▪ I. hopper1
(ˈhɒpə(r))
[f. hop v.1 + -er1. OE. type *hoppere, implied in the feminine hoppestre.
Sense 3 is naturally accounted for; but the origin of sense 5 is not clear, unless derived from resemblance to the mill-hopper, which is not favoured by the chronology of existing quotations.]
1. a. One who hops; a leaper, dancer.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Baptista 442 Þat fore a hoppare can hym sla. 1598 Florio, Saltarino,..a iumper, a hopper. 1744–5 Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1861) II. 335 The dancers are to be [etc.]. These are the rest of the hoppers. 1775–8 Tyrwhitt Notes on Chaucer's Knt.'s T., I conceive, a female hopper, or dancer, was called an hoppester. 1829 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 21/1 A great hopper and runner. 1943 N.Y. Times 9 May ii. 5/4 Listen, hoppers clot the action when the Duke or the Count start to beat it out. |
b. pl. ‘A kind of play in which the actor hops on one leg’ (J.): see scotch-hoppers,
hopscotch.
c. Baseball. A ball which having been struck rebounds from the ground.
U.S. slang. Quot. 1914 appears to have a different sense.
| 1914 ‘B. L. Standish’ in Top-Notch Mag. 30 Sept. 138/1 Courtney missed a hopper, though he almost fancied his bat lightly touched the whistling ball as it sped past. 1943 Amer. Speech XVIII. 104 Baseball jargon... Names for a grounder are hopper, [etc.]. 1968 [see baseman]. |
2. An animal characterized by hopping,
esp. an insect or insect-larva that hops.
Applied more or less
spec. to a locust or grasshopper, a saltatorial beetle as the turnip flea, a saltatorial homopterous insect as a froth-hopper, a flea, the cheese-hopper or maggot of the cheese-fly; also
dial. to a samlet; in Newfoundland to a seal of the second year. Also as a second element, in
cheese-hopper,
grasshopper,
sandhopper, etc.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3096 On wind cam fro westen, and ðo opperes nam, And warpes ouer in-to ðe se. 1797 Polwhele Hist. Devon I. 120 The Samlet of Mr. Pennant, called here the hopper. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 278 M[usca] putris, the larvæ of which are known to the house⁓wife by the name of hoppers, as those of all of them by the name of maggots. a 1870 R. M. Chipman Notes on Bartlett 202 Hopper, a grasshopper, especially the ravaging locust called grasshopper at the West. 1877 Mrs. Fleming Life Arnot (1879) 192 The armies of barbarous inhuman black hoppers are not greatly diminished. 1897 Chamb. Jrnl. XIV. 766/2 The locusts were attacked while still in the ‘hopper’ stage. 1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 21/2 One man says he counted 2000 hoppers [sc. kangaroos] in one paddock. 1946 E. African Ann. 1946–7 44/1 Youths have been out in the district beating and burning locusts... Besides these commendable efforts in destroying hoppers the Samburu have made a most useful war contribution. 1966 E. Palmer Plains of Camdeboo xv. 247 Our locust of the Karoo, the brown locust, Locustana pardalina, is well-known to us as a tiny dark hopper, later becoming black and orange. |
3. In a corn or other grinding mill, a receiver like an inverted pyramid or cone, through which grain or anything to be ground passes into the mill; so called because it had originally a hopping or shaking motion (which is now usually transferred to the shaking-shoe, where that is present).
| c 1386 Chaucer Reeve's T. 119 Yet saugh I neuere..How that the hopur wagges til and fra. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. lxxiii. (1869) 43 In the hoper of the mille..he was grounden broken and brused. c 1585 Faire Em i. ii. 175 in Simpson Sch. Shaks. II. 414 Now let me alone to pick the mill, to fill the hopper, to take the toll. 1786 Burns To Unco Guid i, The heapet happer's ebbing still, And still the clap plays clatter. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 158 The hopper..is agitated by two iron pins on the axis..that alternately raise the vessel containing the grain, which again sinks by its own weight. 1858 Thoreau Maine W. (1894) 204 A boy collecting the long edgings of boards as fast as cut off, and thrusting them down a hopper, where they were ground up beneath the mill. 1876 T. Hardy Ethelberta II. xl. 151 Modern developments have shaken up the classes like peas in a hopper. |
4. Applied to similar contrivances for feeding any material to a machine, and, generally, to articles resembling a mill hopper in shape or use.
