hopping

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

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

Noun

hopping (plural hoppings)

1. (UK) hop picking, the practice of picking hops; for Londoners a holiday period working in the hop gardens of Kent.
   • Hopping Down in Kent, Alan Bignell (1977).
   • 1915, W.S. Maugham, "Of Human Bondage":

     He took his whole family to a hop-field in Kent, not far from Mrs. Athelny's home, and they spent three weeks hopping.

Etymology 2

to hop

Verb

hopping

1. Present participle of hop.

Noun

hopping (plural hoppings)

1. The act of one who, or that which, hops; a jumping, frisking, or dancing.
2. (countable, physics) A shift from one energy-state to another by an electron in an atom.