hoof

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the hard covering at the end of the foot of a horse, deer, sheep, or other ungulate

   A small stone was lodged in the horse's hoof.

2. 2
   verb

   informal: to walk, especially quickly or over a considerable distance

   The last bus had gone, so we had to hoof it home.

3. 3
   verb

   informal, chiefly British: to kick a ball hard

   The defender hoofed the ball clear of the penalty area.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Hoof is an Old English word. By the mid-17th century, to hoof it meant to walk rather than ride. On the hoof originally referred to livestock that was still alive and had not been slaughtered; the earliest printed example dates from 1818, and the expression later came to describe action taken without proper thought or preparation. The slang sense “to dance” arose in the United States in the 1920s.

From Middle English hoof, from Old English hōf, from Proto-Germanic *hōfaz. Cognates include Dutch hoef and German Huf.

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