hops

1. 1
   nouncountableplural

   The flowers of the hop plant, either whole or processed into pellets, shreds, or powder.

   The brewer adds more hops late in the boil to give the beer a strong, fresh aroma.

   The brewery buys its hops as pellets, which store more easily than whole flowers.

   Note

   The flowers are always hops, plural, and the verb agrees with them: the hops go in late in the boil, the hops are sold as pellets. The singular survives as a modifier in the name of the plant, the hop plant, rather than as a word for a single flower.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular present of hop.

   Every weekday she hops a bus downtown and is at her desk by eight.

   The dog hops the low fence whenever someone forgets to open the gate.

   Note

   Whether an object follows depends on the meaning. A sparrow hops along the path with none, but a commuter hops a bus and a dog hops a fence, taking a vehicle or an obstacle as object; with vehicles it often hints at slipping aboard unnoticed. In compounds it describes moving restlessly from one place to the next, as when a traveler island-hops.

3. 3
   noun

   Plural of hop.

   The shortstop misjudged the ball after two bad hops on the dry infield.

   Getting to the outer islands meant a series of short hops on small planes.

   Note

   The plural of every countable hop: short jumps, short flights between islands, and in American baseball the bounces a batted ball takes, as in two bad hops on a dry infield. Dated slang also used hops for dances. The beer ingredient spelled the same way is a separate word with its own history, so the brewing flowers share nothing with these but the spelling.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular present of hop in its brewing sense: to add hops to a mash.

   The brewer hops each batch heavily, which gives the pale ale its sharp bitterness.

   He hops the mash with a local variety grown just down the valley.

   Note

   A brewer's verb that always takes an object, the mash or the beer being flavored, and it pairs naturally with a word for how much: one brewer hops a pale ale heavily, another hops a stout lightly. It grows from the flowers it adds, so in brewing talk hops the mash means adding hops, never jumping over anything.

Showing meanings only. Show all 4