Meaning
An informal and often brusque British command telling someone to leave, go away, or remove themselves from a place or situation. Informal and dismissive. It may be playful between friends, but in a direct command it can sound rude or hostile. Regional use: British English.
Origin
The expression is recorded in a British slang dictionary of 1874 as an invitation to move on and was well established by the end of the 19th century. Its literal image is unresolved. Suggestions include raising or securing a ship's anchor, collecting a miner's clothes from a hook, or slinging a worker's hooked tool over the shoulder before departing. The surviving early examples do not identify any one trade or nautical practice, so those explanations remain theories rather than documented origins.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- Sling one's hook
- Sling yer hook
- Take your hook
Usage Examples
- After the third interruption, the landlord told the heckler to sling his hook.
- If the supplier will not honour the agreement, they can sling their hook.
- She laughed at the cheeky offer and told him to sling his hook.