Hook

Hook, hook, n. a piece of metal bent into a curve, so as to catch or hold anything: a snare: an advantageous hold: a curved instrument for cutting grain: a spit of land projecting into the sea, ending in a hook-shaped form.—v.t. to catch or hold with a hook: to draw as with a hook: to ensnare: (golf) to drive a ball widely to the left—also Draw.—v.i. to bend: to be curved.—adj. Hooked.—ns. Hook′edness, the state of being bent like a hook; Hook′er, he who, or that which, hooks.—adj. Hook′-nosed, having a hooked or curved nose.—n. Hook′-pin, an iron pin with hooked head used for pinning the frame of a floor or roof together.—adj. Hook′y, full of, or pertaining to, hooks.—Hook and eye, a contrivance for fastening dresses by means of a hook made to fasten on a ring or eye on another part of the dress; Hook it (slang), to decamp, make off.—By hook or by crook, one way or the other; Off the hooks, out of gear: superseded: dead; On one's own hook, on one's own responsibility. [A.S. hóc; Dut. haak, Ger. haken.]