Word.ws English Dictionary

off the hook

off the hook adjective: relieved of a duty, burden, responsibility, or pressure.

Adjective (1)

off the hook (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Relieved of a duty, burden, responsibility, or pressure.
    • off the hook for
    • Well, you're off the hook for next Tuesday's meeting, but you're still on the hook for this Friday's deadline.
    Antonyms:
    on the hook

Adjective (2)

off the hook (not comparable)

  1. Of a telephone, having an open connection; not hung up.
    • I think he left the phone off the hook so that nobody would call him.
  2. Of a telephone, ringing frequently.
    • The phone was ringing off the hook all night.

Adjective (3)

off the hook (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) Performing extraordinarily well.
    • That's five three-pointers in a row! Smith is off the hook!
  2. (idiomatic, informal, slang) Fresh, cool, trendy, excellent, incredible.
    • That party was off the hook!

off the hook meaning in Bengali and Malayalam

off the hook in Bengali

কর্তব্য, বোঝা, দায়িত্ব, চাপ থেকে মুক্তি পাওয়া, টেলিফোনের ক্ষেত্রে, সংযোগ খোলা থাকা

off the hook in Malayalam

in the clear, out of trouble, free
ഊരിപ്പോയ, തടിയൂരിയ, കുഴപ്പത്തിൽ നിന്നുരക്ഷപ്പെട്ട, പ്രയാസത്തിലല്ലാതായ, കുറ്റവിമുക്തം, സ്വതന്ത്രനായ

Examples of off the hook in a sentence

  • When the boss assigned the project to Tom, the rest of us were relieved to be off the hook.
  • Without any evidence, the police had to let the suspect off the hook.

Antonyms of off the hook

Origin of off the hook

An allusion to a fish caught on the hook of a fishing line.

Referring to the candlestick phone, which in order to hang up, the receiver must be hung on a hook. Leaving the receiver off the hook would prevent it from being able to receive calls.

Unknown.

Words formed from off the hook

Questions about off the hook

What does off the hook mean?
Off the hook means relieved of a duty, burden, responsibility, or pressure.
What is off the hook in Bengali?
Off the hook in Bengali is কর্তব্য, বোঝা, দায়িত্ব. See Off the hook meaning in Bengali.
How do you use off the hook in a sentence?
When the boss assigned the project to Tom, the rest of us were relieved to be off the hook.
What part of speech is off the hook?
Off the hook is an adjective.

Words near off the hook in the dictionary

  1. off the heezies
  2. off the heezy
  3. off the hinges
  4. off the hizzle
  5. off the hizzy
  6. off the hook
  7. off the hooks
  8. off the horn
  9. off the lay
  10. off the mark
  11. off the market

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: off the hook (page history and authors); off the hook (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); off the hook (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-off the hook.ogg.

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