Also 5–8 loppe, (7 lope), 6–7 lopp. [Commonly supposed to be f. LOP v.1, but more probably the source of that word. Senses 2 and 3, however, are from the vb.
The etymology is obscure. An OE. *lopp would represent a pre-Teut. type *lupno- ‘what is stripped off,’ f. root *lup. (see LEAF sb.); but the word does not appear before the 15th c., and is not found in other Teut. dialects. Cf. Norw. dial. loppa v., to pluck, snatch, lopa, lopna (of bark) to be loosened by moisture.]
1. The smaller branches and twigs of trees, such as are not measured for timber; faggot-wood, loppings. Also, a branch lopped off. Phr. lop and top, lop and crop.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., VI. 45. And stones yf thee lacketh, this is boote: Sarment, or stre, or loppe [L. vel quibuscunque virgultis] in hit be graued.
1464. Rolls of Parlt., V. 547/1. The Loppes and Croppes of Woode, falled withynne our fryth of Leycestre.
1532. Dial. on Laws Eng., II. lv. 153 b. What thynke they if a man sell the loppes of his woode, whether any tythe ought there to be payd?
1573. Tusser, Husb., xxxiii. (1878), 73. Let lop be shorne that hindreth corne.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. ii. 96. We take From euery tree, lop, barke, and part o’ th’ timber.
1651. W. G., trans. Cowel’s Inst., 265. Where any one is killed, with the fall of an Arme or Lopp of a Tree … after warning given by the parties who are … lopping.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 92. A certain gentleman … obtained a parcel of Elm-trees lops and tops.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon [506]. Lops of Trees above twenty years Growth pay no Tithes.
1774. T. West, Antiq. Furness (1805), 228. Anye kind of underwoods, topps, loppes, croppes, or other woods.
1805. Trans. Soc. Arts, XXIII. 135. I also considered the value of the tops and lop, or trimmings of the trees.
1819. W. Faux, Mem. Days Amer. (1823), 176. What [trees] are cut down, together with the lop, are rolled by levers into heaps and burnt.
1826. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 238. What is the price of this load of timber?… taking in lop, top and bark … ten pounds a load at least.
1842. Brande, Dict. Sci., etc., s.v. Lopping, When timber trees are sold the purchaser bargains to take them either with or without the lop and crop.
1862. T. L. Peacock, Mem. Shelley, Wks. 1875, III. 448. The gardener had cut it [sc. a holly-tree] up into a bare pole, selling the lop for Christmas decorations.
1892. Times, 24 Oct., 3/1. Cord wood is the smaller limbs of oak, the lop and top of the branches when the trees are felled.
fig. 1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Feb., 57. Ah, foolish old man!… Now thy selfe hast lost both lopp and topp, Als my budding braunch thou wouldest cropp.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 94. Lop and top, hip and thigh, bough and branch, root and stemme, all and singular should be eradicated.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., I. V. xxvii. They three [sc. Italian, French, and Spanish] Are only lops cut from the Latian tree.
† 2. A lopped tree or the lopped part of a tree. Obs. rare.
a. 1640. Sir W. Jones, Rep. (1675), 280. They must … not cut the Loppes flat, so that the water may stand on them, and rot them.
1656. W. D., trans., Comenius’ Gate Lat. Unl., § 371. 105. Hee pruneth every year, that new branches may spring from the Lope, or pruned tree.
† 3. The action or process of lopping a tree or its boughs. Obs.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, 198. What loads of haye, what grasse for bief, what store of wood for loppe.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VII. i. § 2. It hath not seemed expedient to offer the edge of the axe unto all three boughs at once, but rather to … strike at the weakest first, making show that the lop of that one shall draw the more abundance of sap to the other two.
4. Comb.: lop-limbed a., having one or more limbs cut off; lop-stick (Canadian), a tree that has had its branches lopped and the name of the lopper cut in its trunk (see quot.); lop-wood, branches etc., lopped from a tree.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. xii. The *lop-limbed captain would have gone raving mad at it.
1892. W. Pike, North. Canada, 209. Often on the lonely waterways of the Northern country one sees a *lop-stick showing far ahead on the bank, and reads a name celebrated in the annals of the Hudson’s Bay Company or in the history of Arctic exploration.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., 75. They afford both much *Lop-wood and Fruit.
1794. T. Stone, Agric. Surv. Linc. (1800), 115. [Trees] which will consequently produce most bark, and top or lop-wood.
1888. Academy, 4 Feb., 71/1. The curious customs of ‘lop-wood’ or privileges of cutting fuel from pollards at certain seasons of the year.
