hook

by hook or by crook by one means or another; by fair means or foul.

☞ The hook referred to here is probably a billhook or heavy curved pruning knife; the crook is a hooked staff. One of the earliest recorded instances of the phrase is in Gower's Confessio Amantis (1390), which uses the rare word hepe (meaning 'a pruning knife') in place of hook. In 1822 William Cobbett wrote of people who lived near woodland being allowed, under the ancient forest law of England, to gather dead branches for fuel, which they may have brought down from the trees literally by hook or by crook.

1998Adèle GerasSilent Snow, Secret Snow Till then, she would hang on. By hook or by crook. Come what may.

get (or give someone) the hook be dismissed from a job (or dismiss someone from a job). North American informal

get your hooks into get hold of or gain control of. informal

2001Bright Lights Film Journal Horton, meanwhile, is in his own tizzy, terrified that gold-digging dames will get their hooks into Fred.

hook it run away. British informal, dated

hook, line, and sinker used to emphasize that someone has been completely tricked or deceived. informal

☞ This phrase is a fishing metaphor: all three are items attached to a fishing rod and likely to be gulped down by a greedy fish. The phrase has been in use since the mid 19th century.

2013Better Farming-Ontario Community of Professional Farmers The liberals bought hook line and sinker McFlinty's dream of being able to have a legacy to be remembered. Well the truth is he will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

off the hook

1 no longer in trouble or difficulty. informal

2 (of a telephone receiver) not on its rest, and so not receiving incoming calls.

☞ Hook in sense 1 is a long-standing (mid 15th-century) figurative use of the word to mean 'something by which a person is caught and trapped', as a fish hook catches a fish. Sense 2 is a fossilized expression from the late 19th century, the early years of telephony, when the receiver literally hung on a hook.

on the hook for (in a financial context) responsible for. North American informal

2001High Country News Taxpayers are currently on the hook for anywhere from $32 billion to $72 billion in abandoned mine cleanup costs.

off the hooks dead. British informal

sling your hook leave; go away. British informal

☞ Sling your hook appears in a slang dictionary of 1874, where it is defined as 'a polite invitation to move on'. The underlying allusion may be to the raising of a ship's anchor and stowing it in a sling before setting sail.

2012Scribblings Jottings So it seems that when the city of Liverpool told Warren to sling his hook and not come back he mistook a city's jeers for cheers.