hook and eye, hook-and-eye, n.
[hook n.1 5.]
A metallic fastening, esp. for a dress, consisting of a hook, usually of flattened wire, and an eye or wire loop on which the hook catches, one of the two being fixed to each of the parts to be held together.
| c 1626 [see hook v. 4]. a 1697 Aubrey Lives (1898) I. 205 Then their breeches were fastened to the doubletts with points—then came in hookes and eies. 1812–16 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 330 The ends are united by a small steel hook and eye. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xvii, Now and then tying a string, or fastening a hook-and-eye. 1862 Reade Hard Cash 9 My ladies did not..care a hook and eye about it. |
| fig. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1837) I. 20 All the hooks-and-eyes of the memory. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Worship Wks. (Bohn) II. 394 The whole creation is made of hooks and eyes. |
| attrib. 1850 Beck's Florist Apr. 95 The lid attached by hook-and-eye hinges. |
Hence
hook-and-eye v. trans., to fasten with or as with a hook and eye;
fig. to connect, link.
| 1827 Southey Lett. (1856) IV. 82 That any combination of chances should hook-and-eye me with any near connection of absolute wisdom! a 1843 ― Comm.-pl. Bk. Ser. ii. (1849) 230 A multitude of stories hooked and eyed together clumsily. 1855 J. Leech Pict. Life & Char. 11 (Heading) Hooking and Eyeing. |