/ˈhɒvəl/, /ˈhʌvəl/, /ˈhɑvəl/
OriginFrom Middle English hovel, hovil, hovylle, diminutive of *hove, *hof (“structure, building, house”), from Old English hof (“an enclosure, court, dwelling, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hof, from Proto-Germanic *hufą (“hill, farm”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“arch, bend, buckle”), equivalent to howf + -el. Compare Middle High German hobel (“cover, lid, covered wagon”).
Cognate with Dutch hof (“garden, court”), German Hof (“yard, garden, court, palace”), Icelandic hof (“temple, hall”). Related to hove and hover.
- An open shed for sheltering cattle, or protecting produce, etc., from the weather.
- In the manufacture of porcelain, a large, conical brick structure around which the firing kilns are grouped.
- Midwestern-US, archaic, slangA straitjacket.
- transitiveTo put in a hovel; to shelter.
“To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn.”
“The poor are hovell'd and hustled together.”
- transitiveTo construct a chimney so as to prevent smoking, by making two of the more exposed walls higher than the others, or making an opening on one side near the top.
Formshovels(plural) · hovels(present, singular, third-person) · hoveling(US, participle, present) · hovelling(UK, participle, present) · hoveled(US, participle, past) · hoveled(US, past) · hovelled(UK, participle, past) · hovelled(UK, past)