Off the hook
Posted by ESC on June 20, 2001
In Reply to: Off the hook posted by R. Berg on June 20, 2001
: : : I work with graduate students from all over the world and frequently use idioms and phrases that I need to define. I used the phrase "off the hook" today in a discussion but want to check my assumption of the origin of this phrase.
: : : I have assumed that this comes from the fact that meat in processing plants is hung on "meat hooks" suspended from a rack to facilitate moving the heavy carcasses. To be "on the hook" would certainly be a painful position, so that being "off the hook" would be a relief. Therefore, "off the hook" could be used to indicate being removed from a painful situation.
: : : Can anyone verify this in any way? I searched the archives and did not find anything, but I just stumbled across this resource a couple of days ago.
: : I checked Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and they have:
: : "He is off the hooks. Done for, laid on the shelf, superseded, dead. The bent pieces of iron on which the hinges of a gate rest and turn are called hooks; if a gate is off the hooks it is in a bad way, and cannot readily be opened and shut."
: These days, though, being off the hook has an opposite meaning: not in a bad way but in a good way--specifically, relieved of a worrisome obligation.
Or the origin could be letting a fish off the hook.
- Off the hook R. Berg 06/20/01
- Off the hook ESC 06/20/01
- Off the hook Paul Frymier 06/21/01
- Off the hook ESC 06/20/01