Definition

1. Noun:

   • Excessively sentimental writing or music: Refers to art, literature, or music that is overly sweet, emotional, or lacking in substance.
   • (Usually plural) Unappetizing, watery food or drink: Describes weak, poor-quality, or leftover food, often of a liquid or semi-liquid consistency.
   • (Usually plural) Waste liquid: Refers to dirty water or liquid waste from a kitchen, bathroom, or chamber pot.
   • Deep, soft mud or slush: A mass of wet, soft, and often dirty mud or slush.
   • Wet feed for animals: A mixture, often for pigs, consisting of kitchen scraps mixed with water or milk.

2. Verb:

   • To feed slop to pigs: To give this wet mixture of food to pigs.
   • To spill or splash clumsily: To cause a liquid to spill or flow over the edge of a container, often in a careless or messy way.
   • To walk through mud or mire: To walk with difficulty through wet, muddy ground.
   • To cause a liquid to run out: To pour or allow a liquid substance to flow from a container, typically in an uncontrolled manner.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • I can't stand that movie; it's just sentimental slop. (Referring to overly sweet content.)
  • The prisoners were fed nothing but cold slops. (Referring to unappetizing food.)
  • She emptied the kitchen slops into the drain. (Referring to waste water.)
  • After the storm, the path was pure slop. (Referring to deep mud.)
  • The farmer prepared the slop for the hogs. (Referring to animal feed.)

• Verb:

  • He slopped the pigs every morning at dawn. (Referring to feeding animals.)
  • Be careful not to slop the soup when you carry the bowl. (Referring to spilling clumsily.)
  • We had to slop through the flooded field to get home. (Referring to walking through mud.)
  • He slopped the milk from the pail as he ran. (Referring to causing a liquid to run out.)

Advanced Usage

• "Slop over" (phrasal verb): To spill over the edge of a container; by extension, to express emotion in an excessive, unrestrained way.
  • The water in the bucket slopped over with each step.
  • Her speech slopped over with sentimentality, making some listeners uncomfortable.

Variants and Related Words

• Sloppy (adj): Messy, untidy, or careless; also, overly sentimental.
  • He did a sloppy job on his homework.
  • I dislike sloppy romantic comedies.
• Slop basin (n): A bowl for holding waste liquid, such as tea dregs, at a dining table.
• Slop pail (n): A pail used for carrying waste liquids.

Synonyms

• Noun (sentimental art): Schmaltz, mush, sentimentality.
• Noun (food): Swill, gruel, scraps.
• Noun (mud): Mire, ooze, slush.
• Verb (spill): Spill, splash, slosh.
• Verb (walk): Trudge, slog, plod.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Slop about/around: To move or splash around in a liquid or mud in a careless, noisy way.
  • The children were slopping about in the puddles.
• Slop out (chiefly British): To empty chamber pots or slop buckets, especially in an institution like a prison.
  • Prisoners had to slop out every morning.

Related Idioms

• A slop job: A task done in a very careless or messy manner.
  • The painter did a real slop job on the walls; they'll need redoing.
• Slop bowl: As a variant of "slop basin," this can sometimes be used metaphorically to describe a repository for unwanted or inferior things.

Noun

1. writing or music that is excessively sweet and sentimental
2. (usually plural) weak or watery unappetizing food or drink
   • he lived on the thin slops that food kitchens provided
3. (usually plural) waste water from a kitchen or bathroom or chamber pot that has to be emptied by hand
   • she carried out the sink slops
4. deep soft mud in water or slush
   • they waded through the slop
5. wet feed (especially for pigs) consisting of mostly kitchen waste mixed with water or skimmed or sour milk

Verb

1. feed pigs
2. ladle clumsily
   • slop the food onto the plate
3. walk through mud or mire
   • We had to splosh across the wet meadow
4. cause or allow (a liquid substance) to run or flow from a container
   • spill the milk
   • splatter water