# hopping

Pronunciation: say "HOP-ing" US /ˈhɑpɪŋ/, UK /ˈhɒpɪŋ/, AUS /ˈhɔpɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle and gerund of hop. — present participle and gerund of hop
   - Simple: Present participle and gerund of hop. Use it after is, are, or was, or to name the action.
   - _He spent one restless summer hopping freight trains from Chicago to Denver._
   - _Hopping over the creek on wet stones takes better balance than it looks._

## Adjective

2. Of a place, crowded with people. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: Used about a place that is full of people.
   - _By ten o'clock the bar was hopping, and we couldn't get near the counter._
   - _Downtown gets hopping during the street festival, so plan to park early._
4. Moving from place to place by a series of hops.
   - Simple: Moving around by making small jumps.
   - _The lab's hopping robot bounces across rough ground that would trap a wheeled rover._
   - _Grasshoppers and other hopping insects can escape a predator in a single leap._

## Noun

3. The act of moving in hops, or any lively jumping, frisking, or dancing about.
   - Simple: The act of moving in small jumps, or of jumping and dancing about in a lively way.
   - _The steady hopping of sparrows on the tin roof woke her before dawn._
   - _After an hour of hopping and twirling at the barn dance, the kids collapsed on the grass._
5. The adding of hops to beer during brewing to flavor it.
   - Simple: Putting hops into beer while it is being made, to give it flavor.
   - _The pale ale owes its citrusy aroma to generous hopping late in the boil._
   - _The brewery cut back on the hopping so its lager would taste smoother._
6. The picking of hops; for Londoners, a working holiday spent in the hop gardens of Kent. *(British)*
   - Simple: Picking hops, which for people from London is a holiday spent working on hop farms in Kent.
   - _Half the street packed up and went down to Kent for the hopping._
   - _The farm took on dozens of extra hands for the hopping, most of them families from London._
7. A shift by an electron in an atom from one energy state to another.
   - Simple: The move of an electron in an atom from one energy level to another.
   - _The glow of the gas comes from the hopping of electrons down to lower energy states._
   - _The simulation tracks electron hopping between the two lowest energy states of the atom._

## Origin

Alternative spelling (C17) of hoppe, from Middle French houbelon

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hopping (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).