hook off

present singular third person hooks off · participle present hooking off · participle past hooked off · past hooked off

1. To unhook or remove from a hook.

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

   2022, John Galsworthy, Villa Rubein, and Other Stories

   3 more examples

   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.

   1891, Great Britain. Board of Trade, Railway Returns for England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, page 37

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

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

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

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

2. To curve to the side from a straight trajectory.

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

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

   3 more examples

   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.

   2007, Katharine Noel, Halfway House, page 210

   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.

   2014, Harlan Ellison, The Deadly Streets

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

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

3. To remove with a hooking motion.

   Will hooked off his T-shirt.

   2014, Mandy Hager, Singing Home the Whale

   2 more examples

   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!

   1856, “The Housemaid”, in Young America, volume 1, page 292

   The telephone rang and Pearce hooked off the receiver.

   2012, Michael Gilbert, Sky High, page 174

4. slangTo depart, especially when finishing something or giving up on something.

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

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

   5 more examples

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

   1869, Emily Thompson, Kingswood; or, the Harker Family Second thousand, page 67

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

   1904, E[dith] Nesbit, “(please specify the page)”, in New Treasure Seekers, London: Ernest Benn, →OCLC

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

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

   '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.

   2019, Mandy Morton, Beyond the Gravy

   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.

   2021, Brittany Pressley, The Magnetic Girl

5. To punch with the arm rigid and partially bent.

   Ryan hooked off his jab.

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

   2 more examples

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

   2007, Stephen H. Foreman, Toehold, page 246

   AJ turned to me and Juan hooked off on him.

   2017, Tina J, All Eyes on the Crown