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# sop

«sop» in Mova's school dictionary: **something small given to someone to calm them down or…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a sop, sops); verb (sop, sops, sopped, sopping — rare)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A sop is something small given to someone to calm them down or keep them quiet, without really fixing the problem: a sop to the angry fans. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/#m1)

2) (old) A sop is a piece of bread soaked in milk, soup or gravy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/#m2)

3) (rare verb) To sop up is to soak up liquid with bread or a cloth. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

Mostly used in news and adult talk: «a sop to voters» means a small gift meant to please them. The related word «sopping wet» means soaking wet (very common in the UK and Ireland). Phrases: «a sop to», «sop up the gravy», «sopping wet».

### examples

- The free badge was just a sop to the angry customers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/#x1)
- He sopped up the gravy with his bread. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/#x2)
- I came home from the rain sopping wet. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/#x3)
- The small pay rise was a sop to the workers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/#x4)
- In the old story, the boy fed sops of bread to the dog. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/#x5)
- The extra playtime was a sop to stop us complaining. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/#x6)

### note

Spelling: sop, sopped, sopping (double p). Do not confuse with «soap», «sob» or «stop». Also an abbreviation SOP (standard operating procedure, the usual set of steps at work).

### In the corpora

- [And mistakes like reading «shop» as «sop» are normal: the child read the s and missed its partner h.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/2-blending-segmenting-and-the-year-1-check/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «sop» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sop/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.