hoof pick
- noun
- /huf pɪk/
- She always behaved when someone cleaned her hooves with a hoof pick.
Examples
-
"She set the dandy brush aside and took up a hoof pick."
Fiction book (1995) -
Mike was cleaning around the horse's frog with a hoof pick, and the big bay horse was nervously whisking his black tail back and forth in Mike's face.
Fiction book (1993) -
The farrier cleaned the horse's hooves carefully with a hoof pick to remove any dirt and debris.
-
After riding, she used a hoof pick to ensure her horse's hooves were free from mud.
-
He always kept a hoof pick in his grooming kit to maintain his horses' health.
How Thorough
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a tool for cleaning a horse's hooves' is directly and compositionally derived from 'hoof' (the foot covering of an ungulate) + 'pick' (a slender, pointed scraping/cleaning instrument). This follows standard English noun-compounding patterns and is not idiomatic, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would reasonably infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun hoof pick is a small hooked tool used to pull stones and mud out of a horse's hoof. The word pick here means 'to pull out' or 'remove', so the name simply describes the tool's job.