āṅkṛā, हुक huk
hockey: to engage in the illegal maneuver of hooking
हुक huk

hook in Tamil

rod bent into a curved shape
கொக்கி kokki, கொளுவி koḷuvi

hook in Urdu

rod bent into a curved shape
آنکڑا ānkṛā, ہک huk

hook in Bengali

rod bent into a curved shape
অঙ্কুশ oṅkuś, হুক huk
More languagesFewer languages
hook in Telugu
కొక్కి kokki, గాలము gālamu
hook in Malayalam
കൊളുത്ത് koḷuttŭ, കൊളുത്തുക koḷuttuka, കൊളുത്തിടുക koḷuttiṭuka
hook in Sanskrit
अङ्क aṅka
hook in Tagalog
bungkalo
hook in Arabic
خَطَّاف ḵaṭṭāf, لَكْمَة خُطَّافِيَّة
hook in Malay
cangkuk, kait
hook in Indonesian
kait
hook in Persian
قلاب qollâb, چنگک čangak, جا لباسی jâ lebâsi, آکج âkej
hook in Thai
ตะขอ dtà-kɔ̌ɔ, เบ็ด bèt, หมัดเหวี่ยงสั้น
hook in Vietnamese
móc
hook in Myanmar
ချိတ် hkyit

Examples of hook in a sentence

  • Attach the float and the weight to the fishing line, above the hook.
  • Bend the end of that wire over to make a hook.
  • This hook is so catchy that I can't stop listening to it!

All 40 example sentences with hook

Synonyms of hook

Forms of hook

Noun
pluralhooks
pluralHooks
Verb
third-person singular presenthooks
present participlehooking
past participlehooked
pasthooked
Proper noun
pluralHooks

Past tense of hook: hooked

Plural of hook: hooks

Origin of hook

From Middle English hoke, from Old English hōc (“angle, point, hook”), from Proto-West Germanic *hōk, from Proto-Germanic *hōkaz, variant of *hakô (“hook”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kog-, *keg-, *keng- (“peg, hook, claw”). Cognates Cognate with Scots huke, huik (“hook”), West Frisian and Dutch hoek (“hook, angle, corner”), Low German Hook, Huuk, German Hook (“small cluster of farms”), Faroese høkja (“crutch”), Icelandic hækja (“crutch”), Norn hek (“crutch”), Finnish kuokka (“hoe, mattock”). Related to hake.

* As an English surname, from the noun hook. * As a Swedish surname, from hök (“hawk”). * As a Dutch surname, Americanized from Hoek; compare Vanhook.

Words formed from hook

Phrases with hook

80 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with hook

38 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hook

What does hook mean?
Hook means a rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.
What is hook in Hindi?
Hook in Hindi is अंकुश (aṅkuś), आंकड़ा (āṅkṛā), हुक (huk). See Hook meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is hook?
Hook can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hook?
Hook is pronounced /hʊk/ (UK).
What is the plural of hook?
The plural of hook is hooks.

Words near hook in the dictionary

  1. hoohar
  2. hoohars
  3. hooie
  4. hoojah
  5. hoojahs
  6. hook
  7. hook above
  8. hook and eye
  9. hook cross
  10. Hook End
  11. hook flash

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hook (page history and authors); Hook (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hook.ogg, en-au-hook.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hook.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hook. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.