What does hoe mean?
A hoe is a long-handled agricultural or gardening tool with a blade mounted at an angle to the handle. It is used to break up and loosen soil, remove weeds, and prepare a seedbed for planting. The verb hoe describes this work: a gardener hoes the earth around plants or clears weeds from a row. Its meaning is practical and largely literal, though “hoe” can sound informal or old-fashioned in modern descriptions of gardening. A hoe differs from a spade because it is generally used for surface cultivation and weeding rather than for digging deep holes or lifting heavy loads. The word is common in both British and American English and is familiar from agricultural work, allotment gardening, and the cultivation of vegetables and flowers.
A long-handled tool with an angled blade, used to break up soil, remove weeds, and cultivate the ground.
"He leaned the hoe against the fence and went inside for a drink."
The most common sense is a gardening and farming implement; the tool is also sometimes called a garden hoe.
To cultivate or clear ground by using a hoe, especially to loosen soil or remove weeds.
"We hoed the vegetable patch before the rain arrived."
Usually transitive or used with an adverb such as around or over: hoe the soil, hoe around the plants.
The plural of the noun is regularly formed by adding -s.
"The shed contained several hoes, rakes, and watering cans."
A hoe may look simple, but it is one of the oldest continuously useful tools in farming, turning stubborn ground into soil that can accept a seed.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hoe come from?
The noun comes from Old English hō, an Old English word for a hoe-like agricultural implement. In Middle English, the word was also used for the action of cultivating or cleaning ground with such a tool, and the modern verb developed from that agricultural sense. The word is cognate with related forms found across Germanic languages, although the exact history of every proposed cognate is less certain than the basic Old English origin.
Related word forms
How hoe is actually used
The noun and verb forms are standard in both British and American English. As a verb, hoe usually implies repeated shallow cultivation with a handheld tool, rather than deep digging with a spade.