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Woe vs Hoe - What's the difference?

woe | hoe |

As nouns the difference between woe and hoe

is that woe is grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity 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 an adjective woe

is woeful; sorrowful.

As a verb hoe is

to cut, dig, scrape, turn, arrange, or clean, with this tool.

woe

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.
  • * Milton
    • Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, / Sad instrument of all our woe , she took.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • [They] weep each other's woe .
  • A curse; a malediction.
  • * South
    • Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?

    Derived terms

    * in weal or woe * woeful * woe is me

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) woeful; sorrowful
  • * Robert of Brunne
    • His clerk was woe to do that deed.
  • * Chaucer
    • Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed.
  • * Spenser
    • And looking up he waxed wondrous woe .

    Anagrams

    *

    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". ----