From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhoophoop /huːp $ hʊp, huːp/ noun [countable] 1 a large ring made of wood, metal, plastic etc2 DHTa large ring that children used to play with in the past, or that circus animals are made to jump through3 a) the ring that you have to throw the ball through to score points in basketball b) hoops [plural] American English informal the game of basketball4 → jump/go through hoops5 (also hoop earrings)D an earring that is shaped like a ring → cock-a-hoop, hula hoop
Examples from the Corpus
hoop• They chant their tables before playtime with tops, skipping ropes and hoops.• If they win, it will be due to the chemistry whipped up in nine months of globe-trotting, boot-camp hoops.• Bradley, a Hall of Fame pro basketball player, first gained prominence as a college hoops star at Princeton.• an embroidery hoop• Small gold hoop earrings caught the light as she turned her head.• The sleepy snakes lie wreathed around themselves or slither through the hoops of their own skin, their hanks of hemp.• He had me roll my body across the yard, he had me hop, he had me jump through hoops.• The wooden hoop supporting the foliage had almost collapsed beneath its weight.Origin hoop Old English hop 