[hop-skoch] 
| 1. | a children's game in which a player tosses or kicks a small flat stone, beanbag, or other object into one of several numbered sections of a diagram marked on the pavement or ground and then hops on one foot over the lines from section to section and picks up the stone or object, usually while standing on one foot in an adjacent section. |
| 2. | to jump or leap from one place to another: Small birds hopscotched on the lawn. |
| 3. | to journey quickly and directly from one usually far place to another: ambassadors hopscotching from Moscow to Paris to London. |
| 4. | to move or pass through something, as a geographical area or a field of endeavor, making many brief stops: The candidate hopscotched through four states in two days. |
| 5. | to shift from one thing to another quickly or abruptly: The story hopscotches from the present to the past in a confusing way. |
| 6. | to jump or leap over. |
| 7. | to cross over (a large area or distance) in one continuous action: She hopscotches the country in her private plane. |
| 8. | to cross or travel through erratically or abruptly: The escaped convicts hopscotched the valley. |
| hop·scotch (hŏp'skŏch') n. 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. intr.v. hop·scotched, hop·scotch·ing, hop·scotch·es To move in or as if in a series of irregular jumps: "hopscotching across dozens of new cable channels" (Harry F. Waters). [hop1 + scotch1, a score, line.] |
hopscotch
age-old children's game based on an idea of not treading on lines. Variations of the game are played in many countries. The game's English name expresses its object: to hop over the "scotch," a line, or scratch, drawn on the ground. Lines are drawn in a variety of patterns. Spaces in the diagrams are numbered, and they must be traversed in order
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