sop

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɒp/
• Rhymes: -ɒp

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

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.

sop (countable and uncountable, plural sops)

1. Something entirely soaked.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], column 1:

     The bounded Waters, / Should lift their boſomes higher then the Shores, / And make a ſoppe of all this ſolid Globe:

2. A piece of solid food to be soaked in liquid food.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 13:26, column 1:

     […] Hee it is to whom I ſhall giue a ſoppe, when I haue dipped it.

   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “VIII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, paragraph 726, page 182:

     […] Sops in Wine, (Quantitie for Quantitie,) inebriate more, than Wine of it ſelfe.

3. (figurative) Ellipsis of sop to Cerberus; something given or done to pacify or bribe.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] LXXXVIII. A Man Bit by a Dog.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 85:

     Ill Nature, in fine, is not to be Cur’d with a Sop; but on the contrary, Quarrelſome Men, as well as Quarrelſome Currs are worſe for fair Uſage.

   • 1996, Bernard Knox, Introduction to Robert Fagles's translation of The Odyssey:

     The suggested petrification of the ship is a sop to gratify Poseidon and compensate him for a concession--the Phaeacians will not be cut off from the sea.

   • 2020, Robert Kagan, “China’s dangerous Taiwan temptation”, in Washington Post‎^[1]:

     That agreement, with its lofty promises of “one country, two systems,” was a fig leaf, as most knew at the time — a sop to Western consciences guilty for condemning the people of Hong Kong to their ultimate fate as wards of Beijing. What is happening today is exactly what was predicted and exactly what Chinese leaders intended. Our outrage, while appropriate, is also embarrassing.

   • 2024 January 2, David A. Graham, “An Old-Fashioned Scandal Fells a New Harvard President”, in The Atlantic‎^[2]:

     Conservatives have long had it out for Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, whose appointment they viewed as a sop to progressive diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

4. (derogatory) Ellipsis of milksop; a weak, easily frightened or ineffectual person.
5. (Appalachia) Gravy.
6. (obsolete) A thing of little or no value.
   • 1988 August 20, Rex Wockner, “Nobody Can Do It Like The USA”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 6, page 5:

     Here, in Barcelona, your streets are alive at night, you walk, you eat for hours, you interact, you share your minds. Americans watch their 91 channels of superficial satellite sop. The whole country and everything you've ever believed about it really functions only on the surface.

7. A piece of turf placed in the road as a target for a throw in road bowling.

• soppe (obsolete)

• sippet

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

1. (transitive) To steep or dip in any liquid.
   • 1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 29:

     A messe of milke sopt with white bread.

   • 1928, Newman Ivey White, 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, Emily Post, “Sopping Bread May Be Done”, in The Spokesman-Review‎^[3]:

     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.

2. (intransitive) To soak in, or be soaked; to percolate.

• sop up

sop (plural sops)

1. (music, informal) Clipping of soprano.

• -spo, OPS, PSO, OPs, POS, ops, Ops, SPO, OPS+, pos, PoS, /pos, POs

From Dutch sop, from Middle Dutch sop (“soup”), from Old Dutch *sop, from Proto-Germanic *suppą.

sop (plural soppe)

1. soup
2. broth

From Middle Dutch sop (“soup”), from Old Dutch *sop, from Proto-Germanic *suppą. In the sense “water with soap” it is a shortening of zeepsop.

• IPA^(key): /sɔp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sop
• Rhymes: -ɔp

sop n (plural soppen, diminutive sopje n)

1. water with soap, usually for washing
2. the sea in terms of somebody who will sail on it

   Het ruime sop kiezen.

   To set sail.

3. (now dialectal) Archaic form of soep.

• afwassop
• in zijn eigen sop gaar laten koken
• soppen
• zeepsop

• Afrikaans: sop

From Dutch sop.

sop (first-person possessive sopku, second-person possessive sopmu, third-person possessive sopnya)

1. soup

From Middle Irish sop(p), from Latin stuppa (“coarse flax, tow”).^[1]

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /sˠɞpˠ/^[2]
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /sˠapˠ/^[3] (as if spelled sap)

sop m (genitive singular soip, nominative plural soip)

1. wisp, small bundle (of straw, etc.)
2. straw bedding; (straw) bed

sop (present analytic sopann, future analytic sopfaidh, verbal noun sopadh, past participle soptha)

1. (transitive) light with straw

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “sop”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “sop”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “sop”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024

sop

1. small amount of food
   • c. 1370-1390, William Langland, Piers Plowman

     And if he soupeth, eteth but a sop

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

sop c

1. a broom with a (usually rectangular) brush at the end

   Synonyms: sopborste, sopkvast

   Hämta sopen

   Get the broom

2. (colloquial) a container for garbage

   Synonym: (more common) soporna

   Släng den i sopen!

   Throw it in the bin!

• sopa

• sop in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• sop in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• sop in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From English soap.

sop

1. cleaner

   sop bilong tit ― toothpaste

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

sop n (plural soppen, diminutive sopke)

1. juice
2. soup

• sinesappelsop

• “sop”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

From English soap.

sop

1. soap

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