hoover
verb (used with object)
to clean with a vacuum cleaner.
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hoover
1 American
[hoo-ver]
/ ˈhu vər /
verb (used with object)
(often initial capital letter)
-
hoovers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hoovered,
past participle, past
-
hoovering
present participle
Hoover
2
American
[hoo-ver]
/ ˈhu vər /
noun
-
Herbert (Clark), 1874–1964, 31st president of the U.S. 1929–33.
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J(ohn) Edgar, 1895–1972, U.S. government official: director of the FBI 1924–72.
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Lou Henry, 1874–1944, U.S. First Lady 1929–33 (wife of Herbert Hoover).
-
a town in N central Alabama.
Hoover
1
British
/ ˈhuːvə /
noun
verb
-
to vacuum-clean (a carpet, furniture, etc)
-
to consume or dispose of (something) quickly and completely
he hoovered up his grilled fish
Hoover
2
British
/ ˈhuːvə /
noun
-
Herbert ( Clark ). 1874–1964, US statesman; 31st president of the US (1929–33). He organized relief for Europe during and after World War I, but as president he lost favour after his failure to alleviate the effects of the Depression
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J ( ohn ) Edgar. 1895–1972, US lawyer: director of the FBI (1924–72). He used new scientific methods to combat crime, including the first fingerprint file
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
hooversimple
-
hooverssimple
-
have hooveredperfect
-
has hooveredperfect
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am hooveringprogressive
-
are hooveringprogressive
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is hooveringprogressive
-
have been hooveringperfect progressive
-
has been hooveringperfect progressive
Past
-
hooveredsimple
-
had hooveredperfect
-
was hooveringprogressive
-
were hooveringprogressive
-
had been hooveringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hoover
First recorded in 1925–30; after the trademark of a vacuum cleaner manufacturer
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The green points jersey was awarded to Pedersen of Lidl-Trek, after tenacious riding on climbs he is not typically strong on to hoover up mid-stage points, alongside winning stage four.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Inspired, Brundage became obsessed with web scrapers—automated programs that hoover up vast amounts of web data for analysis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
Shoppers could face higher prices for phones, laptops and other gadgets next year, manufacturers and analysts warn, as AI data centres hoover up memory chips used in consumer electronics.
From Barron's ● Nov. 20, 2025
Rising land prices smother our ability to move, suppress fertility rates, stifle innovation, and hoover up resources that might be deployed elsewhere.
From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2025
I whinged that it didn't smell of anything, but she pointed out I wasn't the one who had to hoover and unpick the needles from the carpet.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
The concrete mega-structure that would become the Hoover Dam needed congressional approval, and Mulholland was a strong advocate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
McCarthy peppered journalists, congressional staff and even FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover with desperate appeals for evidence, but no one had any.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
He wrote letters to anyone who could make his idea a reality—governors, a Broadway star, former President Herbert Hoover.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026
Mr. Wolfowitz is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
No one in the US government was better informed about Soviet activities in the United States than J. Edgar Hoover.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
Will they just be the play things of the rich or will they become cheap enough for mainstream use in the same way that robot hoovers have become?
From BBC ● Jan. 11, 2026
It is the industry that hoovers up everything from veterinary clinics to newspapers, not necessarily to the benefit of either dog owners or journalists.
From Slate ● Dec. 12, 2024
The public health effort, dubbed “HHS Protect Now,” hoovers up vast amounts of data, including coronavirus test results, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as state and local sources.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 1, 2020
But it is Helberg – as Cosmé McMoon, witness to multiple musical massacres – who hoovers up the laughs.
From The Guardian ● May 5, 2016
“That would be a resounding no,” Dad replies, then hoovers into the slice.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
In fourth, "Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie" hoovered up an estimated $20.5 million for Paramount on its debut weekend.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Not a handful of almonds hoovered over the sink.
From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2026
Then, covering our hair, we stepped inside and across perfectly hoovered crimson carpets and under chandeliers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
We are talking about big, mainly US, tech firms here doing the scraping, and not paying for anything they hoovered up.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2025
Rex got to the ball, hoovered it up, and started back towards Alex.
From "Eleven" by Tom Rogers
A widely expected glut never materialized because Beijing was hoovering up so much crude to add to storage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
The name-dropping is relentless and if, like me, you have an insatiable appetite for hoovering them up, this volume will not disappoint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The PC is equipped with a central processing unit, graphics card, random-access memory and high-capacity storage — the very same equipment that multitrillion-dollar tech companies are now hoovering up to power their artificial-intelligence ambitions.
From MarketWatch ● May 23, 2026
One ETF hoovering assets suggests that some investors are also diversifying by flirting with non-capitalization-weighting strategies.
From Barron's ● Apr. 15, 2026
Mum couldn’t hear 'cause the washing machine was on berserk cycle and she was hoovering the living room.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
