Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Hopper?

\Hop"per\, n. [See 1st {Hop}.] 1. One who, or that which, hops. 2. A chute, box, or receptacle, usually funnel-shaped with an opening at the lower part, for delivering or feeding any material, as to a machine; as, the wooden box with its trough through which grain passes into a mill by joining or shaking, or a funnel through which fuel passes into a furnace, or coal, etc., into a car. 3. (Mus.) See {Grasshopper}, 2. 4. pl. A game. See {Hopscotch}. --Johnson. 5. (Zo["o]l.) (a) See {Grasshopper}, and {Frog hopper}, {Grape hopper}, {Leaf hopper}, {Tree hopper}, under {Frog}, {Grape}, {Leaf}, and {Tree}. (b) The larva of a cheese fly. 6. (Naut.) A vessel for carrying waste, garbage, etc., out to sea, so constructed as to discharge its load by a mechanical contrivance; -- called also {dumping scow}. {Bell and hopper} (Metal.), the apparatus at the top of a blast furnace, through which the charge is introduced, while the gases are retained. {Hopper boy}, a rake in a mill, moving in a circle to spread meal for drying, and to draw it over an opening in the floor, through which it falls. {Hopper closet}, a water-closet, without a movable pan, in which the receptacle is a funnel standing on a draintrap. {Hopper cock}, a faucet or valve for flushing the hopper of a water-closet.