be·hoof

(bĭ-ho͞of′)

Benefit; advantage: using public funds for their own behoof.

[Middle English bihove, from Old English behōf; see kap- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

behoof

(bɪˈhuːf)

n, pl -hooves

rare advantage or profit

[Old English behōf; related to Middle High German behuof something useful; see behove]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

be•hoof

(bɪˈhuf)

n., pl. -hooves (ˈhuvz)

advantage; benefit.

[before 1000; Middle English behove, Old English behōf profit, need]

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

At any rate, musty parchments and title-deeds there were none on the island; and I am half inclined to believe that its inhabitants hold their broad valleys in fee simple from Nature herself; to have and to hold, so long as grass grows and water runs; or until their French visitors, by a summary mode of conveyancing, shall appropriate them to their own benefit and behoof.

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He rather looked upon it as one of those beautiful dispensations which are inscrutably brought about for the behoof and advantage of good men.

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Gradgrind, for the general behoof of all the little pitchers.

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