HOOK OR BY CROOK, by fair means or foul—in allusion to the hook which
footpads used to carry to steal from open windows, &c., and from which
HOOK, to take or steal, has been derived. Mentioned in _Hudibras_ as a
cant term.
HOOK IT, “get out of the way,” or “be off about your business;” “TO
HOOK IT,” to run away, to decamp; “on one’s own HOOK,” dependant upon
one’s own exertions.—_See the preceding for derivation._
HOOKS, “dropped off the HOOKS,” said of a deceased person—derived from
the ancient practice of suspending on hooks the quarters of a traitor
or felon sentenced by the old law to be hung, drawn, and quartered, and
which dropped off the hooks as they decayed.
HOOKEY WALKER! ejaculation of incredulity, usually shortened to
WALKER!—which see. A correspondent thinks HOOKEY WALKER may have been a
certain _Hugh K. Walker_.
HOOK-UM SNIVEY (formerly “hook _and_ snivey”), a low expression meaning
to cheat by feigning sickness or other means. Also a piece of thick
iron wire crooked at one end, and fastened into a wooden handle, for
the purpose of undoing from the outside the wooden bolt of a door.