lop

Meanings

Verb

• To cut off as the top or extreme part of anything, especially to prune a small limb off a shrub or tree, or sometimes to behead someone.
• To hang downward; to be pendent; to lean to one side.
• To allow to hang down.

Noun

• That which is lopped from anything, such as branches from a tree.
• A flea.
• A disabled person, a cripple.
• Any of several breeds of rabbits whose ears lie flat.

Related

Similar words

• snead

Origin

• From Middle English loppe; the verb is a back-formation from the noun.
• From Middle English loppe ("flea, spider"), from Old English loppe ("spider, silk-worm, flea"), from Proto-Germanic *luppǭ ("flea, sandflea", originally, "jumper"), from Proto-Germanic *luppijaną ("to jump, dart"). Cognate with Danish loppe ("flea"), Swedish loppa ("flea"). Compare also Middle High German lüpfen, lupfen (“to raise”, obsolete also “to rise”).
• Back-formation from lopsided.