hoof [OE] If a government makes policy on the hoof, it does so without proper thought and preparation. The original reference was to livestock that was alive and not yet slaughtered; the earliest example in print dates from 1818. The human foot is also treated like a cow’s or horse’s in the phrase to hoof it ‘to walk as opposed to ride’, which dates from as far back as the mid 17th century. To hoof meaning ‘to dance’, and hoofer ‘a dancer’ both arose in US slang in the 1920s.