Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To dip, soak, or drench in a liquid; saturate.
- v. To take up by absorption: sop up water with a paper towel.
- n. A piece of food soaked or dipped in a liquid.
- n. Something yielded to placate or soothe.
- n. A bribe.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Something soaked; a morsel, as of bread, dipped in a liquid before being eaten; a piece of bread softened, as in broth or milk, or intended to be so softened.
- n. Hence A morsel of food; a small portion of food or drink; a mouthful; a bite.
- n. Something given to pacify or quiet; a bribe: so used in allusion to the sop given to Cerberus in order to secure a quiet entrance to the lower world.
- n. A small piece; a fragment: a particle; hence, a trifle; a thing of little or no value.
- To dip or soak in a liquid.
- To take up by absorption: followed by up: as, to sop up water with a sponge.
- To soak in; penetrate, as a liquid; percolate.
- To be drenched; be soaked with wet: as, his clothes were sopping with rain.
- n. An abbreviation of soprano.
Wiktionary
- n. Something entirely soaked.
- n. A piece of solid food to be soaked in liquid food.
- n. Something given or done to pacify or bribe.
- n. A weak, easily frightened or ineffectual person; a milksop
- n. Gravy. (Appalachian)
- v. To steep or dip in any liquid.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Anything steeped, or dipped and softened, in any liquid; especially, something dipped in broth or liquid food, and intended to be eaten.
- n. Anything given to pacify; -- so called from the sop given to Cerberus, as related in mythology.
- n. obsolete A thing of little or no value.
- v. To steep or dip in any liquid.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a concession given to mollify or placate
- v. dip into liquid
- v. be or become thoroughly soaked or saturated with a liquid
- v. cover with liquid; pour liquid onto
- n. piece of solid food for dipping in a liquid
- n. a prescribed procedure to be followed routinely
- v. give a conciliatory gift or bribe to
Etymologies
- Middle English soppe, from Old English sopp 'sopped bread', from Proto-Germanic *sauppa (compare Dutch sop, Old High German sopfa), deverbative of *sūpanan 'to sup'. More at sup; compare soup. (Wiktionary)
- From Middle English soppe, bread dipped in liquid, from Old English sopp- (in soppcuppe, cup for dipping bread in). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The utility on Friday said it would begin initial compensation payments of up to ¥1 million, or about $12,000, to residents from an 18-mile zone around the plant—an offer some evacuees called an insufficient, short-term sop.”
The Wall Street Journal: Eerie Hush Descends on Japan's Nuclear Zone
“But prices are now, at least in our area, $3.75 or so a gallon, and in the meantime domestic oil companies are making record profits and were just thrown a multi-million dollar sop from the energy bill.”
“Sugar sop is na o'er digestible to th 'best o' 'em.”
“At that moment the sop is given; offer of friendship is once more made -- and how affectingly!”
“Guest Katty Kay of BBC World News America also questioned the strategy, saying that it might be a short-term sop to Obama's left-wing base, but it may end up alienating the independent voters that helped elect the president.”
“This soup looks wonderful..and I enjoyed reading about "sop" -- thinking about it, soup really is great for dipping bread in, so it really makes sense!”
“Some have heard that he went thence to Augusta; others aver that in their opinion, he travelled away down into the low country "whar they call sop, gravy; again, some say that a man very much like him was seen travelling in the Cherokee country; and not a few contend that he married, and settled in an adjoining eastern county, leading a quiet and blameless life for many years.”
“In captivity these birds have been found to live well upon sweetened milk-sop, which is made by pouring boiling milk upon crumbled bread or biscuit.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon"
“Then, too, there is the property clause in the Convention of Madrid, which has been described as the sop by means of which the Powers were induced to accept other less favourable stipulations.”
“There are, however, several kinds of fruit besides those which have been already mentioned; particularly the sweet-sop, which is well known to the West Indians, and a small oval fruit, called the _blimbi_, both of which grow upon trees.”
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sop’.
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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also
all so (true): everywhere, always and by all: Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus
besides, too, be-all-sides, sic et non, as well, all will be well, plus, all around, more further, sides be, likewise, wise-like and 27 more...
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Words with a P in them
opalescent, apposite, kelp, culprit, corporeal, copper, impinge, impose, impetus, impassible, oppress, maple and 40 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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spazgirl's words
dilettante, elegy, derelict, evince, solicitous, shibboleth, exculpate, karma, animadversion, arrogate, effrontery, grouse and 114 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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TOI 25th april
pragmatic, mar, bugle, irk, retaliation, repercussion, onus, ebb, binge, stature, sop, reminisce
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GRE uncommon
patronage, expletive, exhort, exegesis, execrable, excommunicate, evince, escarpment, ersatz, ergo, epoxy, snare and 1202 more...
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Payola
Bribes and such.
payola, sop, kickback, soap, palm-grease, boodle, meed, dasturi, gratulance, golden grease, lubrication payment, payoff and 9 more...
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Food&Kitchen
drupe, brick, offal, triffle, scullion, larder, cog, tub, swill, dreg, banger, kedgeree and 25 more...
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ellis peters
clee, lungeous, precentor, chasseours, parfytours, privily, cotte, dortoir, centaury, cleavers, brazier, pricced and 42 more...
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Blazes_Boylan's list
I have a thing for monosyllabic words. They're easy to say and, unlike those sesquipedalian words, you can plug them into a sentence without disrupting the rhythm. I also happen to like two and thr...
sluice, turgid, slough, cromulent, trudge, vacuous, crux, fisticuff, vapid, tepid, latch, micturate and 37 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sop.
ruzuzu Also see sippet. May 25, 2011