Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also huff it) to walk, to go on foot.

[1608		Dekker Belman of London B4: They liue upon the scraps of other mens inuentions [...] trauell upon the hard hoofe, from village to village for cheese and butter-milk].
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Hoof it [...] to walk on foot.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1772		R. Cumberland Fashionable Lover Prologue i: I am a devil, so please you, and must hoof / Up to the poet yonder with this proof .
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: He hoofed it [...] every step of the way from Chester to London.
1795		‘Shale’s Rambles’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 505: In Kilkenny I staid a day, Gorden’s town I hoofed.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1785].
1834		‘Those London Mots’ Bang-Up Songster 39: But after all it’s hard I say, / To have to hoof it night and day.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 111: Hoof it, to walk.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 353: The prad will be bow-wow’s meat if he has to hoof it much further.
1863		Winchester Army Bull. (TN) 12 July 4/1: Let him ‘hoof it’ on the dusty pike [...] His feet with blisters covered.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 486: Few of them can carry their royal splendors far enough to ride in carriages, however; they sport the economical Kanaka horse or ‘hoof it’ with the plebeians.
1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains rev. (1895) 230: Hullo, there! joined the doe-boys, eh? How do you like hoofing it?
1890		Sporting Times 1 Feb. 3/2: My next thought was as to the means of locomotion, for I wasn’t such a bally juggins as to think of hoofing it.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 13 Sept. 2/4: ‘Now, butcher, I want some meat, and give it to me good [...] don’t give me the neck.’ [...] ‘Mind, Miss P., that he don’t give you the horns and hoofs’.
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 291: It’s a mighty tough country, Jimmy, where white men hoof it and niggers ride.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 231: Keep hoofin’ along till you come to an alley.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 303: It was early dawn when Weeping Jesus hoofed it into camp.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 37: Stick on this cap of mine and hoof it.
1911		J. Masefield Everlasting Mercy 27: He done me, so I’ve had to hoove it.
1915		Truth (Brisbane) 25 July 12/3: ‘Cheeseandcrust! Snarker, fancy hoofin’ it 20 miles a day with all the circus them blokes got to carry!’.
1916		J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 67: The rest o’ the dicks is sweatin’ in Central or hoofin’ around on cement pavements.
1917		R.L. Mackay diary 20 Feb. 🌐 [...] thus saving much trouble and a rotten tramp for some dozen poor beggars who would have had to ‘hoof it’.
1920		A. Baer Two & Three 6 Feb. [synd. col.] The lads who used to hoodf around in the wee, small hours of the morning are finding that the wee, small hours are wee-er and smaller than ever.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 162: He started in about the female the moment we had begun to hoof it.
1931		O. Strange Law O’ The Lariat 208: Snap’s hoss bruk a leg on the way from Desert Edge, an’ he had to hoof it.
1938		D. Runyon ‘The Lemon Drop Kid’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 379: The Lemon Drop Kid hoofs and hitch-hikes [...] a hundred and fifty miles.
1939		J. Worby Spiv’s Progress 9: Only about thirty miles, and hoofed most of it .
1940		F. Sargeson ‘An Affair of the Heart’ Man and His Wife (1944) 37: As I was short of money at the time I was hoofing it.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 216: I hoofed it along, and the streets were very quiet.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 311: We’re gonna have to hoof it.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 19: Let’s hoof it up to the Gunnery Office.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 145: And off Fred hoofed into the predawn night.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 163: When I finally looked up I had hoofed it to Seventy-ninth and Broadway.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 69: Sold the car [...] Now Betty hoofs it to work.
1995		I. Rankin Let It Bleed 218: My guess is, he hoofed it back over the wall.
1997–2000		Da Bomb 🌐 15: Huffin (hoofin’) it: Walking. Do you want a ride? No, I think I’m huffin it.
2004		T. Dorsey Cadillac Beach 254: ‘We have to go now.’ Mahoney nodded. ‘Blow, hoof, dust, fade, breeze, slide, heel and toe, grab sidewalk, leave leather, drivin’ the shoe car . . .’.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 221: Reggie [...] started hoofing it down the road.

2. (also hoop it) to run.

1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 5: Hoop (or Hook) it - To run.
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 265: Don’t tarry, lads. Clear out as fast as you can hoof it.
1929		E. Caldwell Bastard (1963) 20: I feel the damn bugs beginning to crawl [...] When they got to biting in their stride I struck a match to the mattress and hoofed it downstairs.
1946		R.L. Bellem ‘Latin Blood’ in Speed Detective Aug. 🌐 Then I hoofed toward Wilshire.
1949		(con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 218: The litter bearers would hoof it through that area.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 73: We hoofed too.
2005		(con. 1960s) Guardian Weekend 2 Apr. 26: Hoofing it for my life across a sodden council estate.
2015		‘Harry Brandt’ Whites 4: The minute he sees the guns he jumps out and starts hoofing it back to Senegal.

3. to kick, also in fig. use.

1931		(con. 1900) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 40: A sore head, a black eye or two or a little ‘hoofing around’ now and then.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 105: KICK: boot, [...] hoof(Forest, 1920+), punt (Malvern, 1902+) [...] root (St Lawrence’s, 1919+; Stonyhurst, 1920 +, etc.), [...] toe (Colston’s, 1887), turf (Harrow, 1906+).
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 25 July 10: Robert Baggio hoofed a penalty over the bar.

4. (also hoofer) to dance.

1913		Wash. Herald (DC) 20 July 37: [cartoon caption] Grandpa Can Certainly ‘Hoof it’ Some.
1920		Eddie Cantor ‘Dixie Made Us Jazz Band Mad’ 🎵 Even kids just two or three, / How they love a jazzy melody! / Keep a-hooferin’! Keep a-hooferin’!
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 282: Hoofing it in a good lively dance.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 46: I’ll be pullin’ for you, but I can’t sing an’ hoof for you. Go to it, an’ ghoul ’em.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 247: I had sterner work before me than to stand hoofing it by myself on gravel drives.
1942		W. Winchell 28 June [synd. col.] Anohter musical, ‘Ship Ahoy’, has Eleanor Powell hoofing.
1944		M. Panter-Downes ‘The Danger’ Wartime Stories (1999) 170: Their small, sharp faces solemn as they hoofed in almost perfect unison on the gravel.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 142: A strange quirk in the municipal laws prohibits public dancing in this block, though stage entertainers, third rate, may hoof.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 8: We be hoofin’ in Florsheim, wheelin’ in hogs!
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 30: Half a dozen youing girls [...] bumping and hoofing around [...] to the usual Madonna, Prince or whatever dance music.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] [T]hey all formed pairs and started dancing old, fifties-style, rock’n’roll dance steps. Whoever the girls were they could sure hoof it.
2006		Indep. Rev. 10 Feb. 22: Hoofing joyously with Kelly in Cole Porter’s ‘You’re Just Too, Too’.
2011		Week 8 Jan. 25/2: A combination of vaudevillian hoofing with slapstick.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 187: [H]oofering with naggy-chested negros.

5. (US) to work hard.

1953

F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 242: We hoofed it today, kid! [...] I never worked so hard on a case.

6. (US campus) to hurry.

1981		W.D. Myers Hoops 79: [S]he was really hoofing. I had to walk fast to keep up with her.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 6: hoof it – hurry.

7. to engage enthusiastically in something.

1999		Guardian Weekend 3 July 53: I hoofed into some champagne.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] Les gave the barman a fifty and hoofed his JD and ice.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] The Blues Club started hoofing into ‘Bad Books’.