jump through hoops
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Go to extreme lengths.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He was the man she wanted to be with for the rest of her life and she was willing to jump through any hoop and over any hurdle to win him.
‘ We jumped through hoops to make allowances,’ he said.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “jump through hoops” mean?
Go to extreme lengths.
Is “jump through hoops” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.