hoe
noun
a long-handled implement having a thin, flat blade usually set transversely, used to break up the surface of the ground, destroy weeds, etc.
were hoeing
-
past progressiveof hoe.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
While nearby hippies were hoeing vegetable beds, canning tomatoes, and otherwise getting back to the land, Sanders went back to the typewriter.
From Salon ● Dec. 30, 2015
On this sunlit night last week, Crofter Willie Fraser and his son were hoeing turnips in the garden of their low stone cottage near the inlet.
From Time Magazine Archive
Land Army girls were hoeing among the cabbages in the adjoining field—no time off for them in the rain, either.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
As the train approached Taling ho groups of men were hoeing in millet fields, thirty in one group on one side and fifty in another body on the other.
From Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan by F. H. (Franklin Hiram) King
Children were shouting and singing, and a great many men and women were hoeing in the fields.
From The Freedmen's Book by Lydia Maria Francis Child
