[f. FISH sb.1 and v. + HOOK.]
1. A barbed hook used for catching fish.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 295. [A] goldene fischhook.
1482. York Myst., Introd. p. xl. Those that ‘makes pynnes or draweth wyre, or maketh ffisshe-hukes or shobakilles.’
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 231. When the mariners are disposed to take them, they call downe by the sterne of the shippe, a hoke of yren as bigge as the biggest finger of a mans hande of three spannes in length and crooked like a fysshehooke with beardes accordinge to the bignesse thereof, and fastened to an iren chayne of fyue or fyxe linkes neare vnto th[e] ende, and from thense tyed with a greate rope, fastening also on the hooke for a bayte, a piece of sum fisshe, or hogges flessh, or sum other flesshe, or the bouwelles and intralles of an other Tiburon whiche they haue taken before, which may easely bee doone, for I haue seene nyne taken in one day.
1611. Bible, Amos iv. 2. The Lord GOD hath sworne by his holinesse, that loe, the dayes shall come vpon you, that he will take you away with hookes, and your posteritie with fish-hookes.
a. 1732. T. Boston, Crook in Lot (1805), 12. Aptness to catch hold and entangle, like hooks, fish-hooks.
1871. 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, when a master’s mate and a seaman fell overboard, and were drowned.
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 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.
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.
