loop

From Middle English loupe (“noose, loop”), earlier lowp-knot (“loop-knot”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hlaup (“a run”), used in the sense of a "running knot", from hlaupa (“to leap”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to leap, run”). Compare Swedish löp-knut (“loop-knot”), Danish løb-knude (“a running knot”), Danish løb (“a course”). More at leap. The verb is derived from the noun.

• IPA^(key): /luːp/
• Rhymes: -uːp
• Homophone: loupe

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

loop (plural loops)

1. A length of thread, line or rope that is doubled over to make an opening.
2. The opening so formed.
3. A shape produced by a curve that bends around and crosses itself.

   Arches, loops, and whorls are patterns found in fingerprints.

4. A ring road or beltway.
5. An endless strip of tape or film allowing continuous repetition.
   • 1979 December 8, anonymous author, “The Small Town”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 20, page 5:

     He can hang out in the back room of the local adult bookstore and hope for a stand-up blow-job through the glory hole in the partition of the two booths that show gay loops.

6. A complete circuit for an electric current.
7. (programming) A programmed sequence of instructions that is repeated until or while a particular condition is satisfied.
8. (graph theory) An edge that begins and ends on the same vertex.
9. (topology) A path that starts and ends at the same point.
10. (transport) A bus or rail route, walking route, etc. that starts and ends at the same point.
11. (rail transport) A place at a terminus where trains or trams can turn round and go back the other way without having to reverse; a balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop.
    • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 119:

      In 1908 the line was extended to a station called Wood Lane, which was built on a terminal track loop so that trains could turn round and go back the other way,

12. (rail transport) A passing loop.
    • 2025 February 5, Philip Haigh, “Where track and train integration will be put to the test”, in RAIL, number 1028, page 51:

      Basingstoke-Exeter will test this. From Salisbury westwards, it's largely single-track since British Rail downgraded it in 1967. There's a ten-mile loop between Templecombe and Yeovil, as well as shorter loops at Chard, Axminster and Honiton.

13. (algebra) A quasigroup with an identity element.
14. A loop-shaped intrauterine device.
15. An aerobatic maneuver in which an aircraft flies a circular path in a vertical plane.
16. A small, narrow opening; a loophole.
    • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence / The eye of Reason may pry in upon us.

17. Alternative form of loup (“mass of iron”).
18. (biochemistry) A flexible region in a protein's secondary structure.
19. (Canada, US, dated, sports) A sports league
    • 1963 September 27, “Italias Vie In Bayonne On Sunday”, in The Jersey Journal, page 17:

      Arellano formerly cavorted for the Galicias in the fast-paced National-American Soccer loop.

20. (cricket) The curved path of the ball bowled by a spin bowler.

• control structure

loop (third-person singular simple present loops, present participle looping, simple past and past participle looped)

1. (transitive) To form something into a loop.
2. (transitive) To fasten or encircle something with a loop.
3. (transitive) To fly an aircraft in a loop.
4. (transitive) To move something in a loop.
5. (transitive) To join electrical components to complete a circuit.
6. (transitive) To duplicate the route of a pipeline.
7. (transitive) To create an error in a computer program so that it runs in an endless loop and the computer freezes up.
8. (intransitive) To form a loop.
9. (intransitive) To move in a loop.

   The program loops until the user presses a key.

   • 2011 February 4, Gareth Roberts, “Wales 19-26 England”, in BBC‎:

     The outstanding Tom Palmer won a line-out and then charged into the heart of the Welsh defence, scrum-half Ben Youngs moved the ball swiftly right and Cueto's looping pass saw Ashton benefit from a huge overlap to again run in untouched.

10. To place in a loop.
    • 2021 January 13, Richard Clinnick, “Longer freight trains boost efficiency and reduce carbon”, in Rail, page 10:

      It found that trains often looped on their journey emit 14% to 20% more NOx and particulates than non-stop services.

11. (education, ambitransitive) To have the teacher progress through multiple school years with the same students.
    • 2003, Lisa Lynn Snyder, An Investigation of Elementary Looping Practices and Outcomes in a Rural School District, page 54:

      Tolland Middle School in Connecticut where close to four hundred middle school students participated in looping, students from looped classroom structures scored much higher than students from prior years without the looped structure on standardized tests in mathematics and writing.

• Appendix:Parts of the knot

• loop on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• OOPL, Polo, Pool, polo, pool

• IPA^(key): /lʊəp/

From Dutch lopen, from Middle Dutch lôpen, from Old Dutch lōpan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaupan, from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to run”).

loop (present loop, present participle lopende, past participle geloop)

1. (intransitive) to walk

• loep (Western Cape)

From Dutch loop, from Middle Dutch lôop, from Old Dutch *lōp.

loop (plural lope, diminutive lopie)

1. walking, gait
2. (of events) course
3. (of guns) barrel
4. (informal) business end (of a rifle, etc.)
5. (music, usually in diminutive) run: a rapid passage in music, especially along a scale

From English loop.

loop

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to repeatedly consume or play songs or videos

   條片我loop咗幾百次
   条片我loop咗几百次

   tiu⁴ pin³ ngo⁵ lup¹ zo² gei² baak³ ci³

   I've repeatedly watched the video a few hundreds times

2. (Hong Kong Cantonese, by extension) to occur repeatedly

loop

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) loop; cycle (Classifier: 個／个 c)

   無限loop／无限loop   ―  mou⁴ haan⁶ lup¹   ―  infinite never-ending loop

• IPA^(key): /loːp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: loop
• Rhymes: -oːp

From Middle Dutch lôop, from Old Dutch *lōp, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaup, from Proto-Germanic *hlaupą. Equivalent to a deverbal from lopen (“to walk”).

loop m (plural lopen, diminutive loopje n)

1. course, duration

   in de loop van de negentiende eeuw

   in/during the nineteenth century

   (literally, “in the course of the nineteenth century”)

2. a river course
3. course of a projectile
4. barrel (of a firearm)

• Afrikaans: loop
• → Indonesian: lop
• → Lokono: loporo
• → Papiamentu: lop

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

loop

1. inflection of lopen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

• Pool, pool

Unadapted borrowing from English loop.

loop m (plural loops)

1. (computing) loop (repeating sequence of instructions)

   Synonyms: ciclo, laço

2. loop (aircraft manoeuvre)

   Synonym: looping

• in loop