hoover, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hoover adj.

[US President Herbert Hoover (1874–1964), during whose administration (1929–33) the US suffered the worst privations of the Depression]

(US) a generic adj. used in a variety of combs., all referring to events or objects engendered by the poverty that accompanied the Great Depression, e.g. Hooverville, a shanty town; Hoover blankets, newspapers used to wrap up in for warmth; Hoover flush, an unfinished flush in poker.

1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 206: If some barroom friend tells you about a greenhorn with a big roll that [...] is hell-bent on fillin’ Hoover flushes — don’t you sale.
1948		D. Wecter ‘The New Leisure Class’ in Brookhouser These Were Our Years (1959) 313: Old newspapers were called ‘Hoover blankets,’ jack rabbits ‘Hoover hogs’ and the shanties of starvation rising on the outskirts of cities ‘Hoovervilles’.
1949		Sat. Rev. Lit. (US) 6 Aug. 116: They called them ‘Hoovervilles.’ Evicted families lived in tin-and-cardboard shacks [DA].
1996		(con. 1933) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 21: Looks like Boyle just checked out of a Hoover Hotel.

In compounds

hoover buggy (n.) (also hoover cart, ...wagon)

(US) any makeshift vehicle horsedrawn and dedicated to hauling hay.

1935		Scribner’s Mag. IC 21: Murdoch stepped out of his bush and shook a fist after the Hoover cart and the [...] Hoover cart went on, jog-jogging.
1935		H.L. Mencken XXXIV Amer. Mercury viii: A Hoover-wagon is any auto-chassis, minus engine, transformed into a wagon and drawn by a mule.
1938		FWP Guide MS 18: At ten o’clock we are still arriving, in cars, in school buses, in wagons, and a few in ‘Hoover carts’ — an ingeniously contrived two-wheel, automobile-tired lolly brought into prominence by the depression [HDAS].
1962		M. Montgomery Wandering of Desire 194: Hoover buggies and the screwworm was about all we ever got from the Republicans down here.
1981		M. Cowley Remembering the 1930s 99: When a family car wore out, the owner removed the engine and attached a wagon pole to the chassis; that made a ‘Hoover wagon’.
1990		K. Wrench Sampson County 119: The mule plowed on the weekdays and pulled the Hoover Cart on Sundays.
2008		B. Brackman Making History 93: ‘Hoover buggies’ were old cars so broken down they were pulled by horses.

hoover dust (n.)

(US) cheap tobacco.

1939

T.J. Farr ‘The Language of the Tennessee Mountain Regions’ in AS XIV:2 91: hoover dust. Cheap sacked tobacco.

hoover flags (n.)

(US) empty pockets turned inside out.

1977

(con. 1930s) Johnson & Williamson Whatta-Gal 77: Empty pockets turned inside out were ‘Hoover flags’ [HDAS].

hoover gravy (n.)

(US) particularly thick gravy, often virtually all a family had to eat.

1954		Harder Collection n.p.: Hoover gravy . . . made with fat, flour, and milk [DARE].
1966–70		in DARE.
1998		(con. 1930s) Underwood My Appalachia 🌐 I wasn’t even born until the early 50s yet I know what ‘Hoover Gravy’ was, mostly because my mom knew some people who were really hard-off during the Depression. ‘Hoover Gravy’ was nothing more than a little bit of flour, a tiny pinch of salt, and water!

hoover hog (n.) (US)

1. a wild rabbit.

1941		‘More Tennessee Expressions’ in AS XVI:1 Feb. 447/1: hoover hog. Rabbit. ‘We had Hoover hog for breakfast.’.
1945		J.J. Mathews Talking to the Moon 6: He might resort to eating ‘Hoover hogs,’ which was the name given to rabbits by the valley farmers [DA].
1948		D. Wecter ‘The New Leisure Class’ in Brookhouser These Were Our Years (1959) 313: Old newspapers were called ‘Hoover blankets,’ jack rabbits ‘Hoover hogs’ and the shanties of starvation rising on the outskirts of cities ‘Hoovervilles’.
1966–70		in DARE.

2. an armadillo, a cheap form of meat for poor farmers during the Depression.

1940		J. Brown Amer. Cooks 798: During the depression, food got so scarce in some places along the Mex-Tex border that the unemployed took to eating that flavorsome little hard-shelled pig, the armadillo. . . With typical Texan frankness, they dubbed the delicacy ‘Hoover hog’ [DARE].
1968		in DARE.
1983		‘Heat Moon’ Blue Highways 142: Texans call them ‘diggers’. [...] poor whites ate them with greens and cornbread during the Depression and called them ‘hoover hogs’ or ‘Texas turkeys’ [...] even now, poor blacks, calling them just ‘dillas,’ barbeque the soft meat.

hoover pork (n.) (US)

1. sow belly.

1954

Harder Collection n.p.: Hoover pork. . . Sowbelly [DARE].

2. rabbit meat.

1953

Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 254: hoover pork: n. Rabbit meat. This is a reference to the lean years when Herbert Hoover was president, and many families could get no meat except rabbits.

hoover’s ham (n.)

(US) salt pork.

1947

McDavid Collection n.p.: Hoover’s ham — salt pork [DARE].

hoover wagon (n.)

see hoover buggy