off the hook

Từ điển tiếng Anh - Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary

off the hook idiom
1. If you leave the telephone off the hook, you do not put the part of it that you talk with back correctly and it will not ring.
Thesaurus⁺: ↑Communicating by telephone
2. If you are off the hook, you have escaped from a difficult situation
• John's agreed to go to the meeting in my place so that gets/lets me off the hook.
Thesaurus⁺: ↑Not punishing and reducing punishment
Main entry: hook_idiom