A hoe is a gardening tool with a flat blade attached to a long handle, used to break up soil, remove weeds, and prepare ground for planting. Farmers and gardeners push or pull the blade through the dirt, cutting weeds off at their roots or loosening packed earth to help seeds take hold.

Hoes have been essential farming tools for thousands of years. Before modern machinery, farmers used hoes to tend entire fields by hand, a backbreaking job that required strength and endurance. Even today, many gardeners prefer hoes for vegetable patches and flower beds because they let you work precisely around plants without disturbing their roots.

As a verb, hoe means to use a hoe to work the soil or remove weeds.

The word appears in the phrase a hard row to hoe, meaning a difficult task ahead. If your teacher assigns a complicated project, you might say you have “a hard row to hoe” to finish it, comparing your work to a farmer facing a long, tough field to prepare.