Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Stockings; socks. Used only in the plural.
  • noun Close-fitting breeches or leggings reaching up to the hips and fastened to a doublet, formerly worn by men. Used only in the plural.
  • noun Breeches reaching down to the knees. Used only in the plural.
  • noun A flexible tube for conveying liquids or gases under pressure.
  • transitive verb To water, drench, or wash with a hose.
  • transitive verb To attack and kill (someone), typically by use of a firearm.
  • transitive verb To exploit, cheat, or defraud.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To clothe with hose; clothe.
  • To play upon with a hose; drench with water from a hose.
  • noun In entomology, a peculiar organ or gland at the base of the tarsal claws of the Psocidæ.
  • noun The wide trousers formerly worn by seamen.
  • Originally, a garment covering the legs and the waist, worn by men.
  • In present use (as either singular or plural), covering for the feet and lower part of the legs; stockings. Short stockings, not reaching to the knee, are distinctively called half-hose or socks, or, rarely, ankle-hose.
  • A flexible tube or pipe for conveying a fluid to a required point, as water for the service of a fire-engine, for watering a garden, etc.
  • The hollow part of a spade, or other tool of a like kind, which receives the end of the shaft or handle.
  • In printing, formerly, upright iron rods, which connected the spindle of the old hand-press with its platen, and regulated its movement.
  • The sheaf of corn.
  • The outer covering of straw or corn.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Close-fitting trousers or breeches, as formerly worn, reaching to the knee.
  • noun Covering for the feet and lower part of the legs; a stocking or stockings.
  • noun A flexible pipe, made of leather, India rubber, or other material, and used for conveying fluids, especially water, from a faucet, hydrant, or fire engine.
  • noun a wheeled vehicle fitted for conveying hose for extinguishing fires.
  • noun [U.S.] a company of men appointed to bring and manage hose in the extinguishing of fires.
  • noun coupling with interlocking parts for uniting hose, end to end.
  • noun a spanner for turning hose couplings, to unite or disconnect them.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A flexible tube conveying water or other fluid, pl. hoses.
  • noun A stocking-like garment worn on the legs; pantyhose, women's tights, pl. hose or hosen.
  • verb transitive To water or spray with a hose.
  • verb transitive To provide with hose (garment)
  • verb transitive To attack and kill somebody, usually using a firearm.
  • verb transitive To trick or deceive.
  • verb transitive, computing To break a computer so everything needs to be reinstalled; to wipe all files.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun socks and stockings and tights collectively (the British include underwear)
  • noun man's close-fitting garment of the 16th and 17th centuries covering the legs and reaching up to the waist; worn with a doublet
  • noun a flexible pipe for conveying a liquid or gas
  • verb water with a hose

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, a stocking, from Old English hosa, leg covering; see (s)keu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hose ("leggings, hose"), from Old English hose, hosa ("hose, leggings"), from Proto-Germanic *husōn (cf. West Frisian hoas 'hose', Dutch hoos 'stocking, water-hose', German Hose 'trousers'), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu-s (cf. Tocharian A kać 'skin', Russian кишка (kiška) 'gut', Ancient Greek kýstis 'bladder', Sanskrit कोष्ठ (koṣṭha, "intestine"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu- (“to cover”). More at sky.

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Examples

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  • Captured at Yorktown, 1100 pair hose (meaning stockings).

    October 29, 2007