Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

on the hoof

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.06 in modern English

Syllables: on the hoof
IPA

18

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

1

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

prep_phrase

Of livestock, not yet butchered.

prep_phrase

Alive; embodied in a living animal (including a human); in working order.

prep_phrase

Of a human activity, while standing, walking, or running; on foot.

prep_phrase

Without proper thought or preparation; done as one goes.

British usage; Informal

Example Sentences

"[…]he is hereby directed to purchase, and have in Readiness by the First Day of July next, Two Hundred good draught Horses, Thirty Hogsheads of Rum, Ninety Thousand Weight of Beef on the Hoof, Hides included,[…]"
"A 150-pound whitetail on the hoof can be reduced to 100 pounds of pure meat."
"Barely 10% of the country's corn crop ever goes into commercial channels to become breakfast cereal, corn starch or oil. Less than 25% ever leaves the farm where it was grown - until it leaves on the hoof."
"In 1920, votes at the Republican National Convention were selling at $2,500 on the hoof."
"It seems to me that the university degrees as I see them on the hoof in Calgary at any rate serve to widen the gulf between the people who need help and the people who are there to help."
"An essential weakness of these results, of course, is that it is not possible to conclude very much about the importance of these various routes like 'a new person joining the firm' (also referred to as technology transfer 'on the hoof')"

Etymology

The literal sense concerning livestock has no more to it as a sum of parts than the corresponding sense of on foot does. A reference to humans being on the hoof occurs in a text from England in 1691.

Usage

British usage
Informal

Phrases

steak on the hoof

Synonyms

on the fly extempore

Questions

What does on the hoof mean?: Of livestock, not yet butchered.
Where does on the hoof come from?: The literal sense concerning livestock has no more to it as a sum of parts than the corresponding sense of on foot does. A reference to humans being on the hoof occurs in a text from England in 1691.

How to pronounce on the hoof

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