JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground by mathheadinclouds April 29, 2013 HTML mouse over the box <br/> note how .is(":hover") works in jQuery prior to 1.9<br/> but not in 1.9.1, so here's a work around <br/> <br/> use workaround for jQuery 1.9 <input type="checkbox" id="workaround"/> <div id="theBox"> </div> CSS #theBox { width:200px; height:200px; background: #aaa; } JavaScript function mouseIsOver(what){ return $(what).is(":hover"); } function mouseIsOverWorkaround(what){ var temp = $(what).parent().find(":hover"); return temp.length == 1 && temp[0] == what; } function mo(what){ return document.getElementById("workaround").checked ? mouseIsOverWorkaround(what) : mouseIsOver(what); } setInterval(function(){ var theBox = $("#theBox"); if(mo(theBox[0])) { theBox.css("background", "yellow"); } else { theBox.css("background", ""); } }, 200);