hooked

1. 1
   adjective

   Addicted to something, or unable to resist or stop doing it.

   Players quickly become hooked on the game's reward system.

   Within a month she was hooked on long-distance running.

   Similaraddicted, obsessed, dependent, captivated

   Oppositeindifferent, uninterested

   Note

   The metaphor belongs to the angler: whoever is hooked has taken the bait and cannot get free. It runs from the deadly serious, as with heroin, to the playful, as with a weakness for chocolate chip cookies. The preposition is on, so you are hooked on something. With become or get, it can also stand alone with nothing after it.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having a sharp curve at the end, shaped like a hook.

   The climber relied on a hooked tool to grip the icy ledge.

   The plant's hooked thorns caught on every passing sleeve.

   Similarcurved, bent, crooked, barbed

   Oppositestraight

   Note

   Here the -ed added to hook means 'shaped like', not 'caught': a hooked nose has the form of a hook, and nobody hooked it. Because it describes shape rather than an event, it behaves as a true adjective and grades, so one nose can be more hooked than another, and one the most hooked of all. Noses and thorns are its natural company.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of hook.

   The angler hooked a large trout near the bridge.

   They hooked the trailer to the truck before leaving town.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty. It is the simple past (she hooked the line) and also the participle that follows have and be (they have hooked it, the fish was hooked). Most uses of hook take an object, so passives come easily, while the 'become attached' use takes none. Once the participle describes a lasting state rather than an action, it shades into the 'addicted' adjective.

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