Word.ws English Dictionary

hoit

/ˈhɔɪt/

hoit verb: to behave frivolously and thoughtlessly; to play the fool. Also the pronunciation spelling of hurt.

Verb

hoit (third-person singular simple present hoits, present participle hoiting, simple past and past participle hoited)

  1. (archaic, intransitive) To behave frivolously and thoughtlessly; to play the fool.
    • Let none condemn them [girls] for Rigs, becauſe thus hoiting vvith boys, ſeeing the ſimplicity of their age vvas a Patent to priviledge any innocent paſtime, and fevv mo[r]e years vvill make them bluſh themſelves into better manners.1650, Thomas Fuller, “Of the Clothes and Ornaments of the Jews”, in A Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testament Acted thereon, London: […] J....
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To romp noisily; to caper, to leap.
    • Hark, my husband! he's singing and hoiting; and I'm fain to cark and care, and all little enough1607 (first performance), Francis Beaumont, “The Knight of the Burning Pestle”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC...

Also used as

hoit is also the pronunciation spelling of hurt.

Forms of hoit

third-person singular presenthoits
present participlehoiting
past participlehoited
pasthoited
past participlehoit
pasthoit

Origin of hoit

Unknown. Possibly from Old Norse, or a native Old English term. Perhaps somehow from Middle English hote (“to promise, etc.”). Compare Welsh hoetian (“to dally, dandle”), as well as Scots hoit (“to move awkwardly or clumsily, especially of a stout person or animal, to waddle”), which may be more plausible (especially in sense 2).

Words formed from hoit

Words that rhyme with hoit

Questions about hoit

What does hoit mean?
Hoit means to behave frivolously and thoughtlessly; to play the fool.
What part of speech is hoit?
Hoit is a verb.
How do you pronounce hoit?
Hoit is pronounced /ˈhɔɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of hoit?
The past tense of hoit is hoited.

Words near hoit in the dictionary

  1. hoistroom
  2. hoistrooms
  3. hoists
  4. hoistway
  5. hoistways
  6. hoit
  7. hoiting
  8. hoits
  9. hoity toity
  10. hoity-toitier
  11. hoity-toities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hoit (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hoit.wav.

Cite this entry: “hoit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hoit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.