skyhook

noun

1. A hook imagined to be suspended in midair.

   “Those who yearn for skyhooks call those who eagerly settle for cranes "reductionists", and they can often make reductionism seem philistine and heartless.”

   “It wasn't a miraculous skyhook—no god was needed.”

2. An overhead winch.

   “To each bolt attach a short length of chain and then run the individual chains to another large one that is run up to the skyhook, which is nothing more than a ratchet cable winch held by an overhead rafter.”

   “Jeta stood with her knobbly fists on her hips watching the two of them Goo the cylinders to the skyhooks. Those were the invaluable little workhorses of the construction forces everywhere. A simple but powerful grav unit with a winch and a hook.”

3. A helicopter that lifts and transports heavy objects suspended by a heavy cable.
4. A proposed momentum-exchange tether for launching payloads into low Earth orbit by hooking them to the end of a cable that reaches down from an orbiting station into the upper atmosphere.

   “It was during those battles that ORBITAL-class armor was deployed to secure and defend the skyhooks and tethers above Earth, Luna, and Mars.”

5. (slang)A CB radio antenna.

   “[…] despite the absence of the proverbial home-grown 75-foot high steel "sky hook."”

6. A form of the overhead smash in which the eastern grip is used to hit the ball farther behind the body than usually possible.
7. A small hook for gripping small and slippery protrusions.
8. A device covering the rider's boot and sometimes screwed to the board, to facilitate jumping and enhance stability.

   “Tom bought the rights to a plastic board that had a skateboard deck and skyhooks.”