Now only Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 4 lopir, 5 leper, 9 lapper, lopper. [Perh. a derivative (with suffix -ER5) of ON. hlǫup (hlaup) coagulation (of milk or blood). Cf. ON. hløypa trans. to curdle, Sw. löpe, Da. løbe, Norw. dial. löper, löyper rennet. Cf. LOP v. 4.]
1. intr. Of milk: To curdle.
a. 1300. [see LOPPERED].
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, cxviii. 70. As mylk in þe kynd is fayre and clere, bot in lopirynge it waxis soure.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), vii. 27. Take a drope of bawme … and putte þerto gayte mylke; and, if þe balme be gude, alsone þe mylke sall leper.
1812. Forbes, Poems, 34 (E. D. D.). A muckle plate That ha’ds our milk to lapper.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Lopper, to turn sour and coagulate by too long standing.
b. trans. To turn to curds; to curdle.
1882. G. Macdonald, Castle Warlock, 13. Drinkin’ soor milk—eneuch to lapper a’ i’ the inside o’ ’im!
2. ‘To dabble, to besmear, or to cover so as to clot’ (Jam.).
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxx. Sic grewsome wishes, that men should be slaughtered like sheep—and that they may lapper their hands to the elbows in their heart’s bluid.
