sop

See also: SOP and söp

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒp

Etymology

From Middle English sop, soppe, sope, from Old English sopa ‎(“sopped bread”), from Proto-Germanic *supô (compare Dutch sop, Old High German sopfa), deverbative of *sūpaną ‎(“to sup”). More at sup; compare soup.

Noun

sop ‎(plural sops)

1. Something entirely soaked.
   • Shakespeare

     The bounded waters / Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, / And make a sop of all this solid globe.

2. A piece of solid food to be soaked in liquid food.
   • Bible, John xiii. 26

     He it is to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it.

   • Francis Bacon

     Sops in wine, quantity for quantity, inebriate more than wine itself.

3. Something given or done to pacify or bribe.
   • L'Estrange

     All nature is cured with a sop.

4. A weak, easily frightened or ineffectual person; a milksop
5. Gravy. (Appalachia)
6. (obsolete) A thing of little or no value.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Piers Plowman to this entry?)

Derived terms

• sippet

Translations

something entirely soaked

• Georgian: დასველებული ‎(dasvelebuli)

piece of food to be soaked

• Dutch: sopbroodje

• Persian: تریت (fa) ‎(terit)

something given or done to pacify or bribe

• Finnish: lahjus (fi)
• Dutch: zoenoffer (nl)

• Russian: пода́чка (ru) f ‎(podáčka)

easily frightened person — see milksop

gravy — see gravy

Verb

sop ‎(third-person singular simple present sops, present participle sopping, simple past and past participle sopped)

1. To steep or dip in any liquid.
   • 1928, White, Newman Ivey, American Negro Folk-Songs, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, page 227:

     When I die, don't bury me deep, / Put a jug of 'lasses at my feet, / And a piece of corn bread in my hand, / Gwine to sop my way to the promised land.

   • 1945 December 27, Post, Emily, “Sopping Bread May Be Done”, in The Spokesman-Review^[1]:

     So again let me say that sopping bread into gravy can be done properly merely by putting a piece down on the gravy and then soaking it with the help of a knife and fork as though it were any other food. But taking a soft piece of bread and pushing it under the sauce with your fingers, submerging them as well as the bread, or even wiping the plate with it would be very bad manners indeed.

Derived terms

• sop up

Anagrams

• ops , OPS, pos, POS, PSO

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔp

Noun

sop n ‎(plural soppen, diminutive sopje n)

1. water with soap, usually to wash clothes
2. the sea in terms of somebody who will sail on it

Het ruime sop kiezen. — To set sail.

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Indonesian

Noun

sop

1. soup

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Lojban

Rafsi

sop

1. rafsi of so'e.

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Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English soap.

Noun

sop

1. cleaner

   sop bilong tit = toothpaste

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West Uvean

Etymology

From English soap.

Noun

sop

1. soap

References

• Claire Moyse-Faurie, Borrowings from Romance languages in Oceanic languages, in Aspects of Language Contact (2008, ISBN 3110206048)