Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also hopser) a dance.

1720		C. Shadwell Irish Hospitality I i: [I] have gone thro’ all the merry Conceits of it, from a Three-penny Hop, to the Theatre-Royal.
1732		Delightful Adventures of Honest John Cole 19: In the Mornings we’re all Fortune-hunters, / Then spend half our Crop, / And go to the Hop, / And the Night we all spend with the Bunters.
1740		‘The Cullies Invitation’ Hop Garland 2: To the Hop we’ll go, / where we’ll Jig and Caper.
1774		C. Dibdin Waterman in Coll. Farces & Entertainment VI (1788) 86: I intend to invite the whole party to a hop here.
1788		Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 56: [She] dances well, and is fond of frequenting public hops.
1797		Sporting Mag. May X 73/1: The most famous public Dancing Assembly, or as it is vulgarly called, the genteelest Hop that ever was known in London [etc.].
1802		Sporting Mag. Oct. XXI 30/2: After opening the Ball at a hop in Bartholomew Fair, she went to Brighton.
1811		Austen Sense and Sensibility (1970) 38: Last Christmas, at a little hop at the park, he danced from eight o’clock till four.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 320: Jack, Moll, and Bet, well know the shop, / The cry, once more, ‘a hop! a hop!’.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 58: Being very much the gentleman so far as money was concerned, he gave them [i.e. women] plenty of ‘feeds,’ and from time to time a very agreeable hop.
1840		T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 186: Lord, I thought I should have died a laughing once, in Paris, dancing one sunday afternoon with a Grisette in the Champs Elisees, where there was a splendid hop.
1847		A. Smith Natural History of the Gent 53: He will launch off into all sorts of toe-and-heel tomfooleries [...] at Jullien’s and Vauxhall [...] and other ten-and-sixpenny demi-public hops.
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 131: You’ll be at old Coleman’s hop to-night I suppose.
1855		N.Y. Trib. 31 May 5/4: Another hop is looked forward to [...] the ball of the ‘bone-hunters,’ alias rag-pickers.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: There is a grand feed at the Chutneys’, and Mrs. Teapoy of ours is to have a hop.
1868		‘The Famous East Side of Town’ Rootle-Tum Songster 15: Like a good comic song or a story, / And a shindig or hop’s ‘hunky dory’ / On the jolly East side of the town.
1877		J. Diprose London Life 29: There are the professional beggars, who [...] ‘trip it on the light fantastic toe,’ at ‘twopenny hops,’ or cheap dances.
1882		Bristol Magpie 23 Nov. 6/1: He had [...] accepted an invitation to a ‘hop’.
1885		Observer and Freelance (Wellington) 29 Aug. 9/4: Too bad of Sam not to take Miss A. to the hop the other night.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 275: The young ladies ain’t on for a hop; are ye miss?
1888		A. Trumble Mott Street Poker Club 29: They [i.e. a collar and cuffs] were destined to adorn his person at a hop.
1892		Kipling ‘Gentlemen-Rankers’ in Barrack-Room Ballads (1893) 204: To dance with blowzy housemaids at the regimental hops / And thrash the cad who says you waltz too well.
1894		Irving Jones ‘Possumala Dance’ 🎵 Last night I went to a colored hop [...] and when the coons began to dance, You ought to seen dem wenches prance.
1895		Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 3 July 2/7: [Tthere is to be another valedictory hop on Friday.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Sept. 14/3: Was recently at [a bush hop] when the M.C. made himself scarce with his girl.
1901		H. Castling [perf. Kate Carney] Our Threepenny Hop 🎵 When you start a-dancing you never know when to stop. / It’s Hi! Hi! Go as you please, at our threepenny hop.
c.1903		H. Lonsdale [perf. Ernest Shand] ‘Daily Mirror, Front Page’ 🎵 [of a dance step] There's a pretty lady, in fact a titled pet / She wants to dance Salome / But that classic hop she’s learning yet.
1906		O.C. Malvery Soul Market 83: Once I went with her to a ‘penny ’op.’ This was a dance given in the back parlour of a small public-house.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 35/2: Blood Ball (London Tr.) The butchers’ annual hopser, a very lusty and fierce-eyed function.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 31 Aug. 14/2: They Say [...] That Wonga thinks that when he secures that medal he will be admitted to the Saturday night hoppers. No chance, Wonga.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Aug. Red Page/1: Uz fur the nights, there’s allez whips o’ fun / In ’ops wif righto heifers ut yer wing.
1916		J. Lait ‘Ten Dollars’ Worth’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 230: An occasional item about [...] who will lead the march at the co-eds’ campus hop.
1923		Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith (1993) 577: Beastly shame you aren’t coming to the hop.
1937		Andy Kirk & His Twelve Clouds of Joy [instrumental title] Wednesday Night Hop.
1946		G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead (1955) 24: I think I met her at the village hop.
1958		The Philharmonics ‘Teen Town Hop’ 🎵 You know I got my hot-rod down the shop / Gotta meet my baby at the Teen Town hop.
1958		Peter Cape ‘Down the Hall on a Saturday Night’ 🎵 I’m gonna climb onto me tractor, / Gonna belt ’er out of the gate, / ’Cause there’s a hop on down at the hall, and / She starts sharp somewhere ’bout half past 8.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 92: It’s about time we got a hop.
1962		M.K. Joseph Pound of Saffron 252: There’s a Queen’s Birthday hop down at the hall. What about coming along and dazzling the natives, eh?
1982		E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 22: The dance was the ‘hop’.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 62: At the local school hop / She whipped off her top.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 6: Going to a hop at the Arcadia.
1998		P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 125: You don’t mind her going to these hops every Thursday, Mrs?
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 129: An old-fashioned tuppeny hop.

2. a dance-hall.

1765		Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies 132: [She] does not dance badly, as those who frequent [...] the hop near Suffolk-Street can testify.
1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West II 144: [He]lived next door to a disreputable ‘hop’ called the ‘Waterloo Rooms’ in Pall Mall.

3. a dancing academy.

1859

G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 280: At nine o’clock in the evening, commences the public academy — the ‘hop,’ as some persons, innocent of the bump of veneration, call it.

4. (US) an organized dance, held in a dancehall and frequented by lower class young people.

1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 134: The Arrangements for the next Grand Hop by the Eucalytpus Pleasure Club.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Coming-Out of Maggie’ in Four Million (1915) 69: Every Saturday night the Clover Leaf Social Club gave a hop in the hall of the Give and Take Athletic Association on the East Side.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 67: In the slang of the day, these affairs were called rackets, blow outs, or hops.