Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A variant of how.
  • See hock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as hock, a joint.
  • transitive verb obsolete To cut with a hoe.
  • transitive verb Same as hock, to hamstring.
  • noun obsolete An adz; a hoe.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Archaic spelling of hoe.
  • verb Archaic spelling of hoe.
  • noun the hollow behind the knee
  • verb To hamstring

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English howe, from Anglo-Norman houe, from Old Low Franconian *houwa (cf. Middle Dutch houwe), from *houwan 'to hew'. More at hew.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English hōh.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Rhymes with lock. Crazy.

    January 31, 2007

  • "'What's to eat, then?' he asked, sniffing hopefully.

    'Depends on what ye've brought,' his sister replied. ... 'If ye've brought meat, we'll have it. If not, it's brose and hough.'"

    —Diana Gabaldon, Voyager (NY: Dell, 1994), 61

    January 14, 2010

  • from Piracy (by Adrian Johns):

    "Tradesmen with English goods were tarred and feathered, and angry apprentices began 'houghing' soldiers (cutting their hamstrings), which was immediately made a capital offense."

    March 23, 2011