on the hook for

idiom

US, informal
: owing money for (something) : responsible for (something)
He's still on the hook for the cost of the repairs.

Examples of on the hook for in a Sentence

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Losses could put the tech firms on the hook for billions of dollars in damages and force them to change their platforms. Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 11 Feb. 2026 Losses could put the tech firms on the hook for billions of dollars in damages and force them to change their platforms. Clare Duffy, CNN Money, 9 Feb. 2026 Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for those legacy payments. John Cullerton, Chicago Tribune, 6 Feb. 2026 The company’s efforts to build out AI data centers have firmly pushed the company into a negative cash flow, leaving it on the hook for many billions of dollars in the coming years. Victor Tangermann, Futurism, 4 Feb. 2026 See All Example Sentences for on the hook for

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“On the hook for.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/on%20the%20hook%20for. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.

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