Hook

subs. (thieves’).—1.  A finger. (Cf., CUNT-HOOKS). For synonyms, see FORK. In plural = the hands. Also, HOOKS and FEELERS.

  1818.  MAGINN, Vidocq’s Slang Song Versified. To his clies my HOOKS I throw in.

  1877.  W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iv. 259. I one day asked a man … if the hard work of prison did not spoil his hands for delicate manipulations. ‘Oh, bless you, no!’ he replied…. ‘In a week or two a man can bring his HOOKS and feelers into full working trim again and no mistake.’

  2.  (thieves’).—A thief. Specifically, a pickpocket; a HOOKER (q.v.). For synonyms, see THIEVES.

  1562.  Jack Juggler (DODSLEY, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 139). Dame Coy. Lo, yonder cometh that unhappy HOOK!

  1887.  J. W. HORSLEY, Jottings from Jail. Take my tip and turn square, from a HOOK who is going to be lagged, would be, in common parlance, take my advice and get your living honestly.

  1892.  T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Voces Populi (2nd Series). ‘In Trafalgar Square.’ A professional HOOK.

  3.  (common).—A catch; an advantage; an imposture.

  Verb (old).—1.  To rob; to steal. Specifically, to steal watches, rings, etc., from a shop by cutting a small hole in the window, and fishing for such articles with a piece of string with a hook at the end.

  1615.  T. TOMKIS, Albumazar, iii. 3 (DODSLEY, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xi., 359).

  d. 1796.  BURNS, The Jolly Beggars. For mony a pursie she had HOOKIT.

  1876.  S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, iii. 34. And while she [Aunt Polly] closed with a happy scriptural flourish, he [Tom] ‘HOOKED’ a doughnut.

  1884.  S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, xxx. Didn’t you have it in your mind to HOOK the money and hide it?

  2.  (colloquial).—To secure, as for marriage; to marry.

  1886.  J. S. WINTER, Army Society, ch. xviii. I wonder if Mrs. Traff has contrived to HOOK him for her sweet Laura.

  1892.  G. M. FENN, The New Mistress, ch. xxv. Have you I will—there now! Don’t you think you’re going to HOOK Lambent.

  Intj. (Oxford University).—An expression implying doubt. [Query from the note of interrogation (?) or connected with HOOKEY WALKER (q.v.).]

  ON THE HOOK, subs. phr. (common).—1.  On the thieve; ON THE CROSS (q.v.).

  2.  (old).—On the HIP (q.v.); at an advantage.

  1694.  CONGREVE, The Double Dealer, iv., 18. Consider I have you ON THE HOOK; you will but flounder yourself a-weary, and be nevertheless my prisoner.

  HOOK AND EYE, subs. phr. (tailors’).—Arm in arm.

  TO TAKE (or SLING) ONE’S HOOK (or TO HOOK IT), verb. phr. (common).—To decamp; to run away. For synonyms, see AMPUTATE and SKEDADDLE.

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, ii., 137. He slipped from her and HOOKED IT.

  1852.  DICKENS, Bleak House, ch. xlvi. ‘HOOK IT! Nobody wants you here,’ he ses. ‘YOU HOOK IT. You go and tramp,’ he ses.

  1856.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Tales of College Life, p. 36. HOOK IT! old ’un, HOOK IT!

  1861.  H. KINGSLEY, Ravenshoe, ch. xli. They all begins to get a bit noisy and want to fight, and so I HOOKED IT.

  1891.  Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 16 Jan., p. 43, col. 3. If you lot don’t HOOK IT, I’ll stave in your blooming cocoa-nuts.

  1891.  The Sportsman, 1 April, p. 2, col. 1. Plainly the worthy magistrate laid it down that a wife may HOOK IT when and how she pleases.

  1892.  T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Mr. Punch’s Model Music-Hall Songs & Dramas, 129–30. TAKE YOUR ’OOK while you can. Even now the outraged populace approaches.

  1892.  MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, p. 58. I went jest for a lark, and wos quietly SLINGING MY ’OOK.

  1892.  KIPLING, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘Loot.’ Before you SLING YOUR ’OOK, at the ’ousetops take a look.

  1892.  Globe, 19 Oct., p. 3. Again from some neighbouring roof comes back the weird responsive cry, HOOK IT! HOOK.

  1892.  HERBERT CAMPBELL, Broadside Ballad, ‘Then Up Comes I with My little Lot.’ And the houses shook and the copper TOOK HIS ’OOK, and down come all the tiles.

  TO DROP (GO, or POP) OFF THE HOOKS, verb. phr. (common).—1.  To die. For synonyms, see ALOFT.

  1837.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Black Mousquetaire.’

  1842.  Punch’s Almanack, Dec. 15.

  1872.  M. E. BRADDON, Dead-Sea Fruit, ch. iv. ‘S’pose the odds are against Jerningham GOING OFF THE HOOKS between this and the first spring-meeting, so as to give a party a chance with Mrs. J. herself,’ speculates young Belgravia, dreamily.

  1880.  GREENWOOD, A Veteran of Vauxhall in Odd People in Odd Places, p. 37. I thought, to be sure, I was GOING OFF THE HOOKS, and it was no use talking about it.

  1890.  GRANT ALLEN, The Tents of Shem, ch. xii. The old man has POPPED OFF THE HOOKS this afternoon at Aix.

  2.  (colloquial).—To get married.

  1876.  M. E. BRADDON, Joshua Haggard, ch. x. Some of the young chaps will be wanting her to get married. These here pretty ones GO OFF THE HOOKS so soon.

