Hook

(27), n. [A-S. hŏc, allied to hūcce, hook, crook; Icel. haki, Sw. hake, Dan. hage, D. haak, L. Ger. hake, O. H. Ger. haco, hacco, haggo, M. H. Ger. hake, hacke, hagge, N. H. Ger. hake, haken; W. hwg, Norm. Fr. hoke.]

1. A piece of metal, or other hard material, formed or bent into a curve for catching, holding, and sustaining any thing; as, a hook for catching fish; a tenter-hook; a chimney-hook; a pot-hook, &c.
2. That which catches; a snare; a trap. Shak.
3. That part of a hinge which is fixed or inserted in a post, and consists of a bolt with a vertical pin at its head, on which the door or gate hangs, and about which it turns.
4. [W. hoc, a scythe.] A curved instrument for cutting grass or grain; a sickle; an instrument for cutting or lopping.

Like slashing Bentley with his desperate hook. Pope.

5. (Naut.) A forked timber in a ship, placed on the keel.
6. (Steam-eng.) An eccentric-hook. See ECCENTRIC and V-HOOK.
7. A catch; an advantage. [Low.]
8. (Agric.) A field sown two years in succession. [Prov. Eng.] Ainsworth.
9. (pl.) The projecting points of the thigh bones of cattle;—called also hook-bones.

By hook or by crook, one way or other; by any means, direct or indirect. Milton.—Off the hooks, unhinged, disturbed or disordered. (See No. 3.) “In the evening, by water, to the Duke of Albemarle, whom I found mightily off the hooks that the ships are not gone out of the river.” Pepys.—On one's own hook, on one's own account or responsibility; by one's self. [U. S.] Bartlett.

v. t. [imp. & p. p. HOOKED (hōokt); p. pr. & vb. n. HOOKING.]

1. To catch or fasten with a hook; to seize or draw as with a hook; as, to hook a trout; to be hooked by an ox.
2. To draw or obtain by artifice; to entrap; to insnare. “Her I can hook to me.” Shak. “Hooked in by tedious consequences.” Norris.
3. To steal or rob. [Colloq. Eng. and U. S.]

To hook on. (a.) To apply a hook to; to fasten or attach by means of a hook. (b.) (Steam-eng.) To connect the valve-gear with the engine, so as to make the motion of the valves automatic.