| 1763 W. Lewis Commerc. Phil.-techn. 277 The space included between the pipes, at their lower end, under the bason, is a kind of hopper. Ibid. 278 The water issuing from the hopper is necessarily reduced into drops. 1832 Babbage Econ. Manuf. iii. (ed. 3) 28 To make the engine supply the fire with small quantities of fuel at regular intervals by means of a hopper. 1873 Spon's Dict. Engin. III. 2253 Receiving and weighing hoppers. Ibid. 2254 The sheet-iron funnel in which the grain is received before passing up into the weighing hopper. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Hopper, 1. a chute for feeding any material to a machine. 2. The basin of a water-closet. 3. (Glass.) A conical vessel suspended from the ceiling, containing sand and water for the use of the glass-cutter. 1878 F. S. Williams Midl. Railw. 626 The tickets are placed in a kind of tube or hopper, down which they descend, and..are drawn one by one across a printing machine. 1883 Daily News 27 July 2/1 The new twelve-barrel Nordenfeldt gun..Hoppers to fit on the feeders keep them constantly replenished, and so incessant is the fire that in half a minute 600 shots were discharged. |
5. A basket;
esp. a basket or other vessel in which the sower carries his seed. Now
dial.| a 1300 E.E. Psalter lxxx. 7 [lxxxi. 6] His hend in hoper served þai. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 57 He heng an Hoper on his Bac In stude of a Scrippe. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. x. 43 Thyn hopur clothe hienys skyn; and throwe Thy seede therynne. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §10. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652) 179 Be sure ever and anon to stir up the bottom of your Hopper, or Seed-lop. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 106 What once were kernels from his hopper sown, Now browning wheat-ears. |
6. A barge in attendance on a dredging machine, which carries the mud or gravel out to sea and discharges it through an opening in its bottom. Also
hopper-barge.
| 1759 in Brand Hist. Newcastle (1789) II. 588 A person invented a machine..called a Hopper..to take ballast out of ships..convey the same to the sea, and there drop it. 1887 Daily News 14 Dec. 2/6 New steamer Giralda, when off Claxheugh, river Wear, came into collision with a laden hopper. 1894 Ibid. 8 Oct. 6/7 The men who were working the marine dredger and its attendant hoppers in the outer port of Port Said. |
7. = hopper-car: see 10.
| 1862 N.Y. Tribune 10 June (Bartlett), Of the fifty-seven hoppers thrown over Opequan bridge, one half can be put into serviceable order again. |
8. A funnel-shaped or hopper-like hollow.
| 1838 T. L. Mitchell 3 Exp. E. Austral. (1839) II. 319 We find among the features on these lofty river banks many remarkable hollows, not unaptly termed ‘hoppers’..from the water sinking into them, as grain subsides in the hopper of a mill. 1847 D. A. Wells & S. H. Davis Sk. Williams Coll. 88 You find yourself on the edge of a gulf at least a thousand feet deep, the four sides of which apparently converge to a point at the bottom. This place, from its peculiar form, is called the Hopper. |
9. Pianoforte. A piece attached at the back part of a key to raise the hammer and regulate the distance to which it falls back from the string after striking it. Also called
grasshopper.
| 1840 Penny Cycl. XVIII. 140/1 The action of the square piano-forte, on its first introduction, consisted of a key, a lifter, a hammer, and a damper..Longman and Broderip..brought out a patented invention having two additional parts in the action, namely, the hopper, and the under⁓hammer. 1896 Hipkins Pianoforte 37 The key, hopper, spring and set-off. |
10. attrib. and
Comb. a. appositive, as (sense 6)
hopper-barge,
hopper-punt.
b. Of or belonging to a hopper, as (sense 3)
hopper feed,
hopper form,
hopper head,
hopper mouth; (sense 9)
hopper button,
hopper lever,
hopper spring.
c. Shaped like or resembling the hopper of a mill, as
hopper casement,
hopper closet,
hopper hip,
hopper pan,
hopper roof,
hopper ventilator,
hopper window;
d. parasynthetic, as (sense 5:
cf. quot. 1787
s.v. hoppet1 1)
hopper-arsed,
hopper-hipped,
hopper-rumped adjs. e. Special combs.:
hopper axis, a contrivance for grinding apples, something like a coffee-mill;
hopper-boy, ‘a name given in mills to a rake which moves in a circle, drawing the meal over an opening through which it falls’ (Craig 1847);
hopper-car, a kind of car or truck for carrying coal, gravel, etc., shaped like a hopper, and emptying through an opening at the bottom;
hopper-cock, a valve for water-closets, etc. (Knight
Dict. Mech.);
† hopper-crow, ? a crow that follows a seed-hopper during sowing;
hopper-dredge or
-dredger, a vessel combining the functions of a hopper and a dredger, being fitted with hoppers that receive the material dredged up and allow it to be discharged through the bottom at the place of deposit;
hopper-eared,
-free adjs. (see
quots.);
hopper-hood, a hooded seal in its second year.
