Also 7–8 loap(e. [A dial. var. of LOUP v., a. ON. hlǫupa: see LEAP v.]
1. intr. To leap, jump, spring. Also with about. Obs. exc. dial.
1483. Cath. Angl., 220/2. To Lope, salire, saltare.
1529. Lyndesay, Complaynt, 251. And go, all, to the hie boirdall: Thare may we lope at lybertie, Withouttin ony grauitie.
1549. Compl. Scot., xvii. 151. Buciphal the grit horse of allexander … syne tholit hym to lope on hym.
1581. N. Woodes, Conflict Conscience, III. iv. D iij b. In gude feth sir, this newis de gar me lope.
1623. Middleton & Rowley, Sp. Gipsy, IV. i. (1653), G. He that loapes on the Ropes, shew me such an other wench.
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), I. 62. Not by such large strides as he made in getting money, and loping into preferments. Ibid. (a. 1734), Exam., I. ii. § 82 (1740), 73. It is plain, his Malice lopes at a Venture.
1891. Atkinson, Last of Giant Killers, 69. The Staff itself leaping—or rather loping—about with a startling activity.
† b. Of the pulse: To beat, throb. Obs. rare.
Cf. Cornwall Dial. lopping, throbbing with pain.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Misc. P., xliv. 31. I quake for feir—my puncis lope—I shake betuix dispair and hope.
2. intr. To run, run away. Now only slang and dial. (see Eng. Dial. Dict.).
c. 1572. Gascoigne, Fruites Warre, lii. Yet was he forst, alwayes from lawes to lope.
a. 1592. Greene, Jas. IV. (1598), A iij b. This whinyard has gard many better men to lope then thou.
1632. I. L., Womens Rights, 146. They may lope ouer ditch and dale.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Let’s buy a Brush, or Let’s Lope, let us scour off, and make what shift we can to secure our selves from being apprehended.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Loap, to run away; he loaped down the dancers, he ran down stairs.
3. To run with a long, bounding stride. Also with along, away. (Said chiefly of animals.)
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Lope, to take long strides; particularly with long legs.
1848. Blackw. Mag., LXIV. 27. The larger wolves … lope hungrily around.
1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, I. 78. He … laid his leaf-like ears back, drooped his tail,… and loped, or lurked in his Walk, which means, that he moved the two legs which were on the same side of him together.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xxiv. The hares and rabbits loped away, innumerable.
1891. Field, 7 March, 331/1. The first fox … was seen loping over the uplands.
1893. Spectator, 10 June, 767. A regular Hindostanee carrier … will … lope along over a hundred miles in twenty-four hours.
1897. G. Bartram, People of Clopton, viii. 233. Carter walked at a great pace, and we had to lope now and then to keep up with him.
1899. Daily News, 6 Nov., 5/4. A Boer pony … hardly knows how to gallop or trot, but goes loping along in a leisurely, monotonous way.
b. causative. To make to run with a long, bounding stride.
1885. T. Roosevelt, Hunting Trips, viii. 261. For seven or eight miles we loped our jaded horses along at a brisk pace.
