Hooked

How to spell hooked

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce hooked

What does hooked mean?

1. adjectiveStrongly attracted to or unable to give up something, as if caught on a hook.
2. verbCaught, fastened, or attached something using a hook or curved motion.
3. adjectiveBent or curved like a hook.

Hooked in a sentence

• adjective

  After one episode she was completely hooked on the series.

• verb

  She hooked the trailer to the back of the car before setting off.

• adjective

  The eagle has a sharply hooked beak for tearing food.

• adjective

  He got hooked on cycling and now rides every weekend.

• verb

  The angler hooked a large trout within minutes.

• adjective

  The old man walked with a hooked wooden cane.

Where does hooked come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word traces back to the Old English noun 'hoc', meaning a bent or curved piece of metal used to catch or hold something, which itself grew from a Germanic root shared with Dutch 'hoek' (corner, angle) and German 'Haken' (hook). From the earliest period the verb 'to hook' meant to catch, fasten, or curve like that implement, and the past-tense and participial form 'hooked' followed the regular pattern of adding -ed. Over the centuries the literal sense of catching a fish or fastening a clasp broadened into vivid figurative uses, so that by the nineteenth century a person could be 'hooked' by a story or a habit just as a fish is caught on a line. The slang sense of being addicted, especially to drugs or a pastime, became widespread in the twentieth century and draws directly on that fishing image. Because the spelling simply joins the familiar base 'hook' to a plain -ed, the main thing to remember is the doubled 'o', which echoes the original 'hoc' vowel.

How the word is built

• hook (curved fastener, from Old English hoc)
• -ed (past-tense/adjective suffix)