Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. A vacuum cleaner (irrespective of brand).
- v. transitive, UK To clean (a room, etc) with a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.
- v. intransitive, UK To use a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.
- v. transitive To suck in or inhale, as if by a vacuum cleaner.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. slang to clean with a vacuum cleaner.
WordNet 3.0
- n. United States industrialist who manufactured vacuum cleaners (1849-1932)
- n. 31st President of the United States; in 1929 the stock market crashed and the economy collapsed and Hoover was defeated for reelection by Franklin Roosevelt (1874-1964)
- n. a kind of vacuum cleaner
- n. United States lawyer who was director of the FBI for 48 years (1895-1972)
- v. clean with a vacuum cleaner
Etymologies
- The common noun and verb are taken from the brand name Hoover of one of the first vacuum cleaners. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Hoover, whose history dates back to 1907, is one of the country's most iconic brands; the phrase "hoover up" is commonly understood to mean vacuum-cleaning, and also to eat or drink rapidly.”
The Wall Street Journal: Hoover, Dirt Devil Put on Auction Block
“When she was making her work initially she believed that there must be a way to lift the plastic out of the world, to "hoover" it up and transport it somewhere in one fell swoop.”
The Huffington Post: Wallace J Nichols: The Story of Plastic and Toxic Art
“Hi: Interesting post but I think you meant "hoover" :”
“If iPod became a generally used term (such as hoover, mentioned above), then in future it could be impossible for Apple to enforce the trademark if someone were to use it in a malicious way, say to try and pass off cheap rubbish mp3 players as iPods.”
“By the way, im 16 years old and im damn proud of my body modifications, and im going into the industry of such a thing and im gonna modify myself to the extreme, this is my opinion dont like it, go "hoover" yourself.”
“She has not changed since the Roux's took over & has definitely not or needed to "hoover" up lessons from Michel Roux's TV programme.”
“Classic sounds such as the 'hoover' (from the Roland Alpha Juno 2) are enhanced and recreated”
“The idea in and of itself is not new, and various prototypes of this have been kicking around inside of Sun under various monikers ( "brain slug", "hoover", etc) without ever becoming a complete product.”
“Any thought of adding verbs such as hoover, i don't think it is used as in Britain?”
“(In much the same way as Hoover later used to complain whenever anyone used the word 'hoover' to describe any old vacuum cleaner as opposed to one of their specific products.)”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hoover’.
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7thGradeWords
horde, doggedly, retina, frail, jovial, insidious, injudicious, brazen, tentative, hortle, adaver, benign and 91 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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Gesundheit
Words that sound like sneezes
zucchini, zoology, wysiwyg, woodchuck, withhold, wichita, vacuum, twelfth, syzygy, synchronous, swatch, supersede and 120 more...
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Its Over - A New Beginning
allover, sign over, lord it over, move over, leftover, keel over, look over, hunch over, hold over, make over, ice over, four-leaf clover and 75 more...
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Irish English that's not in American ...
Well-known phrases in Irish English that aren't understood in American English.
or next offer, hoover, plaster, soother, chimnea, craic, bits and bobs, grinds, jumper, mum, chancer, ticks all the boxes and 60 more...
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Nature abhors a vacuum
nature abhors a v..., vacuum, vacuum cleaner, suction sweeper, hoover, vacuum-clean, vacuum pump, vacuum tube, vacuum flask, sous-vide, vacuum packing, vacuum activity and 10 more...
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WF - Words from Proper Names
bowdlerize, boycott, caesarean, lynch, pasteurize, sadist, sandwich, hoover, braille, wellington, cardigan, macintosh and 11 more...
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yo0yo0's list
expanding vacabulary..
hoping to learn more -
colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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trademark
all of these are from 7 English
dictionaries and Macquarie dictionary
I havent listed capitalized ones yet
but Viagra would be one and common
words like sterling a sub-machi...agene, adware, airbus, alnico, amberina, amarone, apiezon, aspirin, atebrin, atebrine, autocue, autoharp and 774 more...
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Genericide
Trademarks that have lost their character as indicators of source to become a general term for a product or service.
cellophane, aspirin, butterscotch, escalator, heroin, kerosene, thermos, yo-yo, zipper, dry ice, email, freeware and 106 more...
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What's next here?
thunderhead, thundercloud, cumulus, cumulonimbus, fibrous, hazy, glaciated, cirrus, nimbus, meteorology, fahrenheit, thermoscope and 285 more...
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The Motherland! (God Bless the Queen)
Words that remind me of England, which I miss very much.
snog, nappy, wanker, telly, knickers, crumpet, pants, bum, loo, bollocks, stroppy, whinge and 108 more...
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trademarks
kleenex, xerox, hoover, google, styrofoam, dumpster, frisbee, band-aid, klaxon, teflon, nalgene, hula-hoop and 15 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hoover.
yarb It's what's for dinner! Apr 1, 2011
bilby You know CSS, yarb. Corn syrup solids. Apr 1, 2011
yarb I'm no expert on CSS scripts, but wouldn't that be hovver? Apr 1, 2011
divxpr Its used too on css scripts. Hoover is when you put the cursor over a link. Apr 1, 2011
jodi Rare in AmE, where it is not understood generically, but may reference Hoover the brand. Use vacuum instead Mar 31, 2011
seanahan Nobody does it like you, the way that you do, C_B, nobody, does it like you. Nov 13, 2007
chained_bear And let's not forget about Hoovervilles. Nov 12, 2007
uselessness Something I've been thinking about lately. One site I spend a lot of time on is Facebook. Recently they announced that their member database is becoming searchable, meaning my profile could appear on Google. Not in its entirety, granted, just a header and my picture. Still, it's opt-out if I don't want to be included in that (seems like it should be opt-in). And who knows what other privacy issues they will loosen up on in the future? The thought occurred to me that if, for whatever reason, I stopped using Facebook, my information might one day become very public of its own accord. Yikes! Sep 6, 2007
jrome "...how does this contribute to the growing problem of “digital litter�? in which people are leaving crumbs of personal information all over the web, in a way that makes it very difficult to hoover up at a later date, if they so desire." -- http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=300 Sep 6, 2007
seanahan Nobody does it like you. Aug 1, 2007
reesetee Or to consume food the way a vacuum cleaner cleans. ;-) Aug 1, 2007
slumry verb: to clean with a vacuum cleaner Aug 1, 2007