Word.ws English Dictionary

on the hook

on the hook prepositional phrase: of an animal, slaughtered for food.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (literally) Of an animal, slaughtered for food.
    Antonyms:
    on the hoof
  2. (idiomatic, informal) In debt; obligated to pay or provide; liable; responsible or blamed.
    • on 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:
    off the hook

Examples of on the hook in a sentence

  • Wedell, who is a vice president at the Robinson-Humphrey Company, a subsidiary of Shearson Lehman, is still on the hook for unsettled claims.1991 October 27, Barbara Presley Noble, “Making a Difference: Lloyd's 'Indentured Servant'”, in New York Times, retrieved 15 Jun 2011:
  • Yes, incumbents of both parties—especially those incumbents facing tough re-election campaigns—don't want to be on the hook for this vote.2008 September 29, “Washington to Wall Street: Drop Dead”, in Newsweek, retrieved 15 Jun 2011:
  • Could taxpayers really be on the hook for UAW pensions?2010 April 15, Joseph R. Szczesny, “GM's Pension: A Ticking Time Bomb for Taxpayers?”, in Time:
  • And because the studio was on the hook for this picture, for what they’d spent they were looking for every marketing opportunity that they could get.2017 May 18, Mickey Rapkin, “The Oral History of Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’: Controversies, Doubts & ‘Belly Pains’ In the Studio”...

Antonyms of on the hook

Questions about on the hook

What does on the hook mean?
On the hook means of an animal, slaughtered for food.
How do you use on the hook in a sentence?
Wedell, who is a vice president at the Robinson-Humphrey Company, a subsidiary of Shearson Lehman, is still on the hook for unsettled claims.
What part of speech is on the hook?
On the hook is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the hook in the dictionary

  1. on the high rope
  2. on the high ropes
  3. on the hog
  4. on the hog train
  5. on the hoof
  6. on the hook
  7. on the hop
  8. on the horizon
  9. on the horn
  10. on the horns of a dilemma
  11. on the hour

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the 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-au-on the hook.ogg.

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