Wiktionary
a. {{context|idiomatic|often followed by (term for English)|lang=en}} In debt; obligated to pay or provide; liable; responsible or blamed.
WordNet
adj. caught in a difficult or dangerous situation; "there I was back on the hook" [syn: on the hook(p)]
Usage examples of "on the hook".
There were beetles and insects with legs like grass stems, and grubs in old rotten logs, white grubs with brown pinching heads that would not stay on the hook and emptied into nothing in the cold water, and wood ticks under logs where sometimes I found angleworms that slipped into the ground as soon as the log was raised.
Bill cursed and put the phone back on the hook, slammed the box shut.
On the back of the painting, as on the back of many paintings, was a small piece of wire to hang on the hook.
A tub had been left out by the hearth and a large kettle of water was steaming on the hook.
Still holding the impaled hand on the hook, Jherek slid back and freed the cutlass with a slither of metal on metal that threw off sparks.
As he fastened on the hook-grasper he used for everyday work he shook his head.
It had two points, the end point, which might be used for jabbing, and the point on the hook.
Sean took off his fly, tied on a plain hook, picked a buttercup and stuck it on the hook, cast, and caught a fish.
There's lots of ways you can do it when you have a crime boss on the hook, including checking close other worlds, getting inside information he can use, and feeding it to him.
You can feed him just enough, wrapped around the parcel, to keep him quiet and on the hook.
If they wanted to land this fish, they were going to find out they had something on the hook.