Word.ws English Dictionary

with a hook

with a hook prepositional phrase: appended to a statement to indicate that one does not believe it.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang) Appended to a statement to indicate that one does not believe it.
    • […] nor did the cruel sarcasm of "Oh, yes, with a hook!" — which some courtier would throw in — divert her at all from her humble purpose.1864, Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, John Leech, The Comic History of England (page 255)
    • Mr. Bartley thinks himself a capital speech-maker. — (Yes — with a hook.)1838, Actors by Daylight, volume 1, page 176

Questions about with a hook

What does with a hook mean?
With a hook means appended to a statement to indicate that one does not believe it.
What part of speech is with a hook?
With a hook is a prepositional phrase.

Words near with a hook in the dictionary

  1. with a bullet
  2. with a bump
  3. with a grain of salt
  4. with a high arm
  5. with a high hand
  6. with a hook
  7. with a quickness
  8. with a thumb up one's bum
  9. with a vengeance
  10. with a view to
  11. with a wet finger

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: with a 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.

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