popcorn

noun

1. (uncountable)A snack food made from corn or maize kernels popped by dry heating.

   “My friends and I ordered popcorn during the interval of the movie.”

2. (countable)A serving of popcorn.

   “Warner Bros has offered the two executives less than dollars 1m as an out-of-court settlement, a sum dismissed by Mr [Pierce] O'Donnell as 'two popcorns and two Cokes'.”

   “When we went to Astoria, to see 'Drive Me Crazy,' they gave you one popcorn and the other one was free. I asked her if she wanted to eat mine, but she said there was so much popcorn, she was going to get sick.”

   “Every Wednesday night is Date Night, and for $10 sweethearts can get two tickets, two popcorns and two sodas.”

3. (countable, rare)A piece of popcorn.

   “Some popcorns silently flicked off like face peelings on his shoe.”

   “Don’t you feel this is nothing but throwing popcorns before a hungry elephant? This is definitely throwing popcorns before the hungry elephant. This is the imbalance that I wanted to pointed out.”

   “Sarani threw a few popcorns into her mouth.”

   “The boat lurches through choppy waves with resonating booms, tourists chatter with excitement, and the woman throwing popcorns squeals whenever our seagull guards reappear, ready for the next assault.”

   ““Blah, kiss her you fool!” an annoyingly familiar voice yelled from the door as he threw a handful of popcorns at us.”

4. (uncountable)A type of corn or maize with a hard outer hull that, along with the type of starch it contains, makes it suitable for popping.
5. (countable, uncountable)A kind of stitch similar to a bobble.

   “From the top the sample shows four stitch popcorns, five stitch bobbles, two rows of bells and a central leaf with leaves sloping to the left and right each side.”

6. (attributive, countable, uncountable)A form of brainstorming in which participants call out their ideas immediately, instead of waiting for an assigned turn to speak.

   “With the "popcorn" method, all team members in the session spontaneously call out ideas and a facilitator writes them on a flip chart.”

   “As a way to begin the discussion about God's will, you might want to ask the group to do some "popcorn" brainstorming about the pros and cons of believing that everything that happens is God's will.”

   “Ask: What Twitter-style hashtag characterizes our community? (Use popcorn brainstorming to elicit responses.)”

7. (countable, humorous, uncountable)Entertainment for observers.

   “And not at all about how a state picks which group of electors to send, which is the whole basis of the NaPoVoInterCo plan, and will yield plenty more Supreme Court popcorn if it ever gets enacted.”

8. (countable, uncountable)A slow Belgian style of soul music popular in the early 1960s.
9. (countable, uncountable)A Romanian style of Europop popular in the late 2000s.

verb

1. To stand or jump up quickly.

   “Popcorning behavior is a fun sight—as long as you know what it is. Otherwise, it can scare you. During this action a pig runs around very fast and suddenly leaps straight up in the air, twitching and squeaking. It then lands and takes off again, often in another direction. This activity shows pure joy. Babies start to popcorn when they are about two weeks old or so—they may try it earlier, but they usually fall down instead.”

2. To pop repeatedly, like popcorn cooking.
3. (rare)To use the popcorn stitch.

   “You've been cabling, twisting, popcorning and bobbling. See, we told you that they weren't so hard.”