Leucistic animals like the calf have black eyes and hooves with some pigmentation, the park service wrote.—Saleen Martin, USA TODAY, 1 July 2024 As the climate cooled, however, their habitat shrank, and their physiology — short bulky legs without spreading hooves or pads —would have made moving through deep snow that formed after the last ice age difficult.—Conor Feehly, Discover Magazine, 26 June 2024
Verb
Teams hustle to overwhelm an opponent’s base before a rival group claims theirs; as the contestants hoof through dense foliage, a drone shot soars over to capture the frenetic scramble.—Siren Goes Off, Vulture, 16 June 2023 The usefulness of it while hoofing away from predators (or toward food) may have driven natural selection, the researchers say.—Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 31 May 2023 See all Example Sentences for hoof
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hoof.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English, from Old English hōf; akin to Old High German huof hoof, Sanskrit śapha
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
: a covering of horn that protects the front of or encloses the ends of the toes of some mammals (as horses, oxen, and pigs) and that corresponds to a nail or claw
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