hooks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of hook.

   The butcher hung the carcasses from heavy steel hooks.

   Climbers anchored their ropes to a series of bolted hooks in the rock face.

   Note

   The plural shares its spelling with the present-tense verb, so only context shows which one you have. As a noun it can count any of the things a hook names: fishhooks and billhooks, the curved needles of crochet, the fixed halves of gate hinges, even the loops that hang below a written g or j. A phrase like crochet hooks or hinge hooks makes the kind clear.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of hook.

   The fisherman hooks a trout on his very first cast.

   The melody hooks listeners within the opening few seconds.

   Note

   Most of what it covers needs an object: she hooks a fish, hooks yarn into a fabric, hooks a reader with a first line. One use stands alone, meaning something becomes attached as if by a hook, as in the latch hooks onto the frame. The figurative 'ensnare' use explains a melody that hooks listeners. Spelling alone will not separate it from the plural noun.

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