hook shop

plural hook shops

1. informalA brothel.

   Van Raalte said the girl would have "received better treatment in any hook shop."

   1949, Henry W. Sams, Waldo F. McNeir, Problems in Reading & Writing, page 237

   2 more examples

   One of the girls in one of the hook shops in Niniltna, back when it was party town for the Kanuyaq Copper Mine.

   2001, Dana Stabenow, The Singing of the Dead, →ISBN, page 136

   And he never comes back, Mr Dillon; he's damned well told that it ain't necessary, because this is a hotel not a hook shop.

   2010, Jim Thompson, The Grifters, →ISBN