slop

SaySLOP/slɑp/UK/slɒp/

Pluralslops (some meanings)

Verbslops, slopping, slopped

17 meanings of slop

Practice

1
wet mucknoununcountable
Soft, wet, messy material such as mud, goo, pulp or spilled liquid, or the puddle or dirty mark it leaves.
Trucks churned the construction site into ankle-deep slop.
Leave the papier-mâché soaking overnight and it turns to slop.
UsageCommon patterns include ankle-deep in slop and turn to slop.
Similarsludge, muck, mush, mud, goo
Note
Here it is uncountable (knee-deep in slop), and it names a texture more than a substance: mud, paste and pulp all qualify once they lose their shape.
2
spilled liquidverbtransitive
To spill or dump liquid on something, or to soil someone or something with spilled liquid.
She slopped dirty water on her shoes as she emptied the bucket.
Toddlers slop paint on everything within reach.
UsageUsually with a direction word: slopped water on her shoes, slop paint over the floor.
Similarsplash, splatter, slosh, spill
3
watery foodnouncountable or uncountableplural
Weak, inferior drink or runny, semi-liquid food.
After surgery, he lived on broth, gruel, and other slops for a week.
The prisoners were fed a thin slop of beans and water twice a day.
Similarswill, gruel
4
loose fitnoununcountable
Unwanted play or looseness between parts that are meant to fit or move together tightly.
A worn gear left so much slop in the drive that the robot arm missed its mark.
New bushings got rid of the slop in the bike's rear suspension.
Similarplay, looseness
Note
A workshop word, more casual than the engineer's play or backlash. Mechanics and riders find slop in steering, gears, linkages and suspension, and it always signals a fault: something worn, loose or badly fitted. Because a little slop multiplies along a mechanism, it shows up as imprecision at the far end, like an arm that misses its mark.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Backlash can accumulate through a mechanism. arxiv.org
Joint looseness can cause positioning errors at a mechanical arm's working end. tsapps.nist.gov
5
cheap medianounderogatorycountable or uncountable
Content or entertainment of little worth, made with little care, especially low-quality material mass-produced by generative AI and posted online.
The publisher was accused of filling its site with AI slop to chase clicks.
Critics dismissed the album as trend-chasing slop built for playlists.
UsageOften after another word naming the source: AI slop, reality slop.
Similartrash, junk, garbage, rubbish, drivel
6
household waste waternouncountable or uncountableplural
Dirty liquid waste from a household, such as dishwater, or, in older use, urine and excrement from chamber pots or cell buckets.
Dishwater and other slop drained into a pit at the back of the cottage.
Campers are asked to strain food scraps from their slops before pouring them out.
7
spilled liquidverbintransitive
Of a liquid, to slosh or splash around, often spilling over the rim of its container.
Coffee slopped onto the saucer every time the train lurched.
Fill the tank only halfway so the water doesn't slop out on the drive home.
UsageThe liquid is the subject: coffee slopped over the rim, water slopped out, coffee slopped onto the saucer.
Similarslosh, spill, splash
8
nouncountable or uncountableplural
Food scraps fed to animals, especially to pigs.
The hogs crowded the fence when they heard the slop bucket rattle.
Restaurants once sold their leftover food to farmers as slop for hogs.
Similarswill
9
feed pigsverbtransitive
To feed pigs.
Growing up on the farm, she had to slop the hogs before school.
He slopped the pigs with buckets of kitchen scraps and spoiled milk.
UsageMostly in slop the hogs or slop the pigs.
Similarfeed
10
walk in mudverbintransitive
To make one's way through wet, muddy ground.
The hikers slopped along the flooded trail for three miles.
Farmhands slop through the barnyard every morning in tall rubber boots.
Similarslosh, squelch, slog, trudge

