or Walker! intj. (common).—Be off! go away. Also implying doubt. Cf., WITH A HOOK. [BEE: From John Walker, a hook-nosed spy, whose reports were proved to be fabrications.]
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. HOOKEE WALKER. An expression signifying that the story is not true, or that the thing will not occur.
1843. DICKENS, A Christmas Carol [1843], p. 169. ‘Buy it,’ said Scrooge. ‘WALKER!’ said the boy.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Lay of the Old Woman Clothed in Grey.’
| For mere unmeaning talk her | |
| Parched lips babbled now,—such as ‘HOOKEY!’—and ‘WALKER!’ | |
| —She expired, with her last breath expressing a doubt | |
| If ‘his Mother were fully aware he was out?’ |
1840. ‘Characters of Freshmen’ (C. WHIBLEY, ed. In Cap and Gown, p. 183). The pestilent freshman … is very pugnacious, and walking in the streets suddenly turneth and a keth a huge sneb ‘what the deuce he meant by that?’ Whereat the snob (having done nothing at all) coolly answereth (as the Pestilent Freshman intended he should) HOOKY WALKER, provocative of a combat.
