Word.ws English Dictionary

hooker

Syllables: hook·erUK/ˈhʊkə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈhɵkə/

hooker noun: one who, or that which, hooks. Also the alternative spelling of hookah.

Noun (1)

hooker (plural hookers)

  1. One who, or that which, hooks.
  2. A player who hooks the ball out of the scrum with his foot.
    • Hooker Dylan Hartley was sent to the sin-bin after yet another infringement at the breakdown and, on the stroke of half-time, Georgia's territorial advantage finally told when number eight Basilaia surged over from the base of the scrum for a try next to the posts.2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport
  3. A batsman or batswoman adept at or fond of playing hook shots.
    • I once saw Hassett drop England opening batsman and compulsive hooker, Cyril Washbrook, twice in succession at deep fine leg.1990, Ashes: Battles and Bellylaughs, Byron Bay: Swan Publishing, page 32
  4. A crocheter.
  5. (dated, informal) Synonym of hook (“attention-grabbing element of a creative work”).
    • We regard the first seven seconds of a television commercial as the most critical or crucial in the whole unit — the "Do or Die Seven" — the "moment of decision" or the "hooker", if you will, when we must capture the attention of the viewer, get him involved in the action, […]1966, Charles Anthony Wainwright, The Television Copywriter, page 39
    Synonyms:
    hook
  6. (archaic, thieves' cant) A thief who uses a pole with a hook on the end to steal goods.
    • They are sure to be clyd in the night by the angler, or hooker, or such like pilferers that liue upon the spoyle of other poore people.c. 1608–1610, Samuel Rid, Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell
    • Suffer none, from far or near, / With their rights to interfere; / No strange Abram, Ruffler crack— / Hooker of another pack—1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, volume 2, Oath of the Canting Crew, page 339
    Synonyms:
    angler, nuthook

Noun (2)

hooker (plural hookers)

  1. (US, slang) A prostitute.
    • All my life, been hustling / And tonight is my appraisal / 'Cause I'm a hooker selling songs / And my pimp's a record label2018, Brendon Urie, Michael Angelakos, Sam Hollander, Morgan Kibby, Jake Sinclair, Dillon Francis, “Hey Look Ma, I Made It”, in Pray for the Wicked, performed by Panic! at the Disco
  2. (dated, slang, 1920s to 1940s) An imprecise measure of alcoholic drink; a "slug" (of gin), or an overlarge gulp.
    • Emily had cut short these 3 A.M. glooms with a hooker of bourbon.1993, Herman Wouk, The Hope (novel), page 675

Noun (3)

hooker (plural hookers)

  1. A small fishing boat.
    • In England there are Brighton Beach boats, Centre-board sloops, Pollywogs, Lough Erne yachts, Unas, New Brighton sailing-boats, yachts of the Norfolk Broads, Itchen, Clyde sailing and Keystone boats, Penzance luggers, Cobbles, Galways, Hookers and Pookhauns […]1884, James Douglas Jerrold Kelley, American Yachts: Their Clubs and Races, page 161
  2. (derogatory, slang) Any antiquated craft.
    • [T]he poor Flash is gone, and there is an end of it. Poor old hooker. Hey, Almayer? You made a voyage or two with me. Wasn’t she a sweet craft?1896, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in An Outcast of the Islands, London: T. Fisher Unwin […], →OCLC, part III, pages 182–183
    • […] for there was scarce one of us that thought the old hooker would weather so long and hard a blow. We were mighty fortunate to come through it so handily.1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC

Proper noun capitalized: Hooker

Hooker

  1. A surname originating as an occupation for a maker of hooks.
  2. An unincorporated community in Tehama County, California.
  3. An unincorporated community in Dade County, Georgia.
  4. An unincorporated community in Clay County, Kentucky.
  5. A ghost town in Pulaski County, Missouri.
  6. Two townships in Nebraska, in Dixon County and Gage County.
  7. An unincorporated community in Fairfield County, Ohio.
  8. A small city in Texas County, Oklahoma.
  9. An unincorporated community in Turner County, South Dakota.

Also used as

hooker is also the alternative spelling of hookah.

hooker meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

hooker in Hindi

हुकर, हूकर

hooker in Tamil

ஹூக்கர்

hooker in Marathi

हुकर, हूकर

hooker in Bengali

হুকার
More languagesFewer languages
hooker in Telugu
హుక్కర్, హుకర్, హూకర్
hooker in Malayalam
ഹൂക്കർ, ഹുക്കർ
hooker in Kannada
ಹುಕ್ಕರ್, ಹೂಕರ್, ಹುಕರ್
hooker in Punjabi
ਹੂਕਰ, ਹੁੱਕਰ
hooker in Gujarati
હૂકર, હુકર
hooker in Odia
ହୁକର୍
hooker in Nepali
हुकर, हूकर

Examples of hooker in a sentence

  • A text hooker allows English-speaking people to read Japanese visual novels.
  • I confess to have been with a few hookers (the rentals), the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am kind.
  • She thought you had to be a hooker to wear colors.

All 13 example sentences with hooker

Synonyms of hooker

All synonyms of hooker

Forms of hooker

pluralhookers

Plural of hooker: hookers

Origin of hooker

From hook (verb) + -er.

Unknown. The "prostitute" sense is the subject of a folk etymology connecting it to General Hooker of the American Civil War, but the earliest known use dates to 1835, decades before the war. Less implausibly, it has also been connected to a coastal feature called a hook (“A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end, such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey, Red Hook in New York”) in the ports of New York and Baltimore. Carefully learned inference is not conclusive. See this essay, pp 105ff.

From Dutch hoeker, an alteration of Middle Dutch hoecboot, from hoec + boot.

Words formed from hooker

Phrases with hooker

Words that rhyme with hooker

Questions about hooker

What does hooker mean?
Hooker means one who, or that which, hooks.
What is hooker in Hindi?
Hooker in Hindi is हुकर, हूकर. See Hooker meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is hooker?
Hooker can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hooker?
Hooker is pronounced /ˈhʊkə/ (UK).
What is the plural of hooker?
The plural of hooker is hookers.

Words near hooker in the dictionary

  1. hooked off
  2. hooked up
  3. hooked up on
  4. hooked-e
  5. hookedness
  6. hooker
  7. Hooker cell
  8. Hooker cells
  9. Hooker County
  10. Hooker's bog orchid
  11. Hooker's green

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hooker (page history and authors); Hooker (page history and authors); hooker (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hooker (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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

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