Less common meanings

11
poolverbtransitive
In pool or snooker, to pocket a ball by accident; in billiards, to play a careless, ill-judged shot.
Nervous beginners often slop the object ball into a pocket they never aimed at.
He slopped the nine ball into the side pocket and won the game by pure luck.
Note
Its opposite is the called shot. Where the rules make a player name the ball and the pocket first, a slopped ball usually earns nothing, while looser house rules may let it count. Either way the word says that luck sank the ball, not skill.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
This is too absolute. In straight pool, additional balls pocketed alongside a legally pocketed called ball each score one point, even if pocketed accidentally. wpapool.com
Looser house rules may allow accidental pots to count. en.wikipedia.org
12
sandalnounSouth Africacountableplural
A flip-flop: a light, flat sandal held on by a strap between the toes.
Everyone at the braai was in shorts and slops.
Her left slop snapped halfway up the path to the beach.
UsageUse a pair of slops or walking in slops. In British and American English, these are called flip-flops.
Similarthong, jandal
13
dancenouncountable or uncountable
A dance that was popular in the 1960s.
The band played a fast R&B number, and the whole floor started doing the slop.
Dance crazes like the twist and the slop swept through teenage parties.
UsageTakes the: do the slop, like do the twist.
Note
Loudon Wainwright III's Suicide Song (1971) calls it up alongside the monkey and the pony, dances that by then belonged to the decade before.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
Loudon Wainwright III wrote Suicide Song. en.wikipedia.org
Suicide Song appeared on Album II, released in 1971. lw3.com
The song mentions the slop alongside the monkey and the pony. en.wiktionary.org
The slop was a dance popular in the 1960s. en.wiktionary.org
The monkey was popular in the 1960s. en.wikipedia.org
The pony was a 1960s dance. libraryofdance.org
14
cheap clothesadjectiveobsolete
Describing cheap, ready-made clothing of the kind known as slops.
Note
It points to the cheap, ready-made end of the clothes market, the opposite of a tailor's made-to-measure work, and it has long dropped out of use.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Slops referred to ready-made clothing, especially cheap clothing. en.wikisource.org
Slop clothing was distinguished from clothing tailored individually for the customer. en.wikipedia.org
15
nounobsolete
A loose outer garment, such as a jacket or an overall.
Note
The garment word has a history of its own, separate from the messy slop: Old English had it inside oferslop, an outer garment or surplice, and Icelandic has its cousin sloppur, a long, loose gown.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The garment word has a separate etymological history from messy slop, with Old English evidence in oferslop, meaning an outer garment or surplice. en.wiktionary.org
Icelandic sloppur is cognate with the garment word and means a long, loose gown. en.wiktionary.org
16
oral sexnounslangvulgarcountable or uncountable
Oral sex performed on a man; fellatio.
In the locker room, the guys traded crude stories about who had gotten slop over the weekend.
The radio edit cut the line where he brags about getting slop.
UsageOften used without an article in get slop or give slop.
Note
It is crude sexual slang, at home in rap lyrics such as Lil Mosey's Pull Up (2017), and the rhyming sloppy toppy is a longer slang name for the same thing.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Lil Mosey's song Pull Up uses slop in its sexual sense. en.wiktionary.org
Sloppy toppy is a rhyming slang synonym for the sexual sense of slop. en.wiktionary.org
17
nounrarecountable
A policeman.
Similarcop, copper, bobby
Note
It comes from back slang, the street trick of saying words backward: police became ecilop, and ecilop was worn down to slop. The costermongers who sold from barrows used it, and it surfaces in London writing such as Temple Bar in 1866, where a slop takes two men before the beak.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Back slang forms words by reversing ordinary words. en.wikipedia.org
The police sense of slop derives from ecilop, a reversal of police. en.wiktionary.org
Costermongers used this term for the police. gutenberg.org
Costermongers sold goods from barrows. gutenberg.org
Temple Bar contains an 1866 occurrence in which a policeman takes two men before a magistrate. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of slop apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 12, 14–15

Old English had a form *slop, seen in the compound oferslop ("an outer garment, surplice"), which became Middle English slop or sloppe. Icelandic sloppur ("a long, loose gown") is comparable.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

Old English *slop is found in the compound oferslop. en.wiktionary.org
Oferslop meant an outer garment or surplice. en.m.wiktionary.org
Middle English slop or sloppe derives from Old English *slop. en.m.wiktionary.org
Icelandic sloppur means a long, loose gown and is comparable etymologically. en.m.wiktionary.org

Meanings 1–11, 13, 16

Related to slip, it most likely continues a Middle English *sloppe that survives only in the plural sloppes. Behind that is Old English *sloppe, attested in cūsloppe, which was a variant of slyppe.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

Slop is related to slip. en.m.wiktionary.org
Slop probably continues reconstructed Middle English *sloppe. en.m.wiktionary.org
The Middle English word is attested only as the plural sloppes; the singular is reconstructed. en.m.wiktionary.org
The proposed Old English antecedent is reconstructed *sloppe, attested within cūsloppe. en.m.wiktionary.org
Old English *sloppe was a variant of slyppe. en.wikisource.org

Meaning 17

An alteration of ecilop, back slang for police.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

Slop is an alteration of ecilop. en.m.wiktionary.org
Ecilop is back slang for police. en.wiktionary.org