[f. LOOP sb.1 App. of recent origin; not in Johnson or Todd. Cf. LOOPED ppl. a.1, which is recorded from the 16th c.]
1. trans. To form into a loop or loops; also with round.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxx. 412. The other end is already looped, or as sailors would say, ‘doubled in a bight.’
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 342. The eyes of the needles were formed by looping the metal round at the head.
1891. L. C. Miall, in Nature, 10 Sept., 457/2 It [the larva] loops its body to and fro with a kind of lashing movement, and is thus enabled to advance and rise in the water.
2. intr. To form a loop; spec. of certain larvæ.
1832. Fraser’s Mag., VI. 384. The roots … twist themselves among the masonry, and the huge boughs come looping through the holes.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca, II. 173. Pedipes afra … loops in walking, like truncatella.
1885. Atlantic Monthly, LVII. 595. The currant worms went looping and devouring from twig to twig.
1898. E. Coues, in J. Fowler’s Jrnl., p. xxii. Fowler … went a roundabout way, looping far south to heads of the Whitewater and Verdigris rivers before he crossed the Neosho.
3. trans. To put or form loops upon; to provide (a garment) with loops.
1894. Blackmore, Perlycross, 24. The broad valley … looped with glittering water.
1900. Blackw. Mag., Sept., 336/1. Snow loops every ledge and curtains every slope.
4. To encircle or enclose in or with something formed into a loop.
1840. Lardner, Geom., 248. Let a pencil be looped in the thread…. Thus placed, let the pencil be moved in the loop of the thread.
1863–76. Curling, Dis. Rectum (ed. 4), 102. Metallic wire … sufficient … to admit of the surgeon … looping his finger with it.
5. Chiefly with adv. or phrase: To fasten (back, up) by forming into a loop, or by means of an attached loop; to join or connect by means of a loop or loops. Also intr. for refl.
1840. Browning, Sordello, II. 199. For him was … verse … A ceremony that … looped back the lingering veil Which hid the holy place.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., II. viii. His frock-skirts looped over his elbow.
1844. Hood, Bridge of Sighs, 31. Loop up her tresses Escaped from the comb.
1853. Mechanics’ Mag., LVIII. 375. Each needle carries a separate thread, which are looped into each other alternately.
1863. Alford, in Life (1873), 366. Their narrow … streets, shady and lofty, looped together with frequent arches from side to side.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, ii. 28. She had an abundance of dark hair looped up.
1880. N. Smyth, Old Faiths, v. (1882), 208. Every thread of life is inextricably looped with a thousand other threads.
1881. Encycl. Brit., XIII. 99/1. The basal processes loop with the horizontal fibres.