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Hopper-arst, when the Breech sticks out. 1787 [see hoppet1 1]. |
| 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 124 It performs all the operations of thrashing, winnowing, grinding, and bolting, together with an iron *hopper axis for grinding apples. |
| 1895 Westm. Gaz. 16 Oct. 4/2 The Admiralty *hopper barge..for use at the Gibraltar new Dry Dock and Extension Works, had an adventurous voyage. |
| 1787 in Rep. U.S. Comm. Patents (1850) 574 The other [device], denominated an *hopper-boy, so constituted as to spread the meal over the floor of a mill to cool. 1813 Niles' Reg. V. Add. A. 6/2 Our Hopper-boy was an upright shaft revolving round with an arm. |
| 1840 Penny Cycl. XVIII. 141/2 Hopper spring..Hopper lever..*Hopper button..Sustaining spring..fixed in the front end of the hopper lever. |
| 1862 N.Y. Tribune 10 June (Bartlett), There were one hundred and eighty-three iron *hopper-cars recovered in a condition to be restored. |
| 1844 Catholic Weekly Instr. 103 *Hopper casements..should be inserted in almost all the windows, in order to secure due ventilation. |
| a 1592 Greene Jas. IV, v. ii, To gather feathers like to a *hopper-crow, And lose them in the height of all my pomp? |
| 1896 Engin. Index II. 120 The *hopper dredge, ‘Percy Sanderson’, holding 1250 tons of debris and provided both with steel buckets and a suction pump. 1967 Shipbuilding & Shipping Rec. 6 July 21/1 (heading) ‘McFarland’... A fully automated hopper dredge for the U.S. Army. |
| 1876 Simons & Brown Brit. Pat. 4382, This Invention, which relates to improvements in *hopper dredgers, has for its object..to effect the discharge of the load or contents of hopper dredgers on to the adjoining river or canal bank. 1969 R. Hammond Mod. Dredging Pract. iv. 101 Direct pumping ashore to disposal areas is another function performed by a hopper dredger. |
| 1744–50 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. III. i. 19 (E.D.S.) Such land would return an *hopper-eared crop at harvest, or, in plainer English, a little ear, with a few kernels. |
| 1887 Pall Mall G. 12 Mar. 2/1 Mr. Maxim's next effort was also a 3-pounder, using a long cartridge, but having a very short action and a *hopper feed. |
| 1829 J. Hunter Hallamsh. Gloss. 51 When the tenants of the manor of Sheffield ground their corn at the lord's mill, some of them were called *hopper-frees, being privileged. 1898 Edin. Rev. Apr. 440 The ‘hopper-free’ tenants at Leeds..had their corn grinded immediately upon the emptying of the hopper, though there were never so many attending. |
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lx. 55 With *hoppir hippis, and henches narrow. |
| 1672 Wycherley Love in Wood ii. i, She is bow-legg'd, *hopper-hipp'd. |
| 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. 198 The large square wooden pipe..terminates..in a *hopper-mouth proper for receiving in the burthen. |
| 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 59/2 Flushing Water Closet, with *Hopper Pan. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Hopper-punt, a flat-floored lighter for carrying soil or mud, with a hopper or receptacle in its centre, to contain the lading. |
| 1626 Middleton Wom. Beware Wom. ii. ii, Her body straight, not *hopper-rump'd. 1840 *Hopper spring [see hopper button]. 1896 Hipkins Pianoforte Gloss., Hopper Spring, the wire spring that regulates the angle of the sticker or hopper, and accelerates its return under the notch or roller. |
| 1939 Archit. Rev. LXXXVI. 166 The windows have a side-hung casement and a long top-hung *hopper window for night ventilation. |
Hence
hoppered a.:
cf. hopper-hipped (above).
| 1704 D'Urfey Hell beyond Hell 54 Holland, up to the ankles fine, But hopper'd still about the chine. |
▪ II. hopper2 (
ˈhɒpə(r))
[f. hop v.2 + -er1.] 1. One engaged in picking hops; a hop-picker.
| 1719 in Cowper Canterb. Reg., St. George (1891) 207 Edward Even and Alice his pretended wife, hoppers and way-going persons. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. lxxxvii, The venerable Society of weeders, podders, and hoppers. 1860 Dickens Uncomm. Trav. xi, Many of these hoppers are Irish, but many come from London. |
2. A brewer's vat in which the infusion of hops is prepared to be added to the wort (
Cent. Dict.).
3. attrib., as
hopper-house.
| 1883 J. Y. Stratton Hops & Hop-pickers 45 The hopper⁓house is generally a long low-pitched building. 1884 Daily News 23 Sept. 3/2 Great efforts have been made..to provide suitable lodgings for the hoppers, and ‘hopper-houses’ catch the eye at every turn of the road. |
▪ III. hopper erron. form of
hooper2, wild swan.