hoop skirt
Americannoun
-
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.
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 Literature
I’d forgotten just how good she was at hand-to-hand combat when she didn’t have a hoop skirt in her way.
From Literature
Her latest role as Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh, Mary!” presented a different challenge: screaming and running across a stage in a hoop skirt.
I love the vintage-y drama of the enormous hoop skirt, the unexpected casualness of the buttoned top, the beautiful shape of it all — not to mention the added bonus of some aggressively enforced personal space.
From Seattle Times
Her Marie Antoinette-style dress is elegant and intricate, with detailed lace along the edges, an angular corset and different white, pink and gold layers filling out the hoop skirt.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
