with a hook

prepositional phrase

Appended to a statement to indicate that one does not believe it.

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Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. UKobsoleteslangAppended to a statement to indicate that one does not believe it.

    Mr. Bartley thinks himself a capital speech-maker. — (Yes — with a hook.)

    1838, Actors by Daylight, volume 1, page 176
    1 more example

    […] nor did the cruel sarcasm of "Oh, yes, with a hook!" — which some courtier would throw in — divert her at all from her humble purpose.

    1864, Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, John Leech, The Comic History of England (page 255)
Cite this entry
APA

with a hook. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/with%20a%20hook

MLA

“with a hook.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/with%20a%20hook. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “with a hook,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/with%20a%20hook.

Source: with a hook on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.