hooky
/ˈhʊki/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.24 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Shaped like or resembling a hook; hooked.
Example Sentences
- "Let's play hooky and go to the mall."
- "I was already two years late getting to college. I was twenty, not eighteen like most people who were about to graduate. All that hooky playing, stealing, and getting sent to juvenile jails had set me way back."
- "Sew the hooky half of the Velcro on the inner side so that it doesn't pick up fluff."
- "At least the mostly instrumental kickoff “Long Tailed Winter Bird” offers a hooky acoustic guitar riff you can’t blame McCartney for hanging on to as long as he does."
- "Start a thing in the street and attract attention to bags full of hooky gear? No. She was smarter than that."
- "So I decided to put on my seediest voice and leer, and go round offering the traders the Cole line in cheap hooky goods."
Etymology
First attested in 1848 in New York City. Most likely from Dutch hoekje (“nook, corner; 'spot to hide' in hide-and-seek”). Formerly, "hoekje spelen" could be used to mean "to play hide-and-seek", though the common term for the game nowadays is verstoppertje. By surface analysis, hook + -y.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hoekje
Usage
- Uncountable
- British usage
- Slang