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• hopper
  hopper

  noun

  a person or thing that hops.
• Hopper
  Hopper

  noun

  Edward, 1882–1967, U.S. painter and etcher.

hopper

¹ American  

[hop-er] / ˈhɒp ər /

noun

• hoppers
  plural

1. a person or thing that hops.

2. Informal. a person who travels or moves frequently from one place or situation to another (usually used in combination).

   a two-week tour designed for energetic city-hoppers.

3. any of various jumping insects, as grasshoppers or leafhoppers.

4. Australian. kangaroo.

5. a funnel-shaped chamber or bin in which loose material, as grain or coal, is stored temporarily, being filled through the top and dispensed through the bottom.

6. Railroads. hopper car.

7. U.S. Politics. a box into which a proposed legislative bill is dropped and thereby officially introduced.

8. one of the pieces at each side of a hopper casement.

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idioms

1. in the hopper, in preparation; about to be realized.

   Plans for the class reunion are in the hopper.

Hopper ² American  

[hop-er] / ˈhɒp ər /

noun

1. Edward, 1882–1967, U.S. painter and etcher.

2. Grace Murray, 1906–92, U.S. naval officer and computer scientist.

3. (William) De Wolf 1858–1935, U.S. actor.

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Hopper ¹ British  

/ ˈhɒpə /

noun

1. Edward. 1882–1967, US painter, noted for his realistic depiction of everyday scenes

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hopper ² British  

/ ˈhɒpə /

noun

1. a person or thing that hops

2. a funnel-shaped chamber or reservoir from which solid materials can be discharged under gravity into a receptacle below, esp for feeding fuel to a furnace, loading a railway truck with grain, etc

3. a machine used for picking hops

4. any of various long-legged hopping insects, esp the grasshopper, leaf hopper, and immature locust

5. Also called: hoppercar.  an open-topped railway truck for bulk transport of loose minerals, etc, unloaded through doors on the underside

6. another name for cocopan

7. computing a device formerly used for holding punched cards and feeding them to a card punch or card reader

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Hopper Scientific  

/ hŏp′ər /

1. American mathematician and computer programmer who in 1951 conceived the idea for an internal computer program, called a compiler, that scanned a set of alphanumeric instructions (such as words and symbols) and compiled a set of binary instructions executed by the machine. Her ideas were widely influential in the development of programming languages, in particular COBOL.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• hoppers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hopper

Middle English word dating back to 1200–50; see origin at hop ¹, -er ¹

Explanation

A hopper is a funnel-shaped device used to move material from one receptacle to another. This type of hopper has nothing to do with hopping or jumping: it's a device — the kind you're most likely to see in a chemistry lab — for moving substances from one container to another. If you need to pour a large beaker of liquid into a tiny test tube, the hopper lets you move the liquid without spilling. Solid, grain-like substances could also be moved using a hopper. Many factories will have hoppers as part of their machinery too.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hopper Hopper hoppers

"We've got a lot of things in the hopper," he said.

From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026

“This creates a strong platform to invest with discipline into our distinctive deep hopper of oil & gas opportunities,” BP said.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 10, 2026

Bills don’t get passed merely because someone drops a draft in the hopper.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025

And then in the seventh he took a hit away from Barger when he bare-handed a high hopper and threw to first, beating the runner by half a step.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2025

I concentrated on the rows, and watched the spreader and the gray fertilizer sifting down from the hopper onto the soil.

From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien

There are some eye-catching homages to art history—Hockney and Hopper are obvious touchstones—and there are powerful images throughout.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Conrad refers to one of the revelations of Floyd’s hidden abilities: “Can Hopper do the pommel horse?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026

Per-pupil funding makes this a challenge, Hopper argues.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026

According to Koontz, each new family of graphics processing units — like the leap from Nvidia’s Hopper to Blackwell chips — drives “a step-up in optical-interconnect performance and cost.”

From MarketWatch ● May 15, 2026

An eighth grader, Julie Hopper, had her legs across Em’s lap.

From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead

"You can't win year after year after year after year, like the Patriots or the Yankees. They're bandwagon hoppers, they love to get on the bandwagon for a good team, and that's not soccer."

From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026

China has built the robotic infrastructure—sensors, hoppers and relay satellites—needed for a permanent lunar base.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

However, earlier in 2025, job stayers actually saw more wage growth than job hoppers.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 21, 2026

Deal-chasing festival hoppers take heed of the combination DIDO/CHBP passes starting at $349.

From Seattle Times ● May 20, 2024

It is early April 2000, and they have made it nearly a third of the way up the length of Mexico, a handful of migrants riding on boxcars, tank cars, and hoppers.

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario

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