hooking up

verb

present participle of hook up
as in traveling
to come or be together as friends former classmates who hooked up and started a business together

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of hooking up In the finale, Esther visits Sasha at his home to drop something off for their daughter and the estranged couple ends up hooking up. — Lexi Carson, HollywoodReporter, 23 Oct. 2026 Barker recalled giving a mutual guy friend some dating advice about just having fun and hooking up with women, advising him to think of dating as a sport, while trying to not get too emotionally invested. — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 14 Oct. 2026 Cell-tower stocks have rallied on prospects of SpaceX hooking up with them for wireless coverage. — Tobias Burns, CNBC, 13 Oct. 2026 Leinart, the biggest star among them, was hanging out with Nick Lachey and hooking up with Paris Hilton. — Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2026 The passage about the group of hippies going out to the pueblo and giving the Native kids LSD and hooking up on the tribe’s sacred ground until they get run off is priceless. — Maggie McGowan, The New York Review of Books, 5 Sep. 2026 The mood is already ruined after you get busted hooking up in a bar's bathroom. — Sean Joseph Outkick, FOXNews.com, 5 Aug. 2026 Cohn lived a secret life, hooking up regularly with gay hustlers. — Kai Bird, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026 This is like the complete inverse of Tom Sandoval and Raquel hooking up at Coachella. — Marlow Stern, Variety, 30 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hooking up
  1. traveling
  2. associating
  3. messing around
  4. connecting
  5. running
  6. mixing
  7. joining
  8. collaborating
Verb
  • The workers were protesting potential pay cuts, with the road closures forcing cruise passengers to walk with their luggage instead of traveling by bus or car, the same outlet reported.
    — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 29 Oct. 2026
  • Yappy ends up playing the role of matchmaker and new best friend, pulling Billie towards her traveling contractor ex-boyfriend from high school, Hutch (Harding).
    — Rachel LaBonte, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of traveling
Verb
  • Moments after sitting down at an outdoor table, Oppenheim breathes in the ocean air and starts cheerfully free-associating.
    — Alex Barasch, Vulture, 19 Oct. 2026
  • These immediate, positive reinforcements can help the brain begin associating the healthier behavior with something rewarding.
    — Melissa Rudy, FOXNews.com, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of associating
Verb
  • There will be no more messing around with draggy eye pencils or the emperor’s new eye shadows.
    — Elizabeth Siegel, Allure, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Both of France’s sons seem to appreciate imaginative play over messing around with action figures, something that makes perfect sense given France’s own love for the arts.
    — Marah Eakin, Vulture, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of messing around
Verb
  • Ground demonstrations are testing their ability to move and align before connecting.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 29 Oct. 2026
  • Avoid connecting multiple extension cords or power strips together, and never use a cord that feels unusually hot or shows signs of damage.
    — Lynn Andriani, Martha Stewart, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of connecting
Verb
  • Every summer, the state plays host to the largest, longest-running citizen bike tour in the world.
    — Washington Post, Washington Post, 24 Oct. 2026
  • This seems like a perfectly reasonable debate/dialogue/deliberation to have without everybody--well, most bodies--running for the exits.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of running
Verb
  • Rosalía’s wardrobe is also a testament to her love for the unexpected, with stylist José Carayol mixing independent designers and fresh graduate looks with serious archival finds.
    — Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 29 Oct. 2026
  • Tornado Cash obscures transaction trails by mixing cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of mixing
Verb
  • Carney has ruled out formally joining the EU and said any enhanced partnership would face a vote in Canada's Parliament.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 30 Oct. 2026
  • Nerys Amber Stocks is also joining the cast for the special as Lucy, the Haywards’ housekeeper.
    — Ellise Shafer, Variety, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of joining
Verb
  • In other words, people may traverse more creative terrain when collaborating with other people.
    — Roger Beaty, The Conversation, 28 Oct. 2026
  • Al-Khudhairi has also been collaborating with Vincenzo de Bellis, chief artistic officer and global director of fairs at Art Basel.
    — Hikmat Mohammed, ARTnews.com, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of collaborating

Browse Nearby Words

hooking
hooking up
hooking up (with)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Hooking up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hooking%20up. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of Pyrrhic

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Pwn, Skibidi, Girlboss and Other Words Added to the 2026 Scrabble Dictionary

The Words of the Week - Oct. 30

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All