hoop

/hup/

/hup/

Other forms: hoops; hooped; hooping

A hoop is a ring or circle made of some stiff material. Gardeners use hoops to support plants, and many people wear hoops around their wrists as bracelets.

You can try to toss a basketball through a hoop, wear gold hoops as earrings, or sport an old fashioned hoop skirt, a flexible band that widens a petticoat and the skirt covering it. You can also rotate and spin a hula hoop around your body for fun. If your boss makes you "jump through hoops" at work, it means she requires you to complete difficult, possibly unnecessary, tasks.

Definitions of hoop

1. noun

   a rigid circular band of metal or wood or other material used for holding or fastening or hanging or pulling
   “there was still a rusty iron hoop for tying a horse”

   synonyms: ring

   types:

   carabiner, karabiner, snap ring

   an oblong metal ring with a spring clip; used in mountaineering to attach a rope to a piton or to connect two ropes

   collar

   a short ring fastened over a rod or shaft to limit, guide, or secure a machine part

   curtain ring

   a circular ring for holding up a curtain

   key ring

   a circular ring of metal for holding keys

   napkin ring

   a circular band used to hold a particular person's napkin

   nose ring

   a ring worn on the nose as an ornament or on the nose of an animal to control it

   rim

   the outer part of a wheel to which the tire is attached

   rim

   (basketball) the hoop from which the net is suspended

   tire, tyre

   hoop that covers a wheel

   towel ring

   a circular hoop for holding a towel

   auto tire, automobile tire, car tire, rubber tire

   a tire consisting of a rubber ring around the rim of an automobile wheel

   felloe, felly

   rim (or part of the rim) into which spokes are inserted

   pneumatic tire, pneumatic tyre

   a tire made of reinforced rubber and filled with compressed air; used on motor vehicles and bicycles etc

   wagon tire

   a metal hoop forming the tread of a wheel

   type of:

   band

   a thin flat strip of flexible material that is worn around the body or one of the limbs (especially to decorate the body)
2. noun

   horizontal circular metal hoop supporting a net through which players try to throw the basketball
   synonyms: basket, basketball hoop

   type of:

   basketball equipment

   sports equipment used in playing basketball

   goal

   game equipment consisting of the place toward which players of a game try to advance a ball or puck in order to score points
3. noun

   a light curved skeleton to spread out a skirt
   types:

   farthingale

   a hoop worn beneath a skirt to extend it horizontally; worn by European women in the 16th and 17th centuries

   pannier

   set of small hoops used to add fullness over the hips

   type of:

   frame, skeletal frame, skeleton, underframe

   the internal supporting structure that gives an artifact its shape
4. noun

   a small arch used as croquet equipment
   synonyms: wicket

   type of:

   croquet equipment

   sports equipment used in playing croquet
5. verb

   bind or fasten with a hoop
   “hoop vats”

   type of:

   encircle, gird

   bind with something round or circular