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Harrow vs Hoe - What's the difference?

harrow | hoe |

As nouns the difference between harrow and hoe

is that harrow is a device consisting of a heavy framework having several disks or teeth in a row, which is dragged across ploughed land to smooth or break up the soil, to remove weeds or cover seeds; a harrow plow while hoe is an agricultural tool consisting of a long handle with a flat blade fixed perpendicular to it at the end, used for digging rows.

As verbs the difference between harrow and hoe

is that harrow is to drag a harrow over; to break up with a harrow while hoe is to cut, dig, scrape, turn, arrange, or clean, with this tool.

As an interjection harrow

is a call for help, or of distress, alarm etc.

harrow

English

Etymology 1

Either representing unattested (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A device consisting of a heavy framework having several disks or teeth in a row, which is dragged across ploughed land to smooth or break up the soil, to remove weeds or cover seeds; a harrow plow.
  • * 1918 , Louise & Aylmer Maude, trans. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina , Oxford 1998, p. 153:
    • He sent for the carpenter, who was under contract to be with the threshing-machine, but it turned out that he was mending the harrows , which should have been mended the week before Lent.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1960 , author= , title=(Jeeves in the Offing) , section=chapter X , passage=“It may be fun for her,” I said with one of my bitter laughs, “but it isn't so diverting for the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she plunges so ruthlessly in the soup.”}}
  • * 1969 , Bessie Head, When Rain Clouds Gather , Heinemann 1995, p. 28:
    • Part of your job would be to learn tractor ploughing and the use of planters, harrows , and cultivators.
  • (military) An obstacle formed by turning an ordinary harrow upside down, the frame being buried.
    • See also
    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To drag a harrow over; to break up with a harrow.
  • * Bible, Job xxxix. 10
    • Will he harrow the valleys after thee?
  • * 1719
    • When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow it.
  • To traumatize or disturb; to frighten or torment.
    • The headless horseman harrowed Ichabod Crane as he tried to reach the bridge.
  • To break or tear, as with a harrow; to wound; to lacerate; to torment or distress; to vex.
  • * Rowe
    • my aged muscles harrowed up with whips
  • * Shakespeare
    • I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word / Would harrow up thy soul.
    Derived terms
    * harrowing * Harrowing of Hell

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) haro, harou, of uncertain origin.

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (obsolete) A call for help, or of distress, alarm etc.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.vi:
    • Harrow , the flames, which me consume (said hee) / Ne can be quencht, within my secret bowels bee.

    References

    hoe

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) howe, from (etyl) houe, from (etyl) . More at (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An agricultural tool consisting of a long handle with a flat blade fixed perpendicular to it at the end, used for digging rows.
  • * 2009 , TRU TV, 28 March:
    • It was obvious that it consisted of several blows to the head from the hoe .
  • The horned or piked dogfish.
    • Derived terms
    * backhoe

    Verb

    (d)
  • (ambitransitive) To cut, dig, scrape, turn, arrange, or clean, with this tool.
    • to hoe the earth in a garden
    Every year, I hoe my garden for aeration.
    I always take a shower after I hoe in my garden.
  • To clear from weeds, or to loosen or arrange the earth about, with a hoe.
    • to hoe corn
    Derived terms
    * long row to hoe

    See also

    * mattock * pick * rake

    External links

    *

    Etymology 2

    From non-rhotic whore.

    Alternative forms

    * ho

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (US, slang) A prostitute.
  • * 2002 , Eithne Quinn, Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap
    • […] this chapter […] will […] explore why pimp (and hoe ) characters, with their dramatic staging of gendered and occupational relations […] have taken such hold of the black youth imagination
  • * 2003 , Dan Harrington, The Good Eye
    • At school they had been among the only couples that had not done “it” at the Pimp & Hoe parties that popped up occasionally at the dorm
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (d)
  • (US, slang) To act as a prostitute.
  • * 2003 , Da’rel the Relentless One, M. T. Pimp
    • Pimpin’ came so naturally to MT when he and his sisters played pimp and hoe games that one of his sisters wanted to hoe for him when they grew up.

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A piece of land that juts out towards the sea; a promontory.

    • Usage notes

    * Now used only in placenames e.g. "Plymouth Hoe". ----