Hoover
Origin
The common noun and verb are taken from the brand name The Hoover Company of one of the first vacuum cleaners.
Full definition of hoover
Noun
hoover
(plural hoovers)- (Mainly UK) A vacuum cleaner irrespective of brand.
Verb
- (transitive, British) To clean (a room, etc) with a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.
- 2008, Stella Rimington, Secret Asset, page 210:In the freshly hoovered living room of her house in Wokingham, Thelma Dawnton was distinctly miffed.
- I need to hoover this room.
- (intransitive, British) To use a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.My husband is upstairs, hoovering.
- (transitive) To suck in or inhale, as if by a vacuum cleaner.
- 1998 Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods, Anchor Books, p. 8...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...
Derived terms
Synonyms
- (transitive sense) to vacuum