hook
/hʊk/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.37 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.
noun
Any of various hook-shaped agricultural implements such as a billhook.
noun
A tie-in to a current event or trend that makes a news story or editorial relevant and timely.
Example Sentences
- ""If I were a pirate and lost my hand, I would ask them to replace it with a computer mouse rather than a hook. I use a computer mouse all day, and I only use a hook three to five times a day."¶ -Emma Stone¶ On hooks"
- "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: [...]"
- "A shop of all the qualities, that man Loues woman for, besides that hooke of Wiuing,"
- "“What makes you so sure that nobody knows you've got a hook into him?” Ward asked."
- "He is not handling this job, so we're giving him the hook."
- "Much of the Two in Twenty humor is insider stuff; this soap is clearly made for lesbians who have been around the city block, with a few road trips to Michigan. Gay men may love it as well, and others with a hook into contemporary urban dyke life."
Etymology
From Middle English hoke, from Old English hōc (“angle, point, hook”), from Proto-West Germanic *hōk, from Proto-Germanic *hōkaz, variant of *hakô (“hook”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kog-, *keg-, *keng- (“peg, hook, claw”). Cognates Cognate with Scots huke, huik (“hook”), West Frisian and Dutch hoek (“hook, angle, corner”), Low German Hook, Huuk, German Hook (“small cluster of farms”), Faroese høkja (“crutch”), Icelandic hækja (“crutch”), Norn hek (“crutch”), Finnish kuokka (“hoe, mattock”). Related to hake.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /hʊk/
- British English: /hʊk/