jump through hoops
jump through hoops verb: to put forth great effort to meet requirements, usually arbitrary, set by someone.
Verb
jump through hoops (third-person singular simple present jumps through hoops, present participle jumping through hoops, simple past and past participle jumped through hoops)
- To put forth great effort to meet requirements, usually arbitrary, set by someone.
- They really made the salesman jump through hoops before buying anything.
- If learning is deemed valuable and important to the student, then the educator doesn't need a scripted curriculum or a fad initiative that has students and the educator jumping through hoops.2010, Brad Johnson, Tammy Maxson McElroy, The Edutainer: Connecting the Art and Science of Teaching, page 141
- Synonyms:
- bend over backwards
Synonyms of jump through hoops
Forms of jump through hoops
| third-person singular present | jumps through hoops |
|---|---|
| present participle | jumping through hoops |
| past participle | jumped through hoops |
| past | jumped through hoops |
| alternative form | go through hoops |
| alternative form | leap through hoops |
Origin of jump through hoops
Reminiscent of a circus animal performing tricks by jumping through hoops.
Questions about jump through hoops
- What does jump through hoops mean?
- Jump through hoops means to put forth great effort to meet requirements, usually arbitrary, set by someone.
- What part of speech is jump through hoops?
- Jump through hoops is a verb.
- What is the past tense of jump through hoops?
- The past tense of jump through hoops is jumped through hoops.
Words near jump through hoops in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jump through hoops (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “jump through hoops.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jump_through_hoops. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.