Definition

1. Noun:

   • A gardening or farming tool consisting of a long handle with a flat, thin blade set at a right angle, used for breaking up soil, removing weeds, and shaping earth.

2. Verb:

   • To use a hoe to break, turn, or weed soil. This action involves a chopping or scraping motion to cultivate the ground or remove unwanted plants.

Usage and Examples

• Noun:

  • The gardener used a sharp hoe to loosen the compacted soil.
  • An essential tool for early agriculture was a simple wooden hoe.

• Verb:

  • She spent the morning hoeing the vegetable patch to prepare for planting.
  • If you don't hoe the weeds regularly, they will choke the seedlings.

Advanced Usage

• "to hoe one's own row": An idiom meaning to manage one's own affairs or business independently and diligently.
  • He doesn't get involved in office politics; he just hoes his own row.

Variants and Related Words

• Hoeing (gerund/noun): The activity of using a hoe.
  • Hoeing is good exercise for the arms and back.
• Hoe-blade (noun): The flat, cutting part of a hoe.
  • The hoe-blade was worn down from years of use.

Synonyms

• Cultivate (verb): To prepare and use land for crops, which can involve hoeing.
• Tiller (noun): A person or a tool that tills land; a similar agricultural tool.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Hoe out (phrasal verb): To clear an area thoroughly using a hoe, especially to remove weeds or unwanted plants.
  • We need to hoe out this entire bed before we can plant the new flowers.

Related Idioms

• A hard/tough row to hoe: A difficult task or situation to deal with.
  • Recovering from the economic crisis will be a tough row to hoe for the new government.

Noun

1. a tool with a flat blade attached at right angles to a long handle

Verb

1. dig with a hoe
   • He is hoeing the flower beds