slops

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of slop, meaning scraps fed to animals or household wastewater.

   The farmhand hauled two buckets of slops out to the hog pen.

   Before the cabin had plumbing, she carried the dishwater and other slops out back and dumped them in a ditch.

   Note

   The farmyard word has a different history from the clothing names: scraps for the pigs and dirty water from the house are both slops, and they take a plural verb (the slops go out after supper). The verb is spelled the same way, so she slops the hogs means she feeds them.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of slop.

   He slops paint everywhere when he rushes a job.

   He often slops a ball into the corner pocket and then pretends he called it.

   Note

   The form goes with he, she, it or a singular noun, and it carries every meaning of the verb: he slops paint on the floor, the dog slops through the mud, and a pool player who slops a ball has pocketed it by accident rather than by skill.

3. 3
   nounSouth Africaplural

   Plural of slop, meaning rubber thong sandals.

   Everyone at the braai was in shorts and slops.

   She kicked off her slops at the door before stepping onto the rug.

   Note

   South African English uses the word for rubber sandals held on by a strap between the toes, the pair other readers may call flip-flops or thongs. Outside South Africa the word is more likely to be heard as the scraps fed to pigs, so in writing for other readers the safer word is flip-flops.

4. 4
   nounhistoricalplural

   Breeches worn by sailors, mainly in the 18th century, that ended just below the knee or above the ankle.

   In the painting, the gun crew wear striped shirts and wide canvas slops.

   The reenactors sewed their own slops from patterns based on eighteenth-century naval dress.

   Note

   Philip Haythornthwaite, in Nelson's Navy, describes the originals as voluminous knee-length breeches worn with stockings, reminiscent of the petticoat breeches of the 1600s, and pictures still show them in the 1790s. Trousers first came aboard as part of the issued clothing that shared the name. Another name for the breeches is open-kneed breeches.

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