A hula-hoop is a toy — a plastic, circular tube you rotate around your body by circling your hips. Some experts can get several hula-hoops spinning at the same time. Twirling a hula-hoop around your waist is fun, and it's also good exercise. Hoops have been used as playthings for centuries, but the hula-hoop was invented in 1958. The toy made from plastic tubing was based on traditional hoops made of rattan or bamboo, and it was wildly popular. At one point, the manufacturer produced 50,000 hula-hoops a day. The word hula was used because the hip movements were seen as similar to the Hawaiian hula dance.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Palms are freeloader trees: They suck down water like camels, but give back barely enough leafiness to shade a Hula-Hoop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
Hula-Hoop Girl, which was discovered in Nottingham, will be exhibited at The National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket from Saturday.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2023
As I sat at this table, I taught kids how to Hula-Hoop, how to spin a top, and how to draw different animals.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2019
A heavier hoop—and a larger hoop—takes longer to make a revolution around your waist, which makes them easier to “hoop” than a typical toy-store Hula-Hoop.
From National Geographic Kids ● Jul. 11, 2016
I slip the Hula-Hoop back around my waist and give it a spin.
From "Zara’s Rules for Record-Breaking Fun" by Hena Khan
Wham-O, the Frisbee and Hula Hoop toy company founded by two USC grads, is 75 and embracing nostalgia while striving for relevance with a new generation and their dogs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2023
The Hula Hoop Tree, which, as the name suggests, is covered in hundreds of hula hoops, has become a popular attraction in recent years and has even drawn visitors from out of state.
From Fox News ● Sep. 10, 2019
My dad turned 37 in 1963; I cannot, for the life of me, picture him twirling a Hula Hoop at Arlington.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 17, 2016
A “trend” implies that first, a few people are doing something, then more people start doing it, then pretty soon, everyone’s doing it, like the Hula Hoop in the ’50s.
From New York Times ● Sep. 15, 2015
There’s life after "Cheerleader"! I have to give OMI a ton of credit for "Hula Hoop," a song that builds on the glory of his massive summer hit without copying it outright.
From The Verge ● Aug. 28, 2015
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.
