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. Albumazar, iii., 3. Is not this braver than sneak all night
in danger, Picking of locks, or hooking cloths at windows.
b. 1796. Burns, Jolly Beggars. For mony a pursie she had hookit.
1876. Clemens [Mark Twain], Tom Sawyer, p. 34. And while Aunt Polly
closed with a happy Scriptural flourish, Tom hooked a doughnut.
1884. M. Twain, Huck. Finn, xxx., 312. Didn’t you have it in your
mind to hook the money and hide it?