Also 6 loppe. [prob. f. LOP sb.3]
1. trans. To cut off the branches, twigs, etc.: rarely the top or ‘head,’ of (a tree); to cut away the superfluous growth of, to trim.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 172. Vynes … shuld be lopped or cut about the .xx. day of march.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 132. If ye haue any trees to shrede, loppe, or croppe for the fyre wode.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 75. If a Date tre be topped or lopped it will lyue no longer after.
1620. Markham, Farew. Husb. (1625), 160. In the moneth of December … lop hedges and trees.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 210. What we by day Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, One night or two with wanton growth derides, Tending to wilde.
1714. Scroggs, Courts-leet (ed. 3), 32. Whether any Copyholder … Hath … lopped or topped any Timber-Trees.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 25, ¶ 4. A few strokes of an axe will lop a cedar.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 259. By lopping trees, more nourishment is supplied to the remaining parts.
b. transf. and fig.; esp. To cut off the head or limbs of (a person). † Also with away, off.
1602. Narcissus (1893), 696. My webb is spunne; Lachesis, loppe thy loome.
1603. Drayton, Odes, xvii. 47. When our grandsire great, Claiming the regal seat, By many a War-like feate, Lop’d the French lillies.
1682. Otway, Venice Preserved, II. i. Wks. 1727, II. 290. Lop their Nobles To the base Roots, whence most of ’em first sprung.
1683. [see LOPPING vbl. sb.].
1725. Pope, Odyss., XVIII. 99. A tyrant … Who casts thy mangled ears and nose a prey To hungry dogs, and lops the man away.
1733. Revolution Politicks, VII. 7. He would never be at Peace till he had lopped the Queen off shorter by the Head.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., I. 251. Some,… In battle lopt away, with half their limbs, Beg bitter bread.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xxiv. A man in the malting business had tried to take up the brewer’s work, and lop the King, and the Duke of York.
2. To cut off (the branches, twigs, etc.) from a tree; to shorten by cutting off the extremities. Also (now chiefly) with away, off.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. iv. 64. Superfluous branches We lop away, that bearing boughes may liue.
1611. Bible, Isa. x. 33. The Lord of hostes shall lop the bough with terrour.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. xiii. 118. He lopped off the tops as they sprang up.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 630. Branches overgrown, That … require More hands then ours to lop thir wanton growth.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. x. 415. Their masts are made of trees,… fashioned … by barking them, and lopping off their branches.
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. xi. As wood-knife lops the sapling spray.
1830. Cunningham, Brit. Paint., I. 221. Lop carefully away all wild or over-flourishing branches.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, II. xxi. 281. Lopping with an axe the boughs of a wild fig-tree.
1874. C. Geikie, Life in Woods, iii. 41. We had to lop off the branches.
b. transf. and fig.; esp. To cut off (a person’s limbs or head). Also in gen. sense, to cut off, reduce by cutting. Also with advbs. as away, down, off.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXVI. v. The Lord … Who loppeth princes thoughts, prunes their affection.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., I. i. 143. Alarbus limbs are lopt, And intrals feede the sacrifising fire. Ibid. (1591), 1 Hen. VI., V. iii. 15. Ile lop a member off, and giue it you.
1608. Heywood, Rape Lucrece, I. ii. With bright steele Lop downe these interponents, that withstand The passage to our throane.
1656. Cowley, Pref. to Wks. (1668), B iij b. Shakspear, Fletcher, Johnson, and many others; part of whose Poems I should take the boldness to prune and lop away.
1714. J. Macky, Journ. Eng. (1724), II. v. 77. The Keeper … not to be absent … on Pain of 20 Shillings to be lopped off from his Salary.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XXII. 240. Thee first the sword shall slay, then lop thy whole posterity away. Ibid. (1732), Ess. Man, II. 49. Expunge the whole, or lop th’ excrescent parts Of all our Vices have created Arts.
1775. De Lolme, Eng. Const., I. vi. (1784), 67. In their endeavours to lop off the despotic power.
1809. Crabbe, Tales, 74. The worthy George must now a cripple be; His leg was lopp’d.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Southey & Landor, Wks. 1846, II. 67. I would lop off the whole from ‘Spirits of purest light’ v. 661, to 831.
1864. Hawthorne, Grimshawe, xx. (1891), 265. It will not lop off any part of your visit to me.
3. absol. or intr. Also fig.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. iv. 17. What sterne vngentle hands Hath lopt, and hew’d, and made thy body bare Of her two branches.
1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 189. One plowing, another harrowing, another sowing, and lopping.
1651. [see LOP sb.2 1].
1856. Miss Winkworth, Life Tauler, ix. (1857), 249. They leave the roots of vice and evil dispositions alive in the heart, and hew and lop at poor nature, and thereby destroy this noble vineyard.
† 4. trans. ‘To cut partly off and bend down; as to lop the trees or saplings of a hedge.’ Obs. (? or some error).
1828. in Webster; and in later Dicts.
