• enPR: ho͝ok, IPA: /hʊk/
• (sometimes in Northern England, otherwise obsolete) enPR: ho͞ok IPA: /huːk/

hook (plural hooks)

1. A rod bend#Verb|bent into a curved#Adjective|curved shape#Noun|shape, typically with one end#Noun|end free#Adjective|free and the other end secure#Verb|secured to a rope#Noun|rope or other attachment.
2. A barbed#Adjective|barbed metal hook used for fishing#Noun|fishing; a fishhook.
3. Any of various hook-shaped agricultural implement#Noun|implements such as a billhook.
   • 1733-1738, Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace:

     like slashing Bentley with his desperate hook

   • 1819 September 19​, John Keats, “To Autumn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: Printed [by Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, OCLC 927360557 ↗, stanza 2, page 138 ↗:

     Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, / Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook / Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers: [...]

4. The curved needle#Noun|needle used in the art of crochet.
5. The part of a hinge#Noun|hinge which is fix#Verb|fixed to a post#Noun|post, and on which a door or gate hang#Verb|hangs and turn#Verb|turns.
6. A loop#Noun|loop shaped like a hook under certain written#Adjective|written letter#Noun|letters, for example, g and j.
7. A tie-in to a current#Adjective|current event or trend#Noun|trend that makes a news story or editorial relevant and timely.
8. A snare#Noun|snare; a trap#Noun|trap.
9. (in the plural) The projecting points of the thighbones of cattle; called also hook bones.
10. (informal) removal or expulsion from a group or activity

    He is not handling this job, so we're giving him the hook.

11. (agriculture) A field sown two years in succession.
12. (authorship) A brief, punchy opening statement intended to get attention from an audience, reader, or viewer, and make them want to continue to listen to a speech, read a book, or watch a play.
13. (authorship) A gimmick or element of a creative work intended to be attention-grabbing for the audience; a compelling idea for a story that will be sure to attract people's attention.
14. (bridge, slang) A finesse#Noun|finesse.
15. (card games, slang) A jack#Noun|jack (the playing card).
16. (geography) A spit#Noun|spit or narrow cape of sand#Noun|sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end, such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey.
17. (music) A catchy musical phrase which forms the basis of a popular song.

    The song's hook snared me.

18. (nautical, informal) A ship's anchor.
19. (programming) Part of a system's operation that can be intercepted to change#Verb|change or augment its behaviour.

    We've added hooks to allow undefined message types to be handled with custom code.

20. (Scrabble) An instance of playing a word perpendicular to a word already on the board, adding a letter to the start or the end of the word to form a new word.
21. (typography) a diacritical mark shaped like the upper part of a question mark, as in ỏ.
22. (typography, rare) a háček.
    • 2003, Language Issues XV–XVIII, page 36 ↗

      Common diacritics in Slavonic language are the hook ˇ (as in haček – Czech for ‘hook’) and the stroke ´ (robić – Polish for ‘do/make’).

    • 2003, David Adams, The Song and Duet Texts of Antonín Dvořák, page 168 ↗

      In Czech, palatalization is normally indicated by the symbol ˇ, called haček or “hook.”

    • 2004, Keesing’s Record of World Events L:i–xii, page unknown ↗

      In detailing the proposed shortening of the Czech Republic to Česko…the hook (hacek) erroneously appeared over the letter “e” instead of the “C”.

23. Senses relating to sports.
    1. (baseball) A curveball.

       He threw a hook in the dirt.

    2. (basketball) a basketball shot in which the offensive player, usually turned perpendicular to the basket, gently throws the ball with a sweeping motion of his arm in an upward arc with a follow-through which ends over his head. Also called hook shot.
    3. (bowling) A ball that is rolled in a curved line.
    4. (boxing) a type of punch delivered with the arm rigid and partially bent and the fist travelling nearly horizontally mesially along an arc

       The heavyweight delivered a few powerful hooks that staggered his opponent.

    5. (cricket) A type of shot#Noun|shot played by swing#Verb|swinging the bat#Noun|bat in a horizontal arc, hitting the ball high in the air to the leg#Noun|leg side, often play#Verb|played to balls which bounce#Verb|bounce around head#Noun|head height.
    6. (golf) A golf shot that (for the right-handed player) curves unintentionally to the left. (See draw, slice, fade.)

• French: crochet, agrafe
• German: Haken
• Italian: gancio, gancetto, uncino
• Portuguese: gancho
• Russian: крюк
• Spanish: gancho, garfio

• Portuguese: volta
• Russian: крючо́к

• Italian: ritornello, parte orecchiabile
• Portuguese: gancho (musical)
• Russian: хук
• Spanish: gancho (musical)

• French: hook (anglicism)
• Russian: хук

• Russian: хук

• French: crochet
• German: Haken
• Italian: gancio
• Portuguese: gancho
• Russian: хук
• Spanish: gancho

hook (hooks, present participle hooking; past and past participle hooked)

1. (transitive) To attach a hook to.

   Hook the bag here, and the conveyor will carry it away.

2. (transitive) To catch with a hook (hook a fish).

   He hooked a snake accidentally, and was so scared he dropped his rod into the water.

3. (transitive) To work yarn into a fabric using a hook; to crochet.
4. (transitive) To insert in a curved way reminiscent of a hook.

   He hooked his fingers through his belt loops.

5. (transitive) To ensnare or obligate someone, as if with a hook.

   She's only here to try to hook a husband.

   A free trial is a good way to hook customers.

6. (UK, US, slang, archaic) To steal.
7. (transitive) To connect (hook into, hook together).

   If you hook your network cable into the jack, you'll be on the network.

8. (usually, in passive) To make addicted; to captivate.

   He had gotten hooked on cigarettes in his youth.

   I watched one episode of that TV series and now I'm hooked.

9. (cricket, golf) To play a hook shot.
10. (rugby) To succeed in heeling the ball back out of a scrum (used particularly of the team's designated hooker).
11. (field hockey, ice hockey) To engage in the illegal maneuver of hooking (i.e., using the hockey stick to trip or block another player)

    The opposing team's forward hooked me, but the referee didn't see it, so no penalty.

12. (soccer) To swerve a ball; kick a ball so it swerves or bends.
13. (intransitive, slang) To engage in prostitution.

    I had a cheap flat in the bad part of town, and I could watch the working girls hooking from my bedroom window.

14. (Scrabble) To play a word perpendicular to another word by adding a single letter to the existing word.
15. (bridge, slang) To finesse.
16. (transitive) To seize or pierce with the points of the horns, as cattle in attacking enemies; to gore.
17. (intransitive) To move or go with a sudden turn.

• French: accrocher
• German: haken
• Italian: agganciare
• Portuguese: enganchar
• Spanish: enganchar

• French: ferrer “to iron a fish”
• German: haken
• Portuguese: fisgar
• Spanish: enganchar

• Italian: agganciare, attirare

• German: einhaken
• Italian: connettersi, inserire, agganciare
• Russian: соединя́ть

• Russian: подса́живать
• Spanish: enganchar

• German: haken

• Italian: adescare

1. Surname
2. A suburb in Kingston upon Thames, Greater London.
3. A town near Basingstoke.
4. A village in Fareham, Hampshire.
5. A village near Goole.
6. A village near Wootton Bassett.
7. A village in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
8. A rural locality in South Canterbury, Canterbury, on the Hook River.