hook it
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
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hook it
"get out of the way," or "be off about your business;" generally varied by "take your HOOK." "To HOOK it," to run away, to decamp; "on one’s own HOOK," dependent upon one’s own exertions. Originally connected with the preceding, but now perfectly "on its own HOOK."
hook or by crook
By fair means or foul—in allusion to the hook with which footpads used to steal from open windows, &c., and from which HOOK, to take or steal, has been derived. Mentioned in Hudibras as a cant term.
hook um snivey
(formerly "HOOK and SNIVEY"), a low expression, meaning to cheat by feigning sickness or other means. Also a piece of thick iron wire crooked at one end, and fastened into a wooden handle, for the purpose of undoing from the outside the wooden bolt of a door. Sometimes used as an irrelevant answer by street boys. As, "who did that?"—"HOOK UM SNIVEY"—actually no one.
hook up
to connect or meet someone, often romantically
hooked
Over-reached, tricked, caught: a simile taken from fishing. **** hooks; fingers.
hookee walker
An expression signifying that the story is not true, or that the thing will not occour.
hooks
"dropped off the HOOKS," said of a deceased person—possibly derived from the ancient practice of suspending on hooks the quarters of a traitor or felon sentenced by the old law to be hung, drawn, and quartered, which dropped off the hooks as they decayed.
hookshop
A brothel.
hoon
A worthless person; a hooligan or lout.
hoop
To run the hoop; an ancient marine custom. Four or more boys having their left hands tied fast to an iron hoop, and each of them a rope, called a nettle, in their right, being naked to the waist, wait the signal to begin: this being made by a stroke with a cat of nine tails, given by the boatswain to one of the boys, he strikes the boy before him, and every one does the same: at first the blows are but gently administered; but each irritated by the strokes from the boy behind him, at length lays
Hooped Pots
Drinking pots at one time were marked with bands, or hoops, set at equal distances, so that when two or more drank from the same tankard no one should take more than his share.
hoops
Basketball.
hoosegow
A jail.
hoot and holler
to shout and cheer loudly
hoot owl shift
a late-night work shift
hooted
Drunk.
hoover flag
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hoovered
Drunk.
hop
A dance.—Fashionable slang.
hop off
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hop o’ my thumb
An undersized person. From the story of that name. Portion of a set of phrases established for the benefit of the small, in which Tomtit, Little Breeches, Daniel Lambert, Sixfoot, Twentystun, &c., play a prominent part.
hop the wag
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hop up
to get up or rise quickly
hop-o-my-thumb
A diminutive person, man or woman. She was such a-hop-o-my thumb, that a pigeon, sitting on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a-se.
hope against hope
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
Hope for the best — prepare for the Worst
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
hope for the best, and prepare for the worst
Be optimistic but also prepare for a bad outcome
hope for the best, but prepare for the worst
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. (Francis Bacon)
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
hope springs eternal
People never lose hope, no matter how unlikely something is
hopkins
Mr. Hopkins; a ludicrous address to a lame or limping man, being a pun on the word hop.
hopper-arsed
Having large projecting buttocks: from their resemblance to a small basket, called a hopper or hoppet, worn by husbandmen for containing seed corn, when they sow the land.
hopping giles
A jeering appellation given to any person who limps, or is lame; St. Giles was the patron of cripples, lepers, &c. Churches dedicated to that saint commonly stand out of town, many of them having been chapels to hospitals. See GYLES.
hopping mad
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hoppo
Custom-house officer, or custom-house. Almost anything connected with custom-house business.—Anglo-Chinese.
Horace and Virgil
Nicholas Rowe so called the Earl of Halifax on his installation to the Order of the Garter (1714).
Horace of England
George, Duke of Buckingham, preposterously declared Cowley to be the Pindar, Horace, and Virgil of England. Ben Jonson was nicknamed Horace by Dekker in the so-called "War of the Theatres.
hori
A Māori.
horizontal dancing
engaging in sexual activity
horizontal jogging
engaging in sexual activity
horizontal mambo
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
horizontal refreshments
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
horizontal slam dance
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
horizontal tango
a euphemism for sexual intercourse
horn
To cuckold.
horn colic
A temporary priapism.
horn mad
A person extremely jealous of his wife, is said to be horn mad. Also a cuckold, who does not cut or breed his horns easily.
horn of fidelity
Morgan le Fay sent a horn to King Arthur, which had the following "virtue" : — No lady could drink out of it who was not "to her husband true"; all others who attempted to drink were sure to spill what it contained. This horn was carried to King Mark, and "his queene with a hundred ladies more'* tried the experiment, but only four managed to "drinke cleane.
horn of plenty
Amalthea's horn (tf.v.), the cornucopia, an emblem of plenty.
horned up
horny
horns
To draw in one's horns; to retract an assertion through fear: metaphor borrowed from a snail, who on the apprehension of danger, draws in his horns, and retires to his shell.
hornswoggle
Nonsense, humbug. Believed to be of American origin.
horror show
A situation or event that is chaotic or disastrous
horrors
The low spirits, or "blue devils," which follow intoxication. Incipient del. trem.
horse
Contraction of Horsemonger-Lane Gaol, also a slang term for a five-pound note.
horse and buggy
an old-fashioned or outdated thing
horse and carriage
a traditional wedding gift
horse and foot
The cavalry and infantry; hence all one's forces; with all one's might.
horse and rabbit stew
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
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