hook

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A curved or sharply bent device, usually of metal, used to catch, drag, suspend, or fasten something else.
2. n. A fishhook.
3. n. Something shaped like a hook, especially:
4. n. A curved or barbed plant or animal part.
5. n. A short angled or curved line on a letter.
6. n. A sickle.
7. n. A sharp bend or curve, as in a river.
8. n. A point or spit of land with a sharply curved end.
9. n. A means of catching or ensnaring; a trap.
10. n. Slang A means of attracting interest or attention; an enticement: a sales hook.
11. n. Music Slang A catchy motif or refrain: "sugary hard rock melodies [and] ear candy hooks” ( Boston Globe).
12. n. Sports A short swinging blow in boxing delivered with a crooked arm.
13. n. Sports The course of a ball that curves in a direction away from the dominant hand of the player propelling it, as to the left of a right-handed player.
14. n. Sports A stroke that sends a ball on such a course.
15. n. Sports A ball propelled on such a course.
16. n. Sports In surfing, the lip of a breaking wave.
17. n. Baseball A curve ball.
18. n. Basketball A hook shot.
19. v. To catch, suspend, or connect with a hook.
20. v. Informal To snare.
21. v. Slang To steal; snatch. See Synonyms at steal.
22. v. To fasten by or as if by a hook.
23. v. To pierce or gore with or as if with a hook.
24. v. Slang To take strong hold of; captivate: a novel that hooked me on the very first page.
25. v. Slang To cause to become addicted.
26. v. To make (a rug) by looping yarn through canvas with a type of hook.
27. v. Sports To hit with a hook in boxing.
28. v. Sports To hit (a golf ball) in a hook.
29. v. Baseball To pitch (a ball) with a curve.
30. v. Basketball To shoot (a ball) in a hook shot.
31. v. Sports To impede the progress of (an opponent in ice hockey) by holding or restraining the player with one's stick, in violation of the rules.
32. v. To bend like a hook.
33. v. To fasten by means of a hook or a hook and eye.
34. v. Slang To work as a prostitute.
35. hook up To assemble or wire (a mechanism).
36. hook up To connect a mechanism and a source of power.
37. hook up To meet or associate: We agreed to hook up after class. He hooked up with the wrong crowd.
38. hook up To become romantically or sexually involved with someone.
39. hook up To marry or get married.
40. idiom. by hook or by crook By whatever means possible, fair or unfair.
41. idiom. get the hook Slang To be unceremoniously dismissed or terminated.
42. idiom. hook, line, and sinker Informal Without reservation; completely: swallowed the excuse hook, line, and sinker.
43. idiom. off the hook Informal Freed, as from blame or a vexatious obligation: let me off the hook with a mild reprimand.
44. idiom. on (one's) own hook By one's own efforts.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A curved or angular piece of metal or other firm substance, either separate or forming part of another object, adapted to catch, hold, pull down, or sustain something: as, a fish-hook; the hook of a gate-hinge; a pothook; a crochet-hook; a cotton-hook; a car-hook; the hooks of the teasel.
2. n. A curved instrument for cutting grass or grain; a sickle, especially one with a broad blade and a smooth edge; an instrument for cutting or lopping.
3. n. A projecting point or spit of land on the sea- or lake-coast, which ends with a recurved or hook-shaped form: as, Sandy Hook, near New York.
4. n. In musical notation, a pennant attached to the stem of eighth-notes, sixteenth-notes, etc.: as, Also called flag.
5. n. One of the projecting points of the thigh-bones of cattle. Also called hook-bone.
6. n. In ship-building, same as breast-hook.
7. n. That which catches; a snare; a trap.
8. n. A catch; an advantage.
9. n. In agriculture, a field sown two years in succession.
10. n. Disordered; disturbed; sick.
11. n. Out of existence; dead.
12. To fasten with a hook or hooks; catch or seize with or as if with a hook: as, to hook a trout.
13. To attack with the horns; catch on the horns: as, to be hooked by a cow.
14. To catch by artifice; entrap; insnare.
15. To steal by grasping; catch up and make off with.
16. To attach by means of a hook, literally or figuratively.
17. To bend; be in or take the form of hook.
18. To become attached by means of a hook, or something resembling a hook: as, a chain that hooks on to the watch.
19. To have a habit of attacking with the horns: said of a cow or other horned animal.
20. To turn away; depart; decamp: now (transitively) with an indefinite it, as a slang phrase.
21. [That is, ‘All the heap (fleet) together hooked out of haven, had the wind at their back.’]
22. n. In golf: The angle of the face of a club when it lies in to the ball.
23. n. A ball played with a distinct curve to the left.
24. n. In cricket, the hook-stroke (which see).
25. n. A curved or angled line added to a written or printed letter, or forming apart of it, or, as in phonography, used as a distinct symbol.
26. n. In well-boring, a fishing-tool in the form of horizontally curved hook which engages the shoulder of rods or tools that may have become unscrewed.
27. In golf, to play (a ball) so that it curves more or less to the left.
28. In cricket, to hit (the ball) to the ‘on’ side with a horizontal bat, after stepping back: said of the batsman.

