1694. Congreve, 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. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. 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. 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 Vict. Gaz., 16 Jan., p. 43, col. 3. If you lot don’t
hook it, I’ll stave in your blooming cocoa-nuts.
1891. Sportsman, 2 Apr., p. 2, col. 1. Plainly the worthy
magistrate laid it down that a wife may hook it when and how she
pleases.
1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall, 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 it.
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. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Black Mousquetaire.’ I fear by
his looks, Our friend, Francis Xavier, has popp’d off the hooks!
1842. Punch’s Almanack, Dec. 15. Death wandered by the sea And
struck by Walton’s looks Broke Isaac’s line of life And took him
off the hooks.
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, 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, Tents of Shem, ch. xii. The old man has popped
off the hooks this afternoon at Aix.