The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hoop \Hoop\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hooped; p. pr. & vb. n. Hooping.]
To bind or fasten with hoops; as, to hoop a barrel or puncheon.
To clasp; to encircle; to surround.
--Shak.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of hoop English)
Wikipedia
Hooping (also called hula hooping or hoop dance) generally refers to manipulation of and artistic movement or dancing with a hoop (or hoops). Hoops can be made of metal, wood or plastic. Hooping combines technical moves and tricks with freestyle or technical dancing. Hooping can be practiced to or performed with music. In contrast to the classic toy hula hoop, modern hoopers use heavier and larger diameter hoops, and frequently rotate the hoop around parts of the body other than the waist, including the hips, chest, neck, shoulders, thighs, knees, arms, hands, thumbs, feet and toes. The hoop can also be manipulated and rotated off the body as well. Modern hooping has been influenced by art forms such as rhythmic gymnastics, hip-hop, freestyle dance, fire performance, twirling, poi, and other dance and movement forms.
Hooping is part of the greater spectrum of flow arts, which are playful movement arts involving skill toys that are used to evoke the exploration of dynamic, flowing, and sequential movements. This movement, and the related mind/body state, is referred to as " flow". Technically, hooping is a form of object manipulation and therefore shares some lineage with juggling.
In its modern incarnation as an art or dance form, and form of exercise, the practice of manipulating a hoop is referred to either as hoop dance or simply hooping. Hoop dance artists commonly refer to themselves, and the greater hoop dance community, as hoopers.
Usage examples of "hooping".
But up on her terrace, only the snake tree is visible, hooping over into the water.
To obviate this danger, and to be able to force out the load, it would be necessary, perhaps, to return to the process of the fourteenth century, hooping, and to strengthen the piece exteriorly, by a succession of steel rings unsoldered, from the breech to the trunnion.
These were what astronomers call the ‘equinoctial and solstitial colures’ and were seen as hooping down from the celestial north pole and marking the four constellations against the background of which, for periods of 2160 years at a time, the sun would consistently rise on the spring and autumn equinoxes and on the winter and summer solstices.