hoop skirt
Americannoun
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a woman's skirt made to stand out and drape in a stiff bell-like shape from the waist by an undergarment framework of flexible hoops connected by tapes.
-
the framework for such a skirt.
Etymology
Origin of hoop skirt
An Americanism dating back to 1855–60
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Her latest role as Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh, Mary!” presented a different challenge: screaming and running across a stage in a hoop skirt.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 17, 2025
Take his costume for 1856-1866: a shredded military jacket on top of a skeletal hoop skirt made from barbed wire and strings of … sausage?
From New York Times • Dec. 28, 2022
She wore a long-sleeved wedding dress with a hoop skirt that she bought from the still-operational Aliber’s Bridal in Greenfield, Massachusetts, according to Livingwater.
From Fox News • Nov. 30, 2021
My mom even fashioned a hoop skirt out of a hula hoop so I could be Melanie Wilkes for Halloween.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2020
It had been a particularly interesting lesson, since all of us girls had to learn how to take someone down while wearing a gigantic hoop skirt from the 1800s.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
