Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A children's game in which players toss a small object into the numbered spaces of a pattern of rectangles outlined on the ground and then hop or jump through the spaces to retrieve the object.
  • intransitive verb To move in or as if in a series of irregular jumps.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A children's game in which the player, while hopping on one leg, drives a disk of stone or a fragment of tile with the foot from one compartment to another of an oblong figure traced or scotched (scored) on the ground, neither the stone nor the foot being allowed to rest on a line.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A child's game, in which a player, hopping on one foot, drives a stone from one compartment to another of a figure traced or scotched on the ground; -- called also hoppers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A child's game, in which a player, hopping on one foot, drives a stone from one compartment to another of a figure traced or scotched on the ground.
  • verb figuratively To move by hopping.
  • verb figuratively To move back and forth between adjacent patterns by hopping.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a game in which a child tosses a stone into an area drawn on the ground and then hops through it and back to regain the stone

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[hop + scotch, a score, line.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hop +‎ scotch (“scratch”)

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hopscotch.

Examples

  • KRESKIN: Also a game called hopscotch which most people don't know about today.

    CNN Transcript Dec 29, 2007 2007

  • I am thinking I really need one of these multipocket skirts -- especially the "hopscotch" version.

    July 2008 2008

  • I am thinking I really need one of these multipocket skirts -- especially the "hopscotch" version.

    Pick-a-Pocket, Any Pocket - A Dress A Day 2008

  • The asphalt was scarred with pools of black and white scorch marks, where the ARP people had used their stirrup pumps to smother the things; so Suzie played a kind of hopscotch, dodging between the little tail fins and what was left of the melted tubular casings and the burned-out thermite.

    Bottled Spider Gardner, John 2002

  • There is baseball on the smooth pavement, or if one has a piece of chalk, he can lay out a kind of hopscotch -- not stretched out, for there isn't room, but rolled up like a jelly cake.

    Chimney-Pot Papers Fritz August Gottfried Endell 1906

  • Teach children how to get younger kids doing active things such as hopscotch, jump-rope, tag, hide-and-seek, kickball, T-ball, hula hoops or kite flying.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • Teach children how to get younger kids doing active things such as hopscotch, jump-rope, tag, hide-and-seek, kickball, T-ball, hula hoops or kite flying.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • Teach children how to get younger kids doing active things such as hopscotch, jump-rope, tag, hide-and-seek, kickball, T-ball, hula hoops or kite flying.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • Teach children how to get younger kids doing active things such as hopscotch, jump-rope, tag, hide-and-seek, kickball, T-ball, hula hoops or kite flying.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • Consider hula hooping, playing games such as hopscotch, Simon says, hide and seek, four square.

    USATODAY.com News - Top Stories 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.