hookey (walker)!, excl. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hookey (walker)! excl.

also hookee walker! hooky (walker)! with a hook!

[according to Bee, the proper name of John Walker, ‘an outdoor clerk’ at Longman, Clementi and Co.’s in Cheapside; Walker had a hooked or crooked nose and was used by the ‘nobs of the firm’ to spy on his fellow employees. Those upon whom he spied naturally declared that his reports were nonsense and since they outnumbered him, they tended to prevail. Hotten (1867) offers an alternative view, basing the phr. on ‘a person named Walker, an aquiline-nosed Jew’ who exhibited an orrery ‘the Eidoranion’ along which he would ‘take a sight’, which action, using an extended arm and a finger raised to the eye, was the equivalent of a dismissive gesture; Hotten also suggests another hook-nosed Walker, a magistrate]

1. an expression of incredulity, nonsense! rubbish!

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Hookee Walker. An expression signifying that the story is not true, or that the thing will not occur.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 99: Hookey Walker – and ‘with a hook,’ usually accompanied by a significant upliftment of the hand and a crooking of the forefinger that what is said is a lie, or is to be taken contrariwise.
1824		Commercial Advertiser (N.Y.) 1 July 2/3: An English horse named Hookey Walker.
1824		A Favourite Poodle Hatching Poultry [cartoon caption] Mafsa Binga Hacha Hooka Waker!!!
c.1830		‘Alarming Sacrifice’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 48: [title] Alarming Sacrifice!!! Sale by Auction on Monday next, April the First, of the Furniture and Effects of Hookey Walker, Esq.
1832		Satirist (London) 19 Feb. 62/1: ‘I propose Mr.Kemble,and prosperity to Covent-garden.’' (Cries of ‘Oh, oh!’ and ‘Hooky!’) .
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 29 Sept. 46/2: He says he has no doubt he can teach me where to find the philosopher’s stone. I say to this ‘hookey!’.
1838		R.S. Surtees Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 141: ‘Hookey Walker!’ exclaimed someone who had heard Jemmy declare the same thing half a dozen times.
1840		R.B. Peake Devil In London I iii: john. So your name’s Walker? dev.: Yes, sir. john.: Hookey, of course? dev.: You’re quite right, sir.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 19 Feb. n.p.: ‘Young gentleman [...] you are clearly committing a rgoss outrage.’ ‘Walker!’ ejaculated the tall youth [...] ‘Hookey!’ said the lad in the round hat.
1845		R.S. Surtees Hillingdon Hall III 132: ‘’Ookey Valker!’ grunted Mr. Jorrocks; adding, ‘whoever thought they’d be for it’.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 11 Sept. 3: Dr. In.-Your Honor, I cannot disparage / This horse's character for gig or carriage [...] Tom.- Hookey Walker!
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 50: Hookey walker! ejaculation of incredulity, usually shortened to walker!
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 155: ‘Yes, with a hook at the end of it!’ i.e., with some reservation.
1870		H.D. Traill in Sat. Songs 22: It’s go and go over the left, It’s go with a hook at the end [F&H].
1879		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 1: ‘Darbys’’ are as common with the Doyles’, as ‘Hookys’’ are with the Walkers’!
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Dec. 8/4: The Paper [is] conducted by a Mr Walker. That this gentleman’s appellation is guiltless of the prefix of ‘hookey’, we are quite willing to believe .
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 37: ‘I will with a hook,’i.e., I don’t intend it.
1896		G.A. Sala in Daily Tel. 28 July in Ware (1909) 22/2: Sir John Fielding, half-brother of the novelist [Henry] [...] died in 1780, sixty years before the cry of ‘Hookey Walker’ became popular.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 85: WITH A HOOK [...] a general contradiction. A Dutchman proposed marriage to a girl and said ‘We will get some babaies.’ She remarked ‘With a hook.’ ‘No, midt mein p---k.’.
1908		Denton (MD) Journal 7 Mar. 3/8: Hewitt winked and screwed his face genially aside. ‘Hooky!’ he said.

2. go away! be off! thus play Hookey Walker, to run off.

1840		‘Characters of Freshmen’ in Whibley In Cap and Gown (1889) 183: He asketh a huge snob ‘what the deuce he meant by that?’ Whereat the snob (having done nothing at all) coolly answereth [...] ‘Hooky Walker’, provocative of a combat.
1911		H.R. Haggard Yellow God 301: Old blackguard, Fanny, bolt and leave us here. He play hookey-walker, and to-morrow morning Asika nobble us.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 105: Felled to the grass for the third time, he decided to stay there until he got an opportunity of playing ‘Hookey Walker’.