hop

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   travel by means of an aircraft, bus, et cetera

   We hopped a train to Chicago.

2. 2
   verb

   jump across

   The runner hopped the bush to get out of the way.

3. 3
   noun

   A short jump.

   The frog crossed the brook in three or four hops.

4. 4
   noun

   A short journey, especially in the case of air travel, one that takes place on a private plane.

   My fellow passengers are a mixture of people returning from a day out in the capital, locals doing short hops, and a few (like me) heading farther afield.

5. 5
   noun

   A brief period of development or progress.

   For popular radio stars in New York and Los Angeles, it was a short hop to network television.

6. 6
   noun

   A dance; a gathering for the purpose of dancing.

   1896, Benjamin Brierley, James Dronsfield, "Ab-o'th'-Yate" Sketches and Other Short Stories One singing-room we had closed, and so damaged a "twopenny hop" that it could not have survived another season had our own prosperity continued unchecked.

7. 7
   verb

   To jump a short distance.

   When it had advanced from the wood, it hopped much after the fashion of a kangaroo, using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it stood erect, it sat upon its tail.

8. 8
   verb

   To be in state of energetic activity.

   Sorry, can't chat. Got to hop.

Etymology

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