hook off

English

Verb

hook off (third-person singular simple present hooks off, present participle hooking off, simple past and past participle hooked off)

1. To unhook or remove from a hook.
   • 1891, Great Britain. Board of Trade, Railway Returns for England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, page 37:

     At about 4.5 p.m. it come back, tender in front, with 15 or 16 waggons, and stopped with the last of the waggons clear of No. 7; about five were hooked off and let down into the siding by gravity, and as soon as I had restored No. 7 point for the main line, the driver had put the engine into foraward motion and was just upon starting when the collision took place at 4.8 p.m. three minutes before the passenger train was due in the station.

   • 1894, Great Britain. Ministry of Transport, Returns of Accidents and Casualties, page 41:

     The guard then hooked off the engine and told us to run round the train with the engine.

   • 2005, Albert Blockwell, Maggie Clifton, Diary of a Red Devil, page 124:

     We then found out we were in the wrong place, so the trailers had to be hooked off to turn the Jeeps round.

   • 2022, John Galsworthy, Villa Rubein, and Other Stories:

     I hooked off a policeman's coat and cap, and put them on.

2. To curve to the side from a straight trajectory.
   • 2007, Katharine Noel, Halfway House, page 210:

     The road you were on would change; you'd be driving on 35, and if you missed the small road that hooked off to the left, you'd suddenly be on 211.

   • 2014, Harlan Ellison, The Deadly Streets:

     Long black hair tied back in a real flip-pin' ponytail; smooth white skin; black, flashing eyes; and eyebrows that hooked off like they wanted to get somewhere real fast.

   • 2022, R.C. Besteder, Red: The Saga of Red Dog:

     From there the concrete drive hooked off to the left and ran straight south to the street, Black Ironwood.

   • 2023, Victor MacClure, Hi-Spy-Kick-The-Can, page 127:

     Bastable says he foozled his kick and that the can hooked off to his right," said Burford.

3. To remove with a hooking motion.
   • 1856, “The Housemaid”, in Young America, volume 1, page 292:

     Rub-a-rub, rub-a-rub, three dabs and scrub, Two covers hooked off the arm-chairs Them dusters and towels, each marked with two vowels, Will bring a good thing, I declares!

   • 2012, Michael Gilbert, Sky High, page 174:

     The telephone rang and Pearce hooked off the receiver.

   • 2014, Mandy Hager, Singing Home the Whale:

     Will hooked off his T-shirt.

4. (slang) To depart, especially when finishing something or giving up on something.
   • 1869, Emily Thompson, Kingswood; or, the Harker Family Second thousand, page 67:

     "Somebody has hooked off with your pie," he blurted in a desponding tone.

   • 1904, Edith Nesbit, The New Treasure Seekers, Chapter 1:

     "I expect he was ashamed to give it [a present] after all," Oswald said, "so he hooked off home with it."

   • 1904, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional Papers - Volume 84, page 80:

     On the day previous to the accident I signed on duty at 7.55 a.m. and hooked off at 8.10 p.m.

   • 1916 January, mogen Clark, “Michael Comes into His Own”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 132, number 788, page 274:

     So I just hooked off by my own, and got 'em sheared.

   • 2019, Mandy Morton, Beyond the Gravy:

     'You know as well as I do that Mole hooked off to the riverbank, leaving his paint and brush behind, instead of falling off his ladder and causing a major incident.

   • 2021, Brittany Pressley, The Magnetic Girl:

     I'm getting good money—five-and-twenty bob a week without perks”— I suppose he meant perquisites—“besides money in the bank, and a few sticks towards a home, including a drawing-room settee in sky-blue satin what I got from a friend of mine whose wife hooked off with another bloke.

5. To punch with the arm rigid and partially bent.
   • 2007, Stephen H. Foreman, Toehold, page 246:

     Cody hooked off his jab and tagged Ray with a smart left.

   • 2017, Tina J, All Eyes on the Crown:

     AJ turned to me and Juan hooked off on him.

   • 2021, Thoma Samuel, John Naligala, Killer Demons: There Is a Demon behind Every Person!:

     Ryan hooked off his jab.