Definition

1. Noun:

   • A piece of food soaked in liquid: A small piece of solid food, such as bread, that is dipped or soaked in a liquid like soup, gravy, or sauce.
   • A concession or bribe: Something given to pacify, calm, or appease someone, often to gain favor or to quiet dissatisfaction.

2. Verb:

   • To dip or soak in liquid: To absorb or become saturated with a liquid, especially by dipping.
   • To make thoroughly wet: To drench or soak something.
   • To give a conciliatory gift or bribe: To offer something to appease or mollify someone.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • He used a piece of bread as a sop to soak up the last of the soup.
  • The small pay raise was just a sop to the unhappy employees.

• Verb:

  • She sopped the crusty bread in the rich stew.
  • His clothes were sopped through after walking in the storm.
  • The company tried to sop the critics with vague promises of future improvements.

Advanced Usage

• "A sop to Cerberus": An idiom meaning a bribe or concession given to pacify a troublesome person or opponent. It originates from the mythological practice of giving honey cakes to the three-headed dog Cerberus to appease him.
  • The tax cut for the wealthy was seen as a sop to Cerberus for the powerful lobbyists.

Variants and Related Words

• Sopping (adj./adv.): Extremely wet; dripping wet.
  • He came in from the rain, sopping wet.
• Soppy (adj.): Sentimental in a weak or silly way; also, very wet.
  • She loves watching soppy romantic movies.
  • The ground was soppy after the thaw.

Synonyms

• Noun (food): Morsel, piece, dunk.
• Noun (concession): Pacifier, appeasement, conciliation, bribe, peace offering.
• Verb (soak): Saturate, drench, soak, steep, dunk.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Sop up: To absorb or take up (a liquid).
  • Use this towel to sop up the spilled milk.

Related Idioms

• "Sop in the pan" (archaic): A tasty morsel; a piece of bread fried in the dripping from meat.
  • The phrase is rarely used in modern English but can be found in historical texts.

Noun

1. a prescribed procedure to be followed routinely
   • rote memorization has been the educator's standard operating procedure for centuries
2. a concession given to mollify or placate
   • the offer was a sop to my feelings
3. piece of solid food for dipping in a liquid

Verb

1. cover with liquid; pour liquid onto
   • souse water on his hot face
2. dip into liquid
   • sop bread into the sauce
3. be or become thoroughly soaked or saturated with a liquid
4. give a conciliatory gift or bribe to