hook up

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hook up (third-person singular simple present hooks up, present participle hooking up, simple past and past participle hooked up)

1. (transitive) To assemble the parts of a mechanism, especially by connecting wires.

   Coordinate term: set up

2. (transitive) To connect to something like a power supply or a signal source.

   The suspect was hooked up to a lie detector.

   • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

     An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic […] real kidneys […] . But they are nothing like as efficient, and can cause bleeding, clotting and infection—not to mention inconvenience for patients, who typically need to be hooked up to one three times a week for hours at a time.

3. (intransitive, slang, followed by with) To form an association (with) someone.
   • 2019 June 8, Kitty Empire, “Madonna: Madame X review – a splendidly bizarre return to form”, in The Guardian‎:

     The last time Madonna was indisputably on point, she had hooked up with French producer Mirwais for Music (2000) and the sensuous possibilities of club culture.

4. (transitive, slang, followed by with) To connect (someone) (with) another person.

   Coordinate term: set up

   • 2022, Brian Boxer Wachler, Influenced: The Impact of Social Media on Our Perception, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, pages 186–187:

     One site, PearPop.com, hooks TikTok or Instagram influencers up with fans to create duetted or stitched videos that fans pay for. This can be an effective way to build followers fast.⁹ Model Leah Svoboda added 120,000 followers after a PearPop duet with megainfluencer Anna Shumate.¹⁰

5. (intransitive, slang, followed by with) To have a casual sexual experience with another person, usually without any future relationship intended.

   Synonyms: do it, get laid, Netflix and chill, have sex; see also Thesaurus:copulate

   • 2008, Nate Green, Built for Show, page 3:

     You work out so you can increase your chances of hooking up. That means having the kind of physique that looks good in clothes and looks even better naked.

6. (idiomatic, slang) To supply someone with goods or services.

   Coordinate term: set up

   That guy didn't get his ticket; can you hook him up for me?

   Hey man, can you hook me up with some weed?

The sexual sense of hook up is subject to considerable variation between speakers, with some using it to refer exclusively to sexual intercourse and others using it to mean make out or to refer to one-night stands and flings.