Hooking

How to spell hooking

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hooking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hooking mean?

1. verbCatching, attaching, or fastening something using a hook or a curved motion.
2. nounIn ice hockey, the penalty of using the stick to impede an opponent as if with a hook.

Hooking in a sentence

• verb

  Hooking the trailer to the car took only a minute in the driveway.

• noun

  The defender was sent off for hooking during the final period.

• verb

  She spent the morning hooking the heavy curtains onto their rings.

• noun

  The referee called hooking after the player tugged at his rival's jersey with the blade.

Where does hooking come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present-participle and gerund form of the verb 'hook', which traces back to the Old English noun 'hoc', meaning a bent or angled implement used to catch or hold something. That word belonged to a wider Germanic family, with close relatives such as the Dutch 'hoek' (corner or angle) and the German 'Haken' (hook), all pointing to an ancient root sense of 'bend' or 'curve'. The noun gave rise to a verb very early, describing the act of seizing or fastening with such a curved tool, and the -ing form simply turns that verb into a word naming the ongoing action. Over the centuries the word stretched far beyond fishing and clothing fasteners into sport, where 'hooking' names a pulled or curved shot and also a foul that uses a stick like a hook. The spelling stays reassuringly regular: keep the double 'o' of the base word and the single 'k' before adding -ing, so there is no doubling of the final consonant.

How the word is built

• hook (a curved catch or fastener)
• -ing (forming the present participle and gerund)