What have we stopped noticing?
The things we say, do, and accept without thinking twice.
Look closer where it comes from, what it assumes, and the case for keeping it
To excuse someone from a duty, consequence, obligation, or difficult situation.
The phrase pictures a person physically caught on a hook and then released using a fishing analogy. It turns being responsible for something into being caught, with release as the exception.
Getting out of an obligation or consequence is pictured as being freed from a physical trap.
The hook is figurative, and the phrase usually carries little sense of actual violence. In workplace use, it often means someone is no longer expected to do something or face a consequence.
The fishing image is compact and widely understood. It gives a clear picture of being caught by an obligation and then released from it.