hoop

• enPR: ho͞op, IPA^(key): /huːp/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːp

From Middle English hoop, hoope, from Old English hōp (“mound, raised land; in combination, circular object”), from Proto-Germanic *hōpą (“bend, bow, arch”) (compare Saterland Frisian Houp (“hoop”), Dutch hoep (“hoop”), Old Norse hóp (“bay, inlet”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kāb- (“to bend”) (compare Lithuanian kabė (“hook”), Old Church Slavonic кѫпъ (kǫpŭ, “hill, island”)). More at camp.

hoop (countable and uncountable, plural hoops)

2. A circular band of metal used to bind a barrel.
3. Any circular band or ring.

   Coordinate term: tyre

   the cheese hoop, or cylinder in which the curd is pressed in making cheese

   gymnastic hoop

   a hoop between trees

4. A circular band of metal, wood, or similar material used for forming part of a framework such as an awning or tent.
5. (now chiefly historical) A circle, or combination of circles, of thin whalebone, metal, or other elastic material, used for expanding the skirts of ladies' dresses; (hence, by extension) a hoop petticoat or hoop skirt.
   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XVI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC:

     He took the removed chair and drew it so near mine, squatting in it with his ugly weight, that he pressed upon my hoop.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

     The door of the room now flew open, and, after pushing in her hoop sideways before her, entered Lady Bellaston, who having first made a very low courtesy to Mrs Fitzpatrick, and as low a one to Mr Jones, was ushered to the upper end of the room.

6. A quart-pot; so called because originally bound with hoops, like a barrel. Also, a portion of the contents measured by the distance between the hoops.^[1]
7. (UK, obsolete) An old measure of capacity, variously estimated at from one to four pecks.^[1]
8. (basketball) The rim part of a basketball net.
9. (US, in the plural, metonymically) The game of basketball.
   • 2018 July 30, Bruce Y. Lee, “How This Sport Is Changing Kids' Health Around The World”, in Forbes‎^[1]:

     Articles ranging from Chris Johnson's "For Europeans, hoops is the second-most beautiful game" for The Globe and Mail to Adam Minter's "China Is Hoops Country" for Bloomberg Opinion have detailed the rise in basketball in a wide range of countries, including the most populous ones in the world.

10. A hoop earring.
11. (sports, usually in the plural) A horizontal stripe on the jersey.
    • 2003 May 21, Barry Glendenning "Minute-by-minute: Celtic 2 - 3 FC Porto (AET)" The Guardian (London):

      Porto are playing from right to left in blue and white stripes, blue shorts and blue socks. Celtic are in their usual green and white hoops, with white shorts and white socks.

    • 2009 June 20, Ian O'Riordan, “Tipperary look in better shape”, in The Irish Times:

      Tipperary v Clare: IF ANYTHING can relight the fire of the old Clare hurling passion it’s the sight of the blue jersey with the gold hoop.

12. (Australia, metonymically, slang, by extension) A jockey.
    • 2011, James Morton, Susanna Lobez, Kings of Stings: The Greatest Swindles from Down Under:

      The stewards ordered Des Coleman, the senior hoop (jockey) present, to ride and he got the horse home in a photo-finish.

13. (figurative, usually in the plural) An obstacle that must be overcome in order to proceed.
    • 1997, Security and Freedom Through Encryption (SAFE) Act:

      But if they want to export that, then they do have to go through several hoops that you will impose upon them.

    • 2000, Ed Bott, Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows, →ISBN, page 252:

      Windows forces you to jump through several hoops before allowing you to delete a partition — and for good reason.

    • 2008, Patricia Barry, Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage For Dummies, →ISBN, page 49:

      Although restrictions like prior authorization and step therapy may be of benefit in protecting people's health or even saving them money, most Medicare beneficiaries regard them as a hassle — just more hoops to go through to get the drugs they need.

    • 2011, Jason Toll, Moscow Bound, →ISBN:

      So it looks certain that I will be returning to Australia, when at the last, I am offered a job by a London school that is willing to jump through the hoops involved to sponsor me for a visa.

14. (uncountable) Hooping (manipulation of and artistic movement or dancing with a hoop).

hoop (third-person singular simple present hoops, present participle hooping, simple past and past participle hooped)

1. (transitive) To bind or fasten using a hoop.

   to hoop a barrel or puncheon

2. (transitive) To clasp; to encircle; to surround.^[1]
   • 1596, [attributed to William Shakespeare; Thomas Kyd], The Raigne of King Edward the Third: […], London: […] [T. Scarlet] for Cuthbert Burby, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:

     [B]ehold the wretched price of Wales, / Hoopt with a bond of yron round about, […]

3. (intransitive, slang) To play basketball.
   • 2019, Charley Rosen, Trouthe, Lies, and Basketball:

     Instead of hooping, they now played tennis, golf, or both.

   • 2021 July 10, @vincestaples, Twitter‎^[2], archived from the original on 1 July 2024:

     Wassup bro when you tryna hoop you wasting yo height

Onomatopoeic.

hoop (plural hoops)

1. A shout; a whoop, as in whooping cough.^[1]
2. (archaic) The hoopoe.^[1]

hoop (third-person singular simple present hoops, present participle hooping, simple past and past participle hooped)

1. (dated) To utter a loud cry, or a sound imitative of the word, by way of call or pursuit; to shout.^[1]
2. (dated) To whoop, as in whooping cough.^[1]

• hooping cough
• hooper

• hoop on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Pooh, ooph, phoo, pooh

• IPA^(key): /ɦʊə̯p/

From Dutch hoop, from Middle Dutch hôop, from Old Dutch *hōp, from Proto-Germanic *haupaz.

hoop (plural hope, diminutive hopie)

1. heap

• ophoop

From Dutch hoop, from Middle Dutch hope, from Old Dutch *hopa.

hoop (uncountable)

1. hope

From Dutch hopen, from Middle Dutch hōpen, from Old Dutch hopon, from Proto-West Germanic *hopōn.

hoop (present hoop, present participle hopende, past participle gehoop)

1. to hope

• IPA^(key): /ɦoːp/
• Hyphenation: hoop
• Rhymes: -oːp

From Middle Dutch hope, from Old Dutch *hopa, from the verb hopon (modern Dutch hopen). Cognate with English hope.

hoop f (uncountable)

1. a hope, aspiration, wish

• (antonym(s) of “hope”): wanhoop

• hopeloos
• hoopgevend
• hoopvol

• Afrikaans: hoop

hoop

1. inflection of hopen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

From Middle Dutch hôop, from Old Dutch *hōp, from Proto-Germanic *haupaz.

hoop m (plural hopen, diminutive hoopje n)

1. a pile, heap, stack

   Synonyms: berg, stapel

2. (figuratively) a lot, heaps
3. a pile of manure, faeces
4. a mass

   Synonym: massa

5. a multitude, a throng

   Synonyms: drom, massa, menigte, schare

6. (obsolete) a unit of soldiers, a contingent

• berg
• massa
• stapel

• Afrikaans: hoop
• Negerhollands: hoop, hoopje
• → Papiamentu: hoopi (from the diminutive)

From Old Dutch *hōp, from Proto-West Germanic *haup, from Proto-Germanic *haupaz.

hôop m

1. heap, pile
2. group of people or animals, troop, herd
3. meeting

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• hôpen

• Dutch: hoop
• Limburgish: houp

• “hoop”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “hoop (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

See hoopje (“to hope”)

• IPA^(key): /hoːp/

hoop n (no plural)

1. hope

• hope

• “hoop”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011