Meaning
1. A piece of iron or other metal bent into a curve for catching, holding and sustaining any thing; as a hook for catching fish; a teeter-hook; a chimney-hook; a pot-hook, _c.
2. A snare; a trap.
3. A curving instrument for cutting grass or grain; a sickle; an instrument for cutting or lopping.
4. That part of a hinge which is fixed or inserted in a post. Whence the phrase, to be off the hooks, to be unhinged, to be disturbed or disordered.
5. A forked timber in a ship, placed on the keel.
6. A catch; an advantage. [Vulgar.]
7. In husbandry, a field sown two years running. [Local.]
by hook and by crook, one way or other; by any means, direct or indirect.
HOOK, v.t. To catch with a hook; as, to hook a fish.
1. To seize and draw, as with a hook.
2. To fasten with a hook.
3. To entrap; to ensnare.
4. To draw by force or artifice.
To hook on, to apply a hook.
HOOK, v.i. To bend; to be curving.
