Meanings
- idiomaticinformalIn debt; obligated to pay or provide; liable; responsible or blamed.
on the hook for
5 more examples
Well, you're off the hook for next Tuesday's meeting, but you're still on the hook for this Friday's deadline.
For now, at least, Mr. Wedell, who is a vice president at the Robinson-Humphrey Company, a subsidiary of Shearson Lehman, is still on the hook for unsettled claims.
1991 October 27, Barbara Presley Noble, “Making a Difference: Lloyd's 'Indentured Servant'”, in New York Times, retrieved 15 Jun 2011Yes, incumbents of both parties—especially those incumbents facing tough re-election campaigns—don't want to be on the hook for this vote.
2008 September 29, “Washington to Wall Street: Drop Dead”, in Newsweek, retrieved 15 Jun 2011Could taxpayers really be on the hook for UAW pensions? Yes.
2010 April 15, Joseph R. Szczesny, “GM's Pension: A Ticking Time Bomb for Taxpayers?”, in TimeCameron was getting pressure from the studio to try and have something that would be an additional powerful marketing tool. And because the studio was on the hook for this picture, for what they’d spent they were looking for every marketing opportunity that they could get.
2017 May 18, Mickey Rapkin, “The Oral History of Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’: Controversies, Doubts & ‘Belly Pains’ In the Studio”, in billboard.comAntonyms: off the hook
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseOf an animal, slaughtered for food.
prepositional phraseIn debt; obligated to pay or provide; liable; responsible or blamed.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Cite this entry
on the hook. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20hook
“on the hook.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20hook. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “on the hook,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20hook.
Source: on the hook on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.