popcorning

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of popcorn.

   The herd kept popcorning long after the last treats were gone.

   She caught the kittens popcorning across the kitchen floor.

   Note

   Behind this form stands a verb with three uses: to jump up quickly, to pop repeatedly like cooking corn, and, rarely, to work the popcorn stitch. The same spelling also serves the guinea-pig leap as a noun. In "the herd kept popcorning" it is a verb continuing an action. In "the popcorning stopped" it is the noun naming the behavior.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A sudden, repeated leaping behavior in guinea pigs, typically expressing excitement or contentment.

   Like the spontaneous hops of a spring lamb at play.

   The breeder pointed to the popcorning as a clear sign of a contented, healthy litter.

   Sudden popcorning broke out across the hutch when fresh hay arrived.

   Note

   The name comes straight from the kitchen. A guinea pig that springs up suddenly, again and again, looks like a kernel jumping in a hot pan, and popcorn plus -ing captures exactly that. It is the small animal's cousin of pronking, the stiff-legged bounce of antelopes. The word is uncountable, so speak of popcorning or a burst of popcorning, not "a popcorning."

3. 3
   noununcountable

   An unintended chain reaction in which one blast triggers further explosions in sequence.

   Like a string of firecrackers where one lit fuse sets the whole chain off.

   Investigators blamed the warehouse devastation on popcorning among crates of munitions.

   Once the first shell detonated, popcorning spread through the entire storage bunker.

   Note

   Here the kernels are shells and charges. The image behind the guinea-pig leap is borrowed for sound and sequence instead: one goes off, then the next, then the next. It belongs to munitions and pyrotechnics, where a single detonation can travel through stored charges. Like the animal sense it is uncountable, so popcorning spreads through a bunker or breaks out among crates.

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