[Perh. of onomatopœic origin; cf. LOB v., which is closely akin in sense; also LAP sb.]
1. intr. To hang loosely or limply; to droop; to flop or sway limply about. Also To lop out: to protrude in an ungraceful or lop-sided manner.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxxxiii. 123. Nine or ten yellow floures … hanging lopping downewardes.
1854. Blackw. Mag., LXXV. 524. Three exterior walls encompass it, and an eccentric work lops out at either side.
1874. T. Hardy, Far fr. Madding Crowd, II. xx. 230. These [sheep] filed in about nine o’clock, their vermiculated horns lopping gracefully on each side of their cheeks.
1882. Mary Hallock Foote, in Century Mag., XXIII. 652/2. The señora tried to ‘brace up’ triumphantly, but could only lop about in her saddle.
1892. Mary E. Wilkins, in Harper’s Mag., June, 17/1. His under jaw lopped, and his brow contracted.
1892. Mrs. Andrew Crosse, in Temple Bar, Jan., 36. Her [Mrs. Browning’s] slight pretty figure was rather disguised than set off by garments that fell lopping round her.
b. trans. To droop (the ears).
1828. Webster, s.v., A horse lops his ears.
1864. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XXV. II. 556. The animals … do not lop their ears, nor droop their heads.
2. intr. To move in a slouching manner; to ‘hang about’ idly. Also to lop about.
1587. M. Grove, Pelops & Hipp. (1878), 122. To take the vewe this boyish clowne dyd nothing aye appall,… But loppeth to the vpper end, his cap vpon his head.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., viii. She … cried about it, she did, and lopped round, as if she’d lost every friend she had.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, I. x. (1883), 74. Some debauched, idle fellow who lies and lops about all day.
3. With mixture of the sense of LOPE v.: To move with short irregular bounds.
1895. K. Grahame, Gold. Age, 102. The staidest of the rabbits was lopping demurely about the grass.
1902. Cornish, Naturalist Thames, 91. Lopping easily along, a fox crosses through the teazles.
4. Comb.: lop-eaves, eaves that hang down at the sides; lop-grass (also simply lop) dial., Bromus mollis (cf. lob grass, LOB sb.2 6); lop-rabbit (see LOP sb.7). Also LOP-EAR, LOP-EARED.
1880. C. E. Pratt, in Scribner’s Mag., Feb., 491/1. A most picturesque old dwelling, with low *lop-eaves.
c. 1832. Glouc. Farm Rep., 14, in Husbandry (L.U.K., 1840), III. All the seeds of grass, *lop-grass, and other seeds, which come up amongst the barley.
1883. in Hampsh. Gloss.
1886. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Lob, or Lop Grass. Bromus mollis.… It is sometimes called simply Lop.
1884. R. O. Edwards, Rabbits, vii. 52. The *Lop Rabbit.
