phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Hop-head

Posted by Bruce Kahl on April 30, 2006

In Reply to: Hop-head posted by RRC on April 29, 2006

: : : I am reading the play "the little shop of horrors" and have come accross a line reading "where the hop-heads flop in the snow". What is a hop-head , and what does the line mean? Thanks in advance.

: : I remember it as older slang for a marijuana smoker. I looked it up in the dictionary, and they say druga addict. I don't remember it being that general. Anybody else?

: AFAIK, pot-heads are into marijuana, hop-heads can be hopped up on just about anything.

Hophead, at least here in the NE part of the US, is used to describe someone who uses and abuses mind and mood altering substances.

It may derive from the flowers used to add flavor and stability to beer.

Hops are the flowers of Humulus lupulus, used as a flavoring and stability agent in beer with the first documented use in the eleventh century.

Hops were added to the beer making process to ship beer to India by the British. Hops had an effect of increasing the alcohol content and lowering the bacteria that could spoil the beer.

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.