Hookshop is dated British slang for a brothel, framing the establishment as a place where 'hooks' (prostitutes, in older slang) ply their trade. The term belongs to 19th and early 20th century vice vocabulary, encountered in social reform literature, police records, and period slang dictionaries. Entirely obsolete in contemporary usage. Like many Victorian brothel euphemisms, it uses an indirect commercial metaphor — a shop where a particular commodity is available — to describe the trade.
The reformers campaigned to close every hookshop in the district and convert the buildings to charitable use.
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(slang, dated) A brothel.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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