Wiktionary

1. n. A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.
2. n. A fishhook, a barbed metal hook used for fishing.
3. n. Any of various hook-shaped agricultural implements such as a billhook
4. n. A loop shaped like a hook under certain written letters, e.g. g and j.
5. n. A catchy musical phrase which forms the basis of a popular song.
6. n. A brief, punchy opening statement intended to draw the reader or viewer into a book or play.
7. n. informal Removal or expulsion from a group or activity.
8. n. cricket A type of shot played by swinging the bat in a horizontal arc, hitting the ball high in the air to the leg side, often played to balls which bounce around head height.
9. n. baseball A curveball.
10. n. software A feature, definition, or coding that enables future enhancements to happen compatibly or more easily.
11. n. golf A golf shot that (for the right-handed player) curves unintentionally to the left. See draw, slice, fade
12. n. 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.
13. n. boxing A type of punch delivered with the arm rigid and partially bent and the fist travelling nearly horizontally mesially along an arc.
14. n. slang A jack (the playing card)
15. n. typography, rare A háček.
16. n. 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.
17. n. bowling A ball that is rolled in a curved line.
18. n. bridge, slang A finesse.
19. v. transitive To attach a hook to.
20. v. transitive To catch with a hook (hook a fish).
21. v. transitive To ensnare someone, as if with a hook.
22. v. transitive To connect (hook into, hook together).
23. v. To make addicted; to captivate.
24. v. cricket, golf To play a hook shot.
25. v. field hockey, ice hockey To engage in the illegal maneuver of hooking (i.e., using the hockey stick to trip or block another player)
26. v. soccer To swerve a ball; kick a ball so it swerves or bends.
27. v. intransitive, slang To engage in prostitution.
28. v. Scrabble To play a word perpendicular to another word by adding a single letter to the existing word.
29. v. bridge, slang To finesse.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A piece of metal, or other hard material, formed or bent into a curve or at an angle, for catching, holding, or sustaining anything
2. n. That part of a hinge which is fixed to a post, and on which a door or gate hangs and turns.
3. n. An implement for cutting grass or grain; a sickle; an instrument for cutting or lopping; a billhook.
4. n. (Steam Engin.) See Eccentric, and V-hook.
5. n. rare A snare; a trap.
6. n. Prov. Eng. A field sown two years in succession.
7. n. The projecting points of the thigh bones of cattle; -- called also hook bones.
8. n. (Geog.) A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end.
9. n. (Sports) The curving motion of a ball, as in bowling or baseball, curving away from the hand which threw the ball; in golf, a curving motion in the direction of the golfer who struck the ball.
10. n. (Computers) A procedure within the encoding of a computer program which allows the user to modify the program so as to import data from or export data to other programs.
11. v. To catch or fasten with a hook or hooks; to seize, capture, or hold, as with a hook, esp. with a disguised or baited hook; hence, to secure by allurement or artifice; to entrap; to catch
12. v. To seize or pierce with the points of the horns, as cattle in attacking enemies; to gore.
13. v. Colloq. Eng. & U.S. To steal.
14. v. To bend; to curve as a hook.
15. v. Slang or Prov. Eng., Slang or Prov. Eng. To move or go with a sudden turn to make off; to clear out; -- often with it.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a basketball shot made over the head with the hand that is farther from the basket
2. n. a catch for locking a door
3. v. rip off; ask an unreasonable price
4. v. approach with an offer of sexual favors
5. n. a short swinging punch delivered from the side with the elbow bent
6. v. catch with a hook
7. v. take by theft
8. v. entice and trap
9. v. fasten with a hook
10. n. a golf shot that curves to the left for a right-handed golfer
11. n. a mechanical device that is curved or bent to suspend or hold or pull something
12. v. make off with belongings of others
13. v. hit with a hook
14. v. to cause (someone or oneself) to become dependent (on something, especially a narcotic drug)
15. v. hit a ball and put a spin on it so that it travels to the left
16. v. secure with the foot
17. n. anything that serves as an enticement
18. v. make a piece of needlework by interlocking and looping thread with a hooked needle
19. n. a curved or bent implement for suspending or pulling something
20. n. a sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook