noun

• (now chiefly historical) A circle, or combination of circles, of thin whalebone, metal, or other elastic material, used for expanding the skirts of ladies' dresses; (hence, by extension) a hoop petticoat or hoop skirt.
  "He took the removed chair and drew it so near mine, squatting in it with his ugly weight, that he pressed upon my hoop."
• (UK, obsolete) An old measure of capacity, variously estimated at from one to four pecks.
• (basketball) The rim part of a basketball net.
• (US, in the plural, metonymic) The game of basketball.
  "Articles ranging from Chris Johnson's "For Europeans, hoops is the second-most beautiful game" for The Globe and Mail to Adam Minter's "China Is Hoops Country" for Bloomberg Opinion have detailed the rise in basketball in a wide range of countries, including the most populous ones in the world."

verb

• (transitive) To bind or fasten using a hoop.
  "to hoop a barrel or puncheon"
• (transitive) To clasp; to encircle; to surround.
  "[B]ehold the wretched price of Wales, / Hoopt with a bond of yron round about, […]"
• (intransitive, slang) To play basketball.
  "Instead of hooping, they now played tennis, golf, or both."

noun

• (archaic) The hoopoe.

verb

• (dated) To utter a loud cry, or a sound imitative of the word, by way of call or pursuit; to shout.
• (dated) To whoop, as in whooping cough.