Hooker

Hook·er  (hkr), Joseph Known as "Fighting Joe." 1814-1879.

American Union army officer who was defeated by Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville (1863).

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Hooker, Richard 1554?-1600.

English writer and theologian. His Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594) was central to the formation of Anglican theology.

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Hooker, Thomas 1586?-1647.

English-born American colonizer and cleric who founded Hartford, Connecticut (1636).

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hook·er ¹  (hkr)

n.

1. A single-masted fishing smack used off the coast of Ireland.

2. An old worn-out or clumsy ship.

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[Dutch hoeker, from Middle Dutch hoeckboot : hoec, fishhook; see keg- in Indo-European roots + boot, boat.]

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hook·er ²  (hkr)

n.

1. One that hooks.

2. Slang A prostitute.

Word History: In his Personal Memoirs Ulysses S. Grant described Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker as "a dangerous man ... not subordinate to his superiors." Hooker had his faults. He may indeed have been insubordinate; he was undoubtedly an erratic leader. But "Fighting Joe" Hooker is often accused of one thing he certainly did not do: he did not give his name to prostitutes. According to a popular story, the men under Hooker's command during the Civil War were a particularly wild bunch, and would spend much of their time in brothels when on leave. For this reason, as the story goes, prostitutes came to be known as hookers. However attractive this theory may be, it cannot be true. The word hooker with the sense "prostitute" is already recorded before the Civil War. As early as 1845 it is found in North Carolina, as reported in Norman Ellsworth Eliason's Tarheel Talk; an Historical Study of the English Language in North Carolina to 1860, published in 1956. It also appears in the second edition of John Russell Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms, published in 1859, where it is defined as "a strumpet, a sailor's trull." Etymologically, it is most likely that hooker is simply "one who hooks." The term portrays a prostitute as a person who hooks, or snares, clients.

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hook·er ³  (hkr)

n. Slang

A drink of undiluted hard liquor: a hooker of whiskey.

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[Probably from the hook-like form of the arm taken in raising a drink to the mouth.]

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hooker

Noun

1. Slang a prostitute

2. Rugby a player who uses his feet to get the ball in a scrum

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	Hooker - United States general in the Union Army who was defeated at Chancellorsville by Robert E. Lee (1814-1879) Fighting Joe Hooker, Joseph Hooker
	2.	Hooker - English theologian (1554-1600)       Richard Hooker
	3.	hooker - a prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets floozie, floozy, hustler, slattern, street girl, streetwalker bawd, cocotte, cyprian, fancy woman, harlot, lady of pleasure, prostitute, sporting lady, tart, whore, woman of the street, working girl - a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money
	4.	hooker - a golfer whose shots typically curve left (for right-handed golfers) golf player, golfer, linksman - someone who plays the game of golf
	5.	hooker - (rugby) the player in the middle of the front row of the scrum who tries to capture the ball with the foot rugby, rugby football, rugger - a form of football played with an oval ball athlete, jock - a person trained to compete in sports