| 1. | 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. |
| 2. | the framework for such a skirt. |
| hoop skirt n. A long full skirt belled out with a series of connected circular supports. |
hoop skirt
garment with a frame of whalebone or of wicker or osier basketwork. Reminiscent of the farthingale (q.v.), the petticoat was reintroduced in England and France around 1710 and remained in favour until 1780. The French name panier ("basket") was used for skirts distended at the sides rather than all the way around. They could be as wide as 18 feet (5 metres), and satirists talked of hoops 7 or 8 yards (6 or 7 metres) wide.
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