slop

1 of 3

noun (1)

1
: a loose smock or overall
2
slops plural : short full breeches worn by men in the 16th century
3
slops plural : articles (such as clothing) sold to sailors

slop

2 of 3

noun (2)

1
: soft mud : slush
2
: thin tasteless drink or liquid food
usually used in plural
3
: liquid spilled or splashed
4
a
: food waste (such as garbage) fed to animals : swill sense 2a
b
: excreted body waste
usually used in plural
c
: a product of little or no value : rubbish
watching the usual slop on TV
5
: sentimental effusiveness in speech or writing : gush

slop

3 of 3

verb

slopped; slopping

transitive verb

1
a
: to spill from a container
b
: to splash or spill liquid on
c
: to cause (a liquid) to splash
2
: to dish out messily
3
: to eat or drink greedily or noisily
4
: to feed slop to
slop the hogs

intransitive verb

1
: to tramp in mud or slush
2
: to become spilled or splashed
3
: to be effusive : gush
4
: to pass beyond or exceed a boundary or limit

Examples of slop in a Sentence

Verb She slopped coffee on her sweater. Huge waves slopped water into the boat.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The fatality took place as the pair rode along the lower portion of an open east-facing slop in Haskins Creek, west of Battle Pass in the Sierra Madre range. USA TODAY, 13 Feb. 2024 Across the board, the world is going to fill with more AI slop than ever before. Thomas Germain / Gizmodo, Quartz, 8 Feb. 2024 Logic is trumped by fan service and plot convenience — so wait, why is Gamora back from the dead, exactly? — and when viewed against the anything-goes gonzo vibe of the first two entries, the whole thing feels like a cross between honoring a contractual obligation and old-fashioned cosmic slop. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 13 Dec. 2023 The car will perform better with less drama, less slop. Mark Ewing, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023 Compare this slop to a modern master of standup like Anthony Jeselnik, who uses pitch-black comedy to push audiences right to the edge of their comfort zone, but the goal is always building to a satisfying and unique punchline. William Earl, Variety, 27 Dec. 2023 That level of slop can’t be pinned exclusively on one person. Colleen Kane, Chicago Tribune, 12 Sep. 2023 And yet catcher Austin Hedges has finished each of the last two games flinging 50 mph slop at Houston hitters in the middle of a playoff race. Evan Grant, Dallas News, 6 Sep. 2023 Lessening one's interactions with the brake pedal is particularly advantageous in the Ariya because there's a lot of slop in its initial pedal travel. Joe Lorio, Car and Driver, 27 May 2023
Verb
If that seems a bit too spicy, simply brown your ground beef, slop a heaping helping on some Texas toast, and pile on some Cheddar cheese. Southern Living Editors, Southern Living, 11 Oct. 2023 His matcha had slopped onto one of his tan suede loafers. Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 14 June 2023 The oldest of five children, Packard spent his days after school milking cows, slopping pigs and digging potatoes. Lacey Latch, AZCentral.com, 30 Apr. 2023 But try not to slop over multiple lines. Merrie Spaeth, Forbes, 16 Aug. 2022 And waves will slop up the rocks at places like Sunset Cliffs. Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Aug. 2022 They were forced to slop each other with hot molasses. Karen Sieber, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Feb. 2022 The resulting build takes the tiniest of stutters and slop in the already-good stock Supra and bumps up the power. Elana Scherr, Car and Driver, 21 Jan. 2022 Capitalism and competition create wealth; other systems slop existing wealth around. Andy Kessler, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'slop.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English slop, sloppe "loose outer garment," going back to Old English -slop, in oferslop "loose outer garment, surplice," going back to Germanic *slupa- (whence also Middle Dutch slop "upper garment [as a priest's surplice]," overslop "upper garment, foreskin," Middle High German slopf, slupf "loop, noose," Old Icelandic sloppr "loose garment, vestment"), probably going back to an ablauting n-stem paradigm *slaubōn- (nominative), *sluppas (genitive), going back to Indo-European *slou̯bh-ōn-, *slubh-n-ós, derivative of the verbal base *sleu̯bh- "move easily, slip" — more at sleeve

Noun (2)

of uncertain origin

Note: This word has traditionally been traced back to Middle English sloppes, attested once, in the alliterative Morte Arthure (ca. 1440), and then further traced to Old English -sloppe in cusloppe, a variant of cūslyppe cowslip, in which -sloppe is taken to mean "dung, excrement." The passage in the Morte Arthure in which sloppes occurs describes Arthur and his knights disembarking from boats and wading ashore: "Londis als a lyon with lordliche knyghtes, / Slippes in the sloppes o slante to þe girdyll" (lines 3922-23). The Middle English Dictionary tentatively defines the word as "muddy waters." Note that it forms an alliterative pair with slippes, from which it differs only by a vowel. No further attestations of slop appear before the seventeenth century, and then again often paired with slip. The sense "medicine in the form of a tasteless drink or liquid food" occurs in 1658 as slops, in 1668 as slip-slops. Though slip-slop has been taken as a compound based on slop, the possibility that the compound is actually based on slip suggests itself—in which case slop would be an affective coinage that may have been made more than once and is not datable to Old English. Compare slop entry 3.

Verb

probably derivative of slop entry 2

Note: The sense "to lap up," attested since the sixteenth century, may be of independent origin. The Oxford English Dictionary's citation from Thomas Tusser's A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, printed in 1557 ("Their milke slapt in corners, their creame al to sost"), placed under the sense "to spill or splash (liquid)," is 250 years earlier than the next citation and probably an instance of a different word (slab?).

First Known Use

Noun (1)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1557, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of slop was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near slop

Cite this Entry

“Slop.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slop. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

slop

1 of 2 noun
1
: soft mud : slush
2
: thin tasteless drink or liquid food
usually used in plural
3
: liquid spilled or splashed
4
a
: food waste (as garbage) fed to animals : swill
b
: waste given off by the body
usually used in plural

slop

2 of 2 verb
slopped; slopping
1
: to spill on or over
2
: to feed slop to
slop the pigs

More from Merriam-Webster on slop

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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