row to hoe

noun

A task or responsibility that must be attended to.

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Meanings

nounrow to hoe (plural rows to hoe)

plural rows to hoe

  1. A task or responsibility that must be attended to.

    Look, I don't even know what I'd want to say to all the gay black males in the very small United States of America. Let me see. How about, "There're maybe a couple million of us, and we have a tough row to hoe, brother. But don't let the bastards get you down"?

    1986, Samuel R. Delany, Joseph Beam, “The Possibility of Possibilities”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 207
  2. An occupation or business by which one earns one's living or makes a profit.
Cite this entry
APA

row to hoe. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/row%20to%20hoe

MLA

“row to hoe.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/row%20to%20hoe. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “row to hoe,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/row%20to%20hoe.

Source: row to hoe on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.