hook, line, and sinker
8
7.6
- idiom
- Informal
- I fell for that story hook, line and sinker.
- bought it hook, line, and sinker
- fell hook, line, and sinker
- swallowed it hook, line, and sinker
Examples
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There are a lot of people who have fallen for Obama's lies hook, line, and sinker.
Blog text (5) -
I can't believe they fell for the whole damn thing, hook, line and sinker.
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And I bought it hook, line and sinker.
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We bought it, hook, line and sinker.
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And we fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Blog text (2) -
It's all propaganda, and you guys are eating it up hook, line, and sinker.
Blog text (4) -
And all those people who support Obama fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Blog text (4) -
Sadly, they will fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
Blog text (26) -
Alex bought Reinhardt's theory hook, line and sinker.
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She believed the advertisement was true, hook, line, and sinker.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Completely and without any doubt
4
6.5
They do or accept something without any doubt
Completely loyal and firm, not willing to change
How Complete
Surface Forms
Morphology
The component words name parts of fishing tackle (hook, line, sinker) so a learner who recognises that set can infer a sense of 'the whole thing' or 'entirely', which gives a partial clue. However, the leap from 'the whole fishing rig' to the idiomatic meaning 'to believe completely / be thoroughly fooled' is a culture-specific metaphorical extension that B1 learners who only know the literal words are unlikely to derive reliably without exposure.
Etymology
Hook, line, and sinker comes from fishing: imagine a fish caught on the hook, pulled in by the line, and held by the sinker, a small weight, so the fish is taken completely. That's why the phrase means 'completely' or 'without doubt', as when someone is totally fooled or convinced.