Careful Words

hook (n.)

hook (v.)

hook (adj.)

For angling rod he took a sturdy oak;

For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;

 .   .   .   .   .

His hook was baited with a dragon's tail,—

And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.

From The Mock Romance, a rhapsody attached to The Loves of Hero and Leander, published in London in the years 1653 and 1677. Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 173. Daniel: Rural Sports, Supplement, p. 57.

By hooke or crooke.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.

Through thick and thin, both over bank and bush,

In hope her to attain by hook or crook.

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Faerie Queene. Book iii. Canto i. St. 17.

'T was merry when

You wager'd on your angling; when your diver

Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he

With fervency drew up.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Sc. 5.

  I may justly say, with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, "I came, saw, and overcame."

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 3.

by simon sarris • about