slop1
/slɒp
/verb (slops, slopping, slopped)
1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] (Of a liquid) spill or flow over the edge of a container, typically as a result of careless handling: water slopped over the edge of the sink...
- Water slopped and spilled and lacerations across my skin burned but I held her in a white-knuckled grip and she didn't resist.
- When we finally remove it, the middle of the crepe is cooked through while the edges slop all over the Formica, eliciting shrieks of disgust from aforementioned seven-year-olds.
- He stirred the tea, fast, some slopped into the saucer as he watched the swirls disappear.
Synonyms
spill, flow, overflow, run, slosh, splash, splatter, spatter
1.1 [with object] Cause (a liquid) to spill over the edge of a container: I slopped coffee in my saucer...
- Her face whitened and she put it back on the table hastily, slopping a little of the liquid out.
- Be careful with large candles, as the potential for slopping a pool of burning hot spillage is greater.
- Fortunately, she was lapping the soup up with great neatness and delicacy, which was sort of a relief: Jinx had been afraid she was going to slop it all over the table.
1.2(Of liquid) move within a container, noisily slapping against the sides: water slopped around in the bottom of the boat...
- Ramirez turned over, a wave of water slopping against the marbled side of the bath.
- She felt that receiving the child food directly into little personal bowls was undignified and wasteful, since much of it slopped over the sides.
- Creamy soup slopped over the side as he stared into the middle distance.
1.3 [with object and adverbial] Apply or pour (a liquid substance) in a casual or careless manner: they spent their weekend slopping on paint...
- I don't want him to think I don't mind his mates slopping their coffee all over the carpet and not apologising, or talking about how many traffic cones they nicked during their college days as if they were yesterday.
- Spen was in particularly frisky mood and ended up slopping his drink down my jeans while Ross lined me up far too many vodkas on the arm of a chair.
- I slopped the stuff on and miraculously the ashen timbers of our bench and table suite turned slowly back to a healthy brown.
1.4 (slop through) Wade through (a wet or muddy area): they were slopping through paddy fields...
- The water had risen again and was slopping through the lower rooms.
- I slopped through the puddles.
- I remembered the look on Jim's face as he slopped through the slush in Rye, mulling young John's fate.
2 [no object] (slop about/around) chiefly British Dress in an untidy or casual manner: at weekends he would slop about in his oldest clothes...
- We enjoyed the morning in a rather more comfortable manner, taking a late breakfast and slopping about the house until mid-day.
- They were always immaculate; there was no slopping around in tight, ill-fitting jeans and trainers.
- On a Saturday morning, when most people are slopping about in a fleece, she was wearing a smart suit.
Synonyms
laze (around/about), lounge (around/about), do nothing, loll (around/about), loaf (around/about), slouch (about/around), vegetate
informal hang around, veg out
British informal hang about, mooch about/around, slummock around
North American informal bum around, bat around/about, lollygag
3 [no object] (slop out) British (Especially in prison) empty the contents of a chamber pot: (as noun slopping out) the indignity of slopping out...
- In 1996 prison inspectors slammed slopping out as ‘inhumane’.
- During his eight-year tenure he has occasionally made life difficult for his political masters by highlighting inhumane prison practices such as slopping out.
- He is the lawyer who plunged the Scottish Executive into a compensation crisis by successfully challenging slopping out in prisons.
4 [with object] Feed slops to (an animal): they think a farmer’s wife spends all her time slopping hogs...
- They milk the cows, feed the calves, slop the pigs, and check the roosting hens before sitting down to tea in their own kitchen.
- Cows were milked, chickens were fed and hogs were slopped.
- No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay.
5 [no object] chiefly North American Speak or write in a sentimentally effusive manner; gush: she slopped over her dog...
- Besides that, their songs are unremarkable, hookless and slop along with lumpen arrangements that recall swimming in porridge.
noun
1 (slops) Waste water from a kitchen, bathroom, or chamber pot that has to be emptied by hand: sink slops...
- There were many cesspools in the city and more in the suburbs, and slops were being emptied on to peaty land.
- Time consumed by the vessel in moving from loading or discharge port anchorage to her loading or discharge berth, discharging ballast water or slops, will not count as used laytime.
- As the local women empty their slops into the drain outside the shop, the secretary runs out with her disinfectant spray to ward off infection.
1.1Semi-liquid kitchen refuse, often used as animal food: she emptied some slops for the chickens...
- Although regulations have been issued against feeding animals with slops from restaurants, such a practice is still common in animal farming.
- This all changed when someone (probably an economist) spotted the nice turn that could be made by feeding slops or swill to pigs, and considered farming pigs intensively.
- A jocular sort, but with a heart as empty as a pig trough waiting for slops.
1.2Unappetizing semi-liquid food.That and the breakfast was usually limited to an unappetizing bowl of protein slop....
- I may have called that food slop, but compared to this I consider it a meal fit for kings!
- The food court had a stripped down version of our favorite fast food slop house, as well as a panorama of ethnic fast food counters.
2 [mass noun] chiefly North American Sentimental language or material: country music is not all commercial slop...
- Fans of cable channels or mush-brained problem dramas may appreciate this sentimental slop; others are warned.
- Let's hope that his penchant for sentimental slop is behind him because no one else can sport such a nondescript look, while bringing an undercurrent of rage or emotional torture to the screen.
- Be it his usual commercial slop or this stab at achieving some street credit, he falls amazingly flat, as he always has.
3 Nautical A choppy sea.
Phrases
on the slops
Origin
Mid 16th century (in the sense 'to spill, splash'): probably related to slip3. Early use of the noun denoted 'slushy mud', the first of the current senses ( 'unappetizing food') dating from the mid 17th century.
Rhymes
slop2
/slɒp/noun archaic
1A workman’s loose outer garment.
2 (slops) Wide, baggy trousers common in the 16th and early 17th centuries, especially as worn by sailors.
2.1Clothes and bedding supplied to sailors by the navy.
2.2Ready-made or cheap clothing.Mr Fuller puts this down to losing the image of cloth caps and working-class slop, and having a strong premium image now’.
Origin
Late Middle English (in (sense 1)): from the second element of Old English oferslop 'surplice', of Germanic origin.