to hopple down
- phrasal verb
:
bajar cojeando
- He watched her hopple down the hallway after spraining her ankle.
Examples
-
After surgery, it took effort just to hopple down the front steps.
-
He had to hopple down the hill carefully.
-
The injured player tried to hopple down the sideline for help.
-
Don't hopple down the stairs!
-
After twisting her ankle, she had to hopple down the street to get home.
-
He managed to hopple down the steps, gripping the railing tightly for support.
-
Despite the pain, she bravely hopple down the rocky path to meet her friends.
Synonyms
150
2.7
Move from a higher to a lower place
129
1.6
To trip or lose balance while walking and almost fall
34
1.8
To fall from a higher place to a lower place
29
1.4
Move down from a high place using hands and feet
22
4.1
To walk with short steps and a clumsy side to side movement like a duck
6
3.7
Move with short uneven steps because one leg or foot hurts
4
7.9
To walk awkwardly while dragging your feet
4
5.5
To walk slowly with heavy steps because you are tired
2
5.9
To walk with heavy noisy steps that show effort or anger
To walk with small, unsteady steps
To walk with an awkward, relaxed bounce
How Awkward
Surface Forms
Morphology
hopple + down
Although 'hopple' is rare and not listed in standard dictionaries, if a learner knows it as a verb meaning to move awkwardly or hobble, combining it with the directional particle 'down' yields the meaning 'move downward awkwardly' by straightforward composition. This follows the common English pattern of motion verb + down, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Hopple down likely comes from the image of someone trying to hop and hobble at the same time while going down steps or a slope. That picture of slow, awkward movement because of an injury or block explains why it means 'to move down with difficulty'.