ˈfish-hook
[f. fish n.1 and v. + hook.]
1. A barbed hook used for catching fish.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) IV. 295 [A] goldene fisch⁓hook. 1482 York Myst. Introd. 40 Those that makes pynnes..or maketh ffisshe-hukes. 1555 Eden Decades 201 Crooked like a fysshehooke. 1611 Bible Amos. iv. 2. a 1732 T. Boston Crook in Lot (1805) 12 Aptness to catch hold and entangle, like..fish-hooks. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 342 The manufacture of English fish-hooks is computed at one-sixth that of needles. |
2. Naut. An iron hook forming part of the tackle used to raise the anchor to the gunwale of a ship.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vii. 30 Hitch the fish-hooke to the Anchors flooke. 1805 A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. III. 206 In fishing the anchor, the fish-hook gave way. c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 56 The fish tackle consists of two double blocks, and one single block; the lower one is fitted with a fishhook. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as fish-hook maker; fish-hook cactus U.S., any of several cacti with hooked spines; fish-hook wire, a wire consisting of twisted strands, with a piece of wire resembling a fish-hook inserted at intervals; also fish-hooked wire.
| 1696 Lond. Gaz. No. 3206/4 Tim. Kirby, the Son of Charles Kirby, Fish-hook Maker. 1846 30th Congress 1 Sess. H.R. Ex. Doc. No. 41, 612 The fish-hook cactus is found here [sc. in California]. 1892 Star 20 Sept. 4/3 All knowledge of the use of this fishhook wire was disclaimed by the defendants..This fishhooked wire is manufactured, and..finds a market. 1947 Southern Sierran (Los Angeles) May 4/2 Rare and very beautiful, the Mohave Fishhook or Pineapple Cactus, Echinocactus Polyancistrus, with clustered iridescent magenta-pink blossoms. |