Word.ws English Dictionary

hoover

Syllables: hoo·verUK/ˈhuːvə(ɹ)/US/ˈhuvɚ/

hoover noun: a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.

hoover: a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand
Image: Birmingham Museums Trust, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

hoover (plural hoovers)

  1. (Ireland, UK) A vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.
    • "What do you do about dogs that don't like Hoovers?" […] At the first opportunity place the Hoover in the area where your dog is lying calmly, and since it is normally the noise that sends it into those fits of anger, it should be unconcerned with a silent machine. Continue to place the Hoover in...2006, William Houston, Party Tricks for Dogs, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN
    • And the brooms lined up behind the buckets, and the dusters, dustpans, cloths and brushes, feather dusters and sweepers all lined up bravely to do battle with the thousand upright Hoovers. The Hoovers charged, engines roaring and bags fully inflated.2011, Terry Jones, Evil Machines, Clerkenwell, London: Unbound, →ISBN

Verb (1)

hoover (third-person singular simple present hoovers, present participle hoovering, simple past and past participle hoovered)

  1. (Ireland, UK, ambitransitive) To clean (a room, etc.) with a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of the brand.
    • I need to hoover this room.
    • This time Robbie was dreaming about Mr Spatchley's ducks. They had all come alive and were flying around the office whilst Robbie desperately tried to hoover the floor. There were ducks everywhere, on the desk and mantelpiece and padding around on the floor, knocking things over and quacking...2000, Tanya David; Dennis Pepper, comp., “Dogends”, in The New Young Oxford Book of Ghost Stories, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 30–31
    Synonyms:
    vacuum
  2. (Ireland, UK, intransitive) To use a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.
    • I'd hoover, iron or dust, but I hated doing windows.
    • […] she was always in trouble for not hoovering behind the bed picked up what I could of it still there after he hoovered […]2001, Ali Smith, Hotel World, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN
  3. (transitive) To suck in or inhale, as if by a vacuum cleaner.
    • 'You're probably thinking I'm a slob,' said Lister, finishing off a quintuple-thick milkshake and hoovering around the base with the straw.1989, Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
    • Then there is the little-known family of organisms called hantaviruses, which swarm in the micro-haze above the feces of mice and rats and are hoovered into the human respiratory system by anyone unlucky enough to stick a breathing orifice near them—by lying down, say, on a sleeping platform over...1998, Bill Bryson, chapter 1, in A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books, →ISBN, page 8

Proper noun capitalized: Hoover

Hoover

  1. An American surname from German (shared by several famous people including J. Edgar Hoover and Herbert Hoover).
  2. A city in Jefferson County and Shelby County, Alabama, incorporated in 1967 and named after William H. Hoover.
  3. An unincorporated community in Adams Township, Cass County, Indiana, named after founder Riley Hoover.
  4. An unincorporated community in Platte County, Missouri, named after merchant James Hoover.
  5. An unincorporated community in Garvin County, Oklahoma, named after physician Daniel H. Hoover.
  6. An unincorporated community in Butte County, South Dakota, named after cattleman John Hoover.

Noun (2) capitalized: Hoover

Hoover (plural Hoovers)

  1. A vacuum cleaner of the Hoover brand.
  2. Alternative letter-case form of hoover (irrespective of the brand).
  3. A member of the Hoovers.

Verb (2) capitalized: Hoover

Hoover (third-person singular simple present Hoovers, present participle Hoovering, simple past and past participle Hoovered)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of hoover.
    • I helped Mum tidy up and watched while she Hoovered the carpet.1976, Robert Leeson, The Demon Bike Rider, London: Collins, →ISBN, page 65
    • After another hour, I had Hoovered the carpet and emptied the dustbin, and we all sat down to watch vintage home movies.1984 February 22, Hunter Davies, “Father’s Day”, in Punch, volume 286, number 7473, Punch Publications Ltd., page 33, column 3

hoover meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

hoover in Hindi

हूवर

hoover in Tamil

ஹூவர்

hoover in Marathi

हुवर

hoover in Urdu

ہوور
More languagesFewer languages
hoover in Bengali
হুভার, হুভার করা
hoover in Telugu
హూవర్
hoover in Malayalam
ഹൂവർ
hoover in Kannada
ಹೂವರ್
hoover in Punjabi
ਹੂਵਰ
hoover in Gujarati
હૂવર
hoover in Odia
ହୁୱାର
hoover in Nepali
हुभर, हुवर

Examples of hoover in a sentence

  • Vacuuming the house is a very quick way of sprucing it up simply because you can use the hoover to push everything out of the way.2014, Guy Browning, How to Be Normal: A Guide for the Perplexed, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN:
  • They had all come alive and were flying around the office whilst Robbie desperately tried to hoover the floor.2000, Tanya David; Dennis Pepper, comp., “Dogends”, in The New Young Oxford Book of Ghost Stories, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN...
  • In the freshly hoovered living room of her house in Wokingham, Thelma Dawnton was distinctly miffed.2006, Stella Rimington, Secret Asset, London: Hutchinson, ISBN 978-0-09-180024-6; republished New York, N.Y.: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard...
  • In honour of my visit, he'd gotten rid of 'most' of the cobwebs, and washed and hoovered the walls next to the bed.2009, Ariel Leve, The Cassandra Chronicles, London: Portobello, →ISBN:

All 24 example sentences with hoover

Synonyms of hoover

Forms of hoover

Noun
pluralhoovers
alternative formHoover
pluralHoovers
Verb
third-person singular presenthoovers
present participlehoovering
past participlehoovered
pasthoovered
third-person singular presentHoovers
present participleHoovering
past participleHoovered
pastHoovered

Plural of hoover: hoovers

Origin of hoover

A genericized trademark of Hoover, the brand name of one of the first vacuum cleaners, which was sold by The Hoover Company. The American company was founded by William Henry Hoover (1849–1932) and his son Herbert William Hoover, Sr. (1877–1954). The surname Hoover is an Anglicized version of the German Huber, originally designating a landowner or a prosperous small-scale farmer.

The surname is an anglicization of German Huber or Low German Hufer, originally designating a landowner or a prosperous small-scale farmer. The common noun and verb are taken from the brand name of one of the first vacuum cleaners (see hoover).

Words formed from hoover

Phrases with hoover

Words that rhyme with hoover

Questions about hoover

What does hoover mean?
Hoover means a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.
What is hoover in Hindi?
Hoover in Hindi is हूवर. See Hoover meaning in Hindi.
How do you use hoover in a sentence?
Vacuuming the house is a very quick way of sprucing it up simply because you can use the hoover to push everything out of the way.
What part of speech is hoover?
Hoover can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hoover?
Hoover is pronounced /ˈhuːvə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of hoover?
The plural of hoover is hoovers.

Words near hoover in the dictionary

  1. hooty-tooty
  2. hoove
  3. hooved
  4. hooven
  5. Hoovens
  6. hoover
  7. Hoover bag
  8. Hoover bags
  9. Hoover blanket
  10. Hoover blankets
  11. Hoover flag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hoover (page history and authors); Hoover (page history and authors); hoover (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoover (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-au-hoover.ogg.

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