Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A twining vine (Humulus lupulus) having lobed leaves and green female flowers arranged in conelike spikes.
  • noun The dried female inflorescences of this plant, containing a bitter aromatic oil. They are used in brewing to inhibit bacterial growth and to add the characteristic bitter taste to beer.
  • noun Slang Opium.
  • transitive verb To flavor with hops.
  • intransitive verb To move with light bounding skips or leaps.
  • intransitive verb Informal To move quickly or be busily active.
  • intransitive verb To jump on one foot or with both feet at the same time.
  • intransitive verb To make a quick trip, especially in an airplane.
  • intransitive verb To travel or move often from place to place. Often used in combination.
  • intransitive verb To move over by hopping.
  • intransitive verb Informal To get on (a train) surreptitiously in order to ride without paying a fare.
  • noun A light springy jump or leap, especially on one foot or with both feet at the same time.
  • noun A rebound.
  • noun Informal A dance or dance party.
  • noun A short distance.
  • noun A short trip, especially by air.
  • noun A free ride; a lift.
  • idiom (hop, skip, and (a) jump) A short distance.
  • idiom (hop to it) To begin an activity or a task quickly and energetically.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To leap, or move by successive leaps or sudden starts; skip, as birds; frisk or dance about; spring; specifically, as applied to persons, to spring or leap with one foot.
  • To limp; halt; walk lame.
  • To dance.
  • Synonyms Leap, Trip, etc. See skip.
  • To jump over.
  • In cutting rasps, to carry (the punch) with a skipping movement the required distance between the teeth: as, to hop the punch.
  • To die.
  • Synonyms See skip, v. i.
  • noun A leap, especially on one foot; a light spring.
  • noun A dance; a dancing-party.
  • To treat with hops: as, to hop ale.
  • To pick or gather hops.
  • noun A plant, Humulus Lupulus, of the natural order Urticaceœ, with long twining stems and abundant 3- to 5-lobed leaves.
  • noun plural The flowers of this plant, as used in brewing, medicine, etc.
  • noun Wood fit for hop-poles.
  • noun In Tasmania, a leguminous shrub, Daviesia latifolia. Also called bitter-leaf.
  • noun Same as native hop .

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To move by successive leaps, as toads do; to spring or jump on one foot; to skip, as birds do.
  • intransitive verb To walk lame; to limp; to halt.
  • intransitive verb To dance.
  • transitive verb To impregnate with hops.
  • intransitive verb To gather hops. [Perhaps only in the form hopping, vb. n.]
  • noun (Bot.) A climbing plant (Humulus Lupulus), having a long, twining, annual stalk. It is cultivated for its fruit (hops).
  • noun The catkin or strobilaceous fruit of the hop, much used in brewing to give a bitter taste.
  • noun The fruit of the dog-rose. See Hip.
  • noun (Brewing) See under 1st Back.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hoppe, from Middle Dutch.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hoppen, from Old English hoppian.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle Dutch hoppe.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hoppen, from Old English hoppian ("to hop, spring, leap, dance"), from Proto-Germanic *huppōnan (“to hop”), from Proto-Indo-European *keub- (“to bend, bow”). Cognate with Dutch hoppen ("to hop"), German hopfen, hoppen ("to hop"), Swedish hoppa ("to hop, leap, jump"), Icelandic hoppa ("to hop, skip").

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