Wiktionary

hooker

See also: Hooker

English edit

 
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Pronunciation edit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈhʊk.ə(ɹ)/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈhʊk.ɚ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʊkə(ɹ)

Etymology 1 edit

From hook (verb) +‎ -er.

Noun edit

hooker (plural hookers)

  1. One who, or that which, hooks.
  2. A small fishing boat.
    Synonyms: Galway, Galway hooker
    • 1884, James Douglas Jerrold Kelley, American Yachts: Their Clubs and Races, page 161:
      In England there are Brighton Beach boats, Centre-board sloops, Pollywogs, Lough Erne yachts, Unas, New Brighton sailing-boats, yachts of the Norfolk Broads, Itchen, Clyde sailing and Keystone boats, Penzance luggers, Cobbles, Galways, Hookers and Pookhauns […]
  3. (nautical, slang, derogatory) Any antiquated craft.
  4. (rugby) A player who hooks the ball out of the scrum with his foot.
    • 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport‎[2]:
      Hooker Dylan Hartley was sent to the sin-bin after yet another infringement at the breakdown and, on the stroke of half-time, Georgia's territorial advantage finally told when number eight Basilaia surged over from the base of the scrum for a try next to the posts.
  5. (cricket) A batsman or batswoman adept at or fond of playing hook shots.
    • 1990, Ashes: Battles and Bellylaughs, Byron Bay: Swan Publishing, page 32:
      I once saw Hassett drop England opening batsman and compulsive hooker, Cyril Washbrook, twice in succession at deep fine leg.
  6. A crocheter.
  7. (informal, dated) Synonym of hook (“attention-grabbing element of a creative work”)
    • 1966, Charles Anthony Wainwright, The Television Copywriter, page 39:
      We regard the first seven seconds of a television commercial as the most critical or crucial in the whole unit — the "Do or Die Seven" — the "moment of decision" or the "hooker", if you will, when we must capture the attention of the viewer, get him involved in the action, […]
  8. (archaic, thieves' cant) A thief who uses a pole with a hook on the end to steal goods.
    • c. 1608–1610, Samuel Rid, Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell:
      They are sure to be clyd in the night by the angler, or hooker, or such like pilferers that liue upon the spoyle of other poore people.
    • 1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood‎[3], volume 2, Oath of the Canting Crew, page 339:
      Suffer none, from far or near, / With their rights to interfere; / No strange Abram, Ruffler crack— / Hooker of another pack—
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Etymology 2 edit

Unknown; The "prostitute" sense is the subject of a folk etymology connecting it to US Civil War general General Hooker, but the earliest known use dates to 1835, decades before the war. Less implausibly, it has also been connected to coastal features called hook (“A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end, such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey, Red Hook in New York”) in the ports of New York and Baltimore. Careful learned inference is not conclusive. See this essay, pp 105ff.

Noun edit

hooker (plural hookers)

  1. (US, slang) A prostitute. [from 1845]
  2. (slang, dated, 1920s to 1940s) An imprecise measure of alcoholic drink; a "slug" (of gin), or an overlarge gulp.
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prostitute — see whore

Etymology 3 edit

Noun edit

hooker (plural hookers)

  1. Alternative spelling of hookah

References edit

Anagrams edit

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