loop - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

various types of loops within programming

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.

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 process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.
    Synonym: cycle
    feedback loop
    time loop
    • 2024 December 9, Siân Boyle, “Is doom scrolling really rotting our brains? The evidence is getting harder to ignore”, in The Guardian‎[1], archived from the original on 26 February 2026:
      An online feed that constantly “refills” manipulates the brain’s dopaminergic reward system in a similar way. These powerful dopamine-driven loops of endless “seeking” can become addictive.
  5. A ring road or beltway.
  6. 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.
  7. A complete circuit for an electric current.
  8. (programming) A programmed sequence of instructions that is repeated until or while a particular condition is satisfied.
  9. (graph theory) An edge that begins and ends on the same vertex.
  10. (topology) A path that starts and ends at the same point.
  11. (transport) A bus or rail route, walking route, etc. that starts and ends at the same point.
  12. (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.
  1. (rail transport) A passing loop.
  1. (algebra) A quasigroup with an identity element.
  2. A loop-shaped intrauterine device.
  3. An aerobatic maneuver in which an aircraft flies a circular path in a vertical plane.
  4. A small, narrow opening; a loophole.
  1. Alternative form of loup (“mass of iron”).
  2. (biochemistry) A flexible region in a protein's secondary structure.
  3. (Canada, US, dated, sports) A sports league
  1. (cricket) The curved path of the ball bowled by a spin bowler.

length of thread, line or rope

shape produced by a curve that bends around and crosses itself

endless strip of tape or film allowing continuous repetition

complete circuit for an electric current

programmed sequence of instructions

transportation route that starts and ends at the same point

aircraft maneuver

flexible region in a protein's secondary 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 play something (such as a song or video) in a loop.
  6. (transitive) To join electrical components to complete a circuit.
  7. (transitive) To duplicate the route of a pipeline.
  8. (transitive) To create an error in a computer program so that it runs in an endless loop and the computer freezes up.
  9. (intransitive) To form a loop.
  10. (intransitive) To move in a loop.
    The program loops until the user presses a key.
  1. To place in a loop.
  1. (education, ambitransitive) To have the teacher progress through multiple school years with the same students.

transitive: to form into a loop

to fly an aircraft in a loop

transitive: to move in a loop

to duplicate the route of a pipeline

to create an endless loop in a computer program

to create an error in a computer program so that it runs in an endless loop

intransitive: to form a loop

intransitive: to move in a loop

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

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 [Cantonese, _trad._]
    条片我loop咗几百次 [Cantonese, _simp._]
    tiu4 pin3 ngo5 lup1 zo2 gei2 baak3 ci3 [Jyutping]
    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 [Cantonese] ― mou4 haan6 lup1 [Jyutping] ― infinite never-ending loop

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)

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

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