People on the hoof

That's what is sounds like, but I'm not sure that I've ever heard it used. Do you have an example of how it was used in context?

GmeleanHi,

What is the meaning of the expression: "People on the hoof"

Is it a sort of "people randomly walking"?

Thanks in advance.

As far as I know, it simply means "on foot". It might indicate a perpetual moving from one place to another, but I'm not sure.

Search at Yahoo with:
"on the hoof" dictionary
(quotation marks are important)
to find relevant dictionary pages

You will find among other such pages:
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on the hoof

1. used to describe an animal that is alive and has not yet been butchered

2. without sufficient thought or attention

The Tour de France is all about people on the move. Two hundred of the world's top cyclists, a media and organisational circus of some 7000 and a daily attendance that is often measured in millions.

You cannot feed a million people on the hoof, so why bother? There are hardly any burger vans, ice-cream vendors or cold drink stands. Everybody prefers to feed themselves.

It probably means: "You cannot feed a million people without a lot of preparation, so why bother?..."
It might also be a play on words with "hoof it" meaning to walk. So, perhaps the 'full' meaning is: "... a million moving people without a lot of preparation..."

'on the hoof' - spontaneously, without planning.

So it means that you can't feed all those people without an awful lot of preparation.

Nona The Brit'on the hoof' - spontaneously, without planning.

So it means that you can't feed all those people without an awful lot of preparation.

Yes, that concurs with the link I posted.

Hi guys,

I don't agree that this means spontaneously, without planning. For that, I'd use some other idiom, perhaps like 'off the cuff'.

To me, people 'on the hoof' clearly means people moving from one place to another.

This also makes sense in terms of the Tour de France, where huge crowds of people follow the riders, moving from one vantage point to another.