“hoofs” is a form of
hoof
/hʊf/ noun, verb
Forms hooves hoofs hoofing hoofed hoove
- noun The tip of a toe of an ungulate such as a horse, ox or deer, strengthened by a thick keratin covering.
- noun (slang, derogatory) The human foot. “Get your hooves off me!”
- noun (geometry, dated) An ungula.
- noun The heel of a loaf of bread.
- verb To trample with hooves.
- verb (colloquial) To walk.
- verb (informal) To dance, especially as a professional.
- verb (colloquial, football (soccer), transitive) To kick, especially to kick a football a long way downfield with little accuracy.
Synonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English hof, houf, houve, hove, from Old English hōf, from Proto-Germanic *hōfaz (compare West Frisian hoef, Dutch hoef, German Huf, Danish hov, Norwegian hov, Swedish hov), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱoph₂ós (compare Sanskrit शफ (śaphá, “hoof, claw”), Avestan 𐬯𐬀𐬟𐬀 (safa, “hoof”), possibly Czech, Polish kopyto).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The horny substance or case that covers or terminates the feet of certain animals, as horses, oxen, etc. On burnished hooves his war horse trode. Tennyson.
- noun A hoofed animal; a beast.
- verb To walk as cattle. [R.] William Scott.
- verb To be on a tramp; to foot. [Slang, U.S.] To hoof it, to foot it.
Etymology [OE. hof, AS. hof; akin to D. hoef, G1huf, OHG. huof, Icel. hofr, Sw. hof, Dan. hov; cf. Russ. kopuito, Skr. çapha. sq. root225.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hoof”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details