  TO HOOK ON TO, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attach oneself to; TO BUTTONHOLE (q.v.); to follow up.

  1892.  MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, p. 4. It’s nuts to ’OOK ON TO a swell.

  ON ONE’S OWN HOOK, adv. phr. (colloquial).—On one’s own account, risk, or responsibility; for one’s own sake; dependent on one’s own resources or exertions.

  1847.  ROBB, Streaks of Squatter Life, p. 23. The signal was given, and in poured the subscribers to the dinner, with their guest, and in poured John ON HIS OWN HOOK.

  1849.  THACKERAY, Pendennis, ch. lxix. Do we come out as Liberal Conservative, or as Government man, or ON OUR OWN HOOK?

  1861.  WHYTE-MELVILLE, Good for Nothing, ch. xxvii. I worked ON MY OWN HOOK, after that, and I rather think I paid my expenses.

  1869.  GREENWOOD, The Seven Curses of London, p. 409. To steal ON YOUR OWN HOOK as a bookmaker.

  1889.  Answers, p. 51, c. 3. Finally Edison went to work on HIS OWN HOOK.

  1893.  P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, ch. viii. We used to have to part company and go in twos and threes then ON OUR OWN HOOK.

  BY HOOK OR BY CROOK, phr. (colloquial).—By some means or other; by fair means or foul; at all hazards. [Probably of forestal origin.]

  1525.  Bodmin Register. Dynmure Wood was ever open and common to the … inhabitants of Bodmin … to bear away upon their backs a burden of lop, crop, HOOK, CROOK, and bag wood.

  d. 1529.  SKELTON, Collyn Cloute.

  1550.  T. BECON, The Fortress of the Faithful [Parker Society]. Whatsoever is pleasant or profitable must be theirs, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK.

  1557.  TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 30 March.

  1566.  M. PARKER, Correspondence (Parker Society), p. 252. To win him in time, BY HOOK OR CROOK.

  1596.  SPENSER, The Fairie Queene, v., 2, 27.

  1598.  FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Barócco, any shift made for good cheere, any thing gotten BY HOOKE OR CROOKE.

  1621.  BURTON, Anatomy of Melancholy, xi., 186 (1836). BY HOOK AND BY CROOK he will obtain it.

  1629.  FONSECA [Eng. by J. M.]. Devout Contemplations. Bee it BY HOOKE OR BY CROOKE, by right or wrong.

  1678.  BUTLER, Hudibras, iii., i. 109. Which he BY HOOK OR CROOK had gather’d.

  1681.  T. RYMER, Of the Antiquity, Power, and Decay of Parliaments (1714), p. 2. Their work was, BY HOOK AND CROOK, to rap and bring all under the Emperor’s Power.

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. By Hedge or By Style, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK.

  1725.  A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.

  1781.  COWPER, Letter to Newton, 12 July. And BY HOOK OR CROOK, write another book, If I live and am here, another year.

  1820.  REYNOLDS, (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy.

  1824.  F. HITCHINS and S. DREW, The History of Cornwall, ii., 214. The Prior’s Cross, on which is cut the figure of a hook and a crook, in memory of the privilege granted … to the poor … for gathering … such boughs and branches of oak trees … as they could reach or come at with a hook and a crook … whence … ‘They will have it BY HOOK OR BY CROOK.’

  1836.  M. SCOTT, The Cruise of the Midge, p. 363. We must be manned BY HOOK OR CROOK, you know, however unwilling to distress running ships.

  1868.  C. READE and BOUCICAULT, Foul Play, ch. viii. Several fellow-creatures have cheated me. Well, I must get as much back, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK, from several fellow-creatures.

  1883.  W. BLACK, Yolande, ch. xlix. I should get you a ticket BY HOOK OR BY CROOK, if I failed at the ballot; I heard that one was sold for £40 the last time.

  1888.  HAGGARD, Mr. Meeson’s Will [Illustrated London News, Summer Number, p. 5, c. 1]. Somehow or other, it would go hard if, with the help of the one hundred a year that he had of his own, he did not manage, with his education, to get a living BY HOOK OR BY CROOK.

  WITH A HOOK AT THE END, phr. (common).—A reservation of assent; OVER THE LEFT (q.v.); IN A HORN (q.v.). Cf., HOOK, intj.: and HOOKEY WALKER.

  1823.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. HOOKEY WALKER—and WITH A HOOK, usually accompanied by a significant upliftment of the hand and crooking of the forefinger, implying that what is said is a lie, or is to be taken contrary-wise.

  1843.  W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Scamps of London, i., 1. Bob. Will you have some gin? Fogg. Gin—Yes! Bob (turning away). Ha—ha!—WITH A HOOK … I wish you may get it.

  1870.  H. D. TRAILL, Saturday Songs, ‘On the Watch,’ p. 22.

  OFF THE HOOKS, phr. (old).—Out of temper; vexed; disturbed; out of sorts. Fr., sortir de ses gonds = off the HINGES (q.v.). For synonyms, see NAB THE RUST.

  1839–81.  Rump Songs. ‘Bum-Fodder,’ ii., 56.

  1665.  PEPYS, Diary, 26 May. 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; which vexed me to see.

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. HOOKS. OFF THE HOOKS, in an ill Mood, or out of Humour.

  1692.  SIR R. L’ESTRANGE, Life of Æsop. Easily put OFF THE HOOKS, and monstrous hard to be pleased again.

  1719.  D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, iii., 27.

  1725.  A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.

  1824.  SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxx. Every body that has meddled in this St. Ronan’s business is a little OFF THE HOOKS … in plain words, a little crazy.