hooker

See also: Hooker

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhʊk.ə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhʊk.ɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊkə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From hook (verb) +‎ -er.

Noun

hooker (plural hookers)

1. One who, or that which, hooks.
2. A small fishing boat.
3. (nautical, slang, derogatory) Any antiquated craft.
   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands, Part III, Chapter Two,^[1]

     […] the poor Flash is gone, and there is an end of it. Poor old hooker. Hey, Almayer? You made a voyage or two with me. Wasn’t she a sweet craft?

   • 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker‎^[2], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2009:

     … for there was scarce one of us that thought the old hooker would weather so long and hard a blow. We were mighty fortunate to come through it so handily.

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^[3]:

     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, Rid, Samuel, 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, Ainsworth, William Harrison, Rookwood‎^[4], 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—

Synonyms

• (thief): angler, nuthook

Related terms

• Hooker

Translations

rugby player

• Afrikaans: hakker
• Bulgarian: захващач m (zahvaštač)
• Catalan: talonador (ca) m
• Czech: mlynář (cs) m
• French: talonneur (fr) m, talonneuse (fr) f
• German: Hakler (de) m
• Irish: caiteoir m

• Italian: tallonatore m
• Maori: kaitīkape, kaikape
• Polish: młynarz (pl) m
• Romanian: taloner (ro)
• Spanish: (Latin America) hooker m or f, (Spain) talonador m, talonadora f
• Welsh: bachwr m

Etymology 2

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. 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

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.
   • 1993, Wouk, Herman, The Hope (novel), page 675:

     Emily had cut short these 3 A.M. glooms with a hooker of bourbon.

Synonyms

• (prostitute): See also Thesaurus:prostitute

Translations

prostitute — see whore

References

• Language Hat
• Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors (1889–1890) , “hooker”, in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant […], volume I (A–K), Edinburgh: […] The Ballantyne Press, OCLC 882571771, page 39
• Farmer, John Stephen (1893) Slang and Its Analogues‎^[5], volume 3, pages 334–335

Anagrams

• rehook