# slop

Pronunciation: say "SLOP" US /slɑp/, UK /slɒp/

## Noun

1. Soft, wet, messy material such as mud, goo, pulp or spilled liquid, or the puddle or dirty mark it leaves.
   - Simple: A soft, wet, messy substance like mud or goo, or spilled liquid and the dirty mark it leaves.
   - _Trucks churned the construction site into ankle-deep slop._
   - _Leave the papier-mâché soaking overnight and it turns to slop._
3. Weak, inferior drink or runny, semi-liquid food.
   - Simple: Weak, bad-tasting drinks or watery 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._
4. Unwanted play or looseness between parts that are meant to fit or move together tightly.
   - Simple: Looseness between parts that should fit together tightly, so they move when they should not.
   - _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._
5. Content or entertainment of little worth, made with little care, especially low-quality material mass-produced by generative AI and posted online.
   - Simple: Cheap, worthless content made with little care, especially the large amounts of it made by 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._
6. Dirty liquid waste from a household, such as dishwater, or, in older use, urine and excrement from chamber pots or cell buckets.
   - Simple: Dirty water and other liquid waste from a home.
   - _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._
8. Food scraps fed to animals, especially to pigs.
   - Simple: Leftover food given to pigs or other animals.
   - _The hogs crowded the fence when they heard the slop bucket rattle._
   - _Restaurants once sold their leftover food to farmers as slop for hogs._
12. A flip-flop: a light, flat sandal held on by a strap between the toes. *(South Africa)*
   - Simple: A flat open shoe held on by a strap between your toes.
   - _Everyone at the braai was in shorts and slops._
   - _Her left slop snapped halfway up the path to the beach._
13. A dance that was popular in the 1960s.
   - Simple: A dance that people did 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._
16. Oral sex performed on a man; fellatio. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Oral sex done on a man.
   - _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._

## Verb

2. To spill or dump liquid on something, or to soil someone or something with spilled liquid.
   - Simple: To spill a drink or other liquid on something and make it dirty.
   - _She slopped dirty water on her shoes as she emptied the bucket._
   - _Toddlers slop paint on everything within reach._
7. Of a liquid, to slosh or splash around, often spilling over the rim of its container.
   - Simple: Of a liquid, to move around and splash, often going over the edge 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._
9. To feed pigs.
   - Simple: To give food to 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._
10. To make one's way through wet, muddy ground.
   - Simple: To walk 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._
11. In pool or snooker, to pocket a ball by accident; in billiards, to play a careless, ill-judged shot.
   - Simple: In pool or snooker, to knock a ball into a pocket by accident.
   - _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._

## Adjective

14. Describing cheap, ready-made clothing of the kind known as slops. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Having to do with cheap clothes that are made ahead and sold ready to wear.

## Noun

15. A loose outer garment, such as a jacket or an overall. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A loose piece of clothing worn over other clothes, like a jacket.
17. A policeman. *(rare)*
   - Simple: A police officer.

## Origin

**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.
**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.
**Meaning 17** — An alteration of ecilop, back slang for police.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/slop (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).