Word.ws English Dictionary

hoop

/huːp/US/hʊp/

hoop noun: a circular band of metal used to bind a barrel.

hoop: a circular band of metal used to bind a barrel
Image: 35mm 35mm, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

hoop (countable and uncountable, plural hoops)

  1. A circular band of metal used to bind a barrel.
  2. Any circular band or ring.
    • the cheese hoop, or cylinder in which the curd is pressed in making cheese
    • gymnastic hoop
  3. A circular band of metal, wood, or similar material used for forming part of a framework such as an awning or tent.
  4. (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.
    • He took the removed chair and drew it so near mine, squatting in it with his ugly weight, that he pressed upon my hoop.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; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […]...
    • 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.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
  5. 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.
  6. (UK, obsolete) An old measure of capacity, variously estimated at from one to four pecks.
  7. The rim part of a basketball net.
  8. (US, in plural, metonymically) The game of basketball.
    • 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.2018 July 30, Bruce Y. Lee, “How This Sport Is Changing Kids' Health Around The World”, in Forbes
  9. A hoop earring.
  10. (plural-normally) A horizontal stripe on the jersey.
    • 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.2003 May 21, Barry Glendenning "Minute-by-minute: Celtic 2 - 3 FC Porto (AET)" The Guardian (London)
    • 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.2009 June 20, Ian O'Riordan, “Tipperary look in better shape”, in The Irish Times
  11. (Australia, broadly, metonymically, slang) A jockey.
    • The stewards ordered Des Coleman, the senior hoop (jockey) present, to ride and he got the horse home in a photo-finish.2011, James Morton, Susanna Lobez, Kings of Stings: The Greatest Swindles from Down Under
  12. (figuratively, plural-normally) An obstacle that must be overcome in order to proceed.
    • But if they want to export that, then they do have to go through several hoops that you will impose upon them.1997, Security and Freedom Through Encryption (SAFE) Act
    • Windows forces you to jump through several hoops before allowing you to delete a partition — and for good reason.2000, Ed Bott, Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows, →ISBN, page 252
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (uncountable) Hooping (manipulation of and artistic movement or dancing with a hoop).
  2. (slang, uncountable) A significant amount of swing from the bowler.
  3. (countable, rhythmic gymnastics) An apparatus.
    1. (metonymically, rhythmic gymnastics) An apparatus program with a hoop.

Verb (1)

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.
    • [B]ehold the wretched price of Wales, / Hoopt with a bond of yron round about, […]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]
  3. (intransitive, slang) To play basketball.
    • Instead of hooping, they now played tennis, golf, or both.2019, Charley Rosen, Trouthe, Lies, and Basketball
    • Wassup bro when you tryna hoop you wasting yo height2021 July 10, @vincestaples, Twitter, archived from the original on 01 Jul 2024

Noun (2)

hoop (plural hoops)

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

Verb (2)

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.
  2. (dated) To whoop, as in whooping cough.

Noun (3) capitalized: Hoop

Hoop (plural Hoops)

  1. Someone connected with Queens Park Rangers Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.

hoop meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

hoop in Hindi

circular band of metal used to bind a barrel
घेरा gherā

hoop in Tamil

வளையம்

hoop in Marathi

हूप, हुप, हुप करण्यासाठी

hoop in Urdu

بند, چھلا, گھیرا, حلقہ, کنڈلی
More languagesFewer languages
hoop in Bengali
হাল hal
hoop in Telugu
హూప్, హూప్కి
hoop in Malayalam
പട്ട paṭṭa
hoop in Kannada
ಬಳೆ
hoop in Punjabi
ਹੂਪ, ਹੂਪ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਹੁਪ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
hoop in Gujarati
હૂપ, હુપ, હૂપ કરવા માટે
hoop in Odia
ହୁପ୍, ହୁପ, ହୁପ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
hoop in Nepali
हुप, हूप, हुप गर्न
hoop in Tagalog
argolya
hoop in Arabic
طَارَة ṭāra

Examples of hoop in a sentence

  • a hoop between trees
  • 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.2011, Jason Toll, Moscow Bound, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with hoop

Forms of hoop

Noun
pluralhoops
pluralHoops
Verb
third-person singular presenthoops
present participlehooping
past participlehooped
pasthooped

Plural of hoop: hoops

Origin of hoop

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.

Onomatopoeic.

Words formed from hoop

Phrases with hoop

Words that rhyme with hoop

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hoop

What does hoop mean?
Hoop means a circular band of metal used to bind a barrel.
What is hoop in Hindi?
Hoop in Hindi is घेरा (gherā). See Hoop meaning in Hindi.
How do you use hoop in a sentence?
a hoop between trees
What part of speech is hoop?
Hoop can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce hoop?
Hoop is pronounced /huːp/.
What is the plural of hoop?
The plural of hoop is hoops.

Words near hoop in the dictionary

  1. hoonish
  2. hoonoomaun
  3. hoonoomauns
  4. hoons
  5. hoons it
  6. hoop
  7. hoop cheese
  8. hoop cheeses
  9. hoop earring
  10. hoop earrings
  11. hoop hoe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hoop (page history and authors); Hoop (page history and authors); hoop (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hoop (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoop (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); হাল (Bengali) (page history and authors); hoop (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); പട്ട (Malayalam) (page history and authors); hoop (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hoop (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoop (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoop (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoop (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 hoop.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hoop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hoop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.