- present participle of hose.
hosing
Americannoun
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an act or instance of being taken advantage of or cheated.
-
an act or instance of being attacked or defeated decisively; drubbing.
Small investors took a hosing in the recent stock-market decline.
Etymology
Origin of hosing
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.
Firefighters quickly began hosing down the smoking reactor -- "they didn't let the fire spread," Solovyov said.
From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026
Two workers were loading equipment onto trucks and a third was hosing the fresh cement that will sit under a new house.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2025
He worked six days a week, hosing down cars, soaping them up and vacuuming inside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2025
In Los Angeles County, local news showed those near the Hughes fire hosing down their homes and yards with water and others rushing to evacuate neighbourhoods.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2025
Chucha is locking up the garage and hosing down the driveway, which seems a strange thing to be doing in the middle of the night.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
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.
