| 释义 |
▪ I. pop, n.1|pɒp|
Forms: see pop v.1
[Onomatopœic: goes with pop v.1]
1. An act of popping.
a. A blow, knock, stroke, slap; now, a slight rap or tap. Obs. exc. dial.
c1400Laud Troy Bk. 4421 Philomene..ȝaff him certes suche a poppe, That he fel ouer his hors croppe. Ibid. 9300 He hadde lauȝt many a pop, For ther was many a strok ȝeuen. 1483Cath. Angl. 286/2 A Poppe; vbi a strake. 1825Jamieson, Pap, pawp, a blow, a thwack. Aberd. 1857G. Outram Lyrics (1887) 137 Ilka pap wi' the shool on the tap o' the mool.
†b. A humorous remark, a joke; cf. crack n. 5. Obs. rare.
a1550Image Hypocr. i. 518 in Skelton's Wks. (1843) II. 420 With your mery poppes: Thus youe make vs sottes, And play with vs boopepe.
c. In Baseball: a ball hit high into the air but close to the batter, thus providing an easy catch. Usu. attrib., as pop fly [fly n.2 2 b], etc. N. Amer.
1935J. T. Farrell Judgment Day viii. 185 A line single was driven to left, the pitcher picked a pop out of the air. 1945Sun (Baltimore) 12 Mar. 10-0/5 A pamphlet which knocked the Doubleday legend higher than one of Babe Ruth's pop fouls. 1961Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado) 2 May 50 The White Sox had taken a 5–4 lead in the top of the sixth on a pair of pop fly hits. 1969Sci. Amer. Jan. 49/1 The outfielder is watching..a pop fly to the infield. 1972N.Y. Times 4 June v. 2/5 Gentry retired the great man on a pop foul to Mays. 1975New Yorker 14 Apr. 98/2 Jay Kleven, a young non-roster catcher, hit two pop flies to center. 1978Verbatim Feb. 2/2 One of my favorites is the phrase for a towering pop fly that shoots straight up to the sky and comes down in the same area, usually caught by the catcher. The announcer says, ‘He could have hit that ball in a silo.’
d. An injection of a narcotic drug. slang.
1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 118/1 Take a pop, to take an injection of morphine. 1953W. Burroughs Junkie Gloss. 14 Pop, bang, shot, fix... Injection of junk. 1956R. Thorp Viper vi. 92 ‘Care for a pop now and again?’ This was a kick I hadn't made, I told him. 1970N. Marsh When in Rome v. 126 I'm not hooked. Just the odd pop. Only a fun thing.
2. a. A short abrupt sound of explosion.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Buchete, the cheeke and a pop with the mouth. 1634T. Johnson tr. Parey's Wks. 629 By the only regresse of the extended muscles into themselves..somewhiles with a noyse or pop. 1855F. Chamier My Travels II. vi. 91 The common pops of the squibs and crackers. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. xxxix, I cannot bear people to keep their minds bottled up for the sake of letting them off with a pop.
b. The moment occupied by a pop; at a pop, in one instant, suddenly [cf. F. tout à coup, tout d'un coup]; on the pop of, about to, on the point of. dial. rare.
1534More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1202/2 At a poppe, down they descende into hell. 1847–78Halliwell, Pop, a short space. Lanc. 1903in Eng. Dial. Dict. 1922Joyce Ulysses 66, I was on the pop of writing Blazes Boylan's.
c. A turn (at doing something); an attempt; a ‘go’.
1868‘Mark Twain’ Let. 20 Nov. (1917) I. ix. 156, I am simply lecturing for societies, at $100 a pop. 1904W. N. Harben Georgians 2 Ef I don't whack it to you this pop, old hoss, I'll eat my hat. 1916‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin xv. 271 ‘Why doesn't we 'ave a pop at 'er?’ ‘'Ave a pop at 'er! She's twenty mile orf, if she's a hinch, an' yer knows as well as I does that none o' our ships 'ere 'as got hanti-haircraft guns wot'll 'it 'er at that range.’ 1928Wodehouse Money for Nothing ii. 35 He decided to have a pop at it. 1946F. Sargeson That Summer 66, I thought no, the going's good, I'll give it one more pop. 1954Wodehouse Jeeves & Feudal Spirit i. 12 But why didn't Florence tell Percy to go and have a pop at Stilton Cheesewright? 1971Southerly XXXI. 136 But I couldn't keep that game up for too long; at five cents a pop you can't afford to waste too many. 1976R. Barnard Little Local Murder x. 133, I don't suppose he makes much more than seventy-five pee a pop for them.
d. The rapid opening of a pop-valve.
1901M. M. Kirkman Locomotive Appliances 122 Should the valve close with too much drop of boiler pressure, move the screw-ring (C) to the left..until sufficient change has been accomplished. To increase the pop, move ring (C) to the right. 1905C. S. Lake World's Locomotives vi. 112 The screw-down valve is set so that the limit of ‘pop’ action is 2 lbs. per sq.in. above the nominal boiler pressure, and the valves close when that pressure has been reduced to 2 lbs. per sq.in. less than the nominal boiler pressure. 1951E. A. Steel Greenly's Model Steam Locomotives (rev. ed.) xiii. 234 A ‘pop’ action (an accelerated discharge of the valve) can be obtained by making the head of the valve nearly fit a cylindrical recess in the seating.
3. a. A shot with a fire-arm. Also fig.
1657W. Morice Coena quasi κοινή xxiv. 249 They have onely faced the enemy,..given a pop or two, and raised a smoak. 1829W. T. Moncrieff Giovanni in Lond. ii. i, You've quite made up your mind to have a pop at him? 1881Freeman in Stephens Life & Lett. (1895) II. ix. 228 Prestige, you know, I always like to have a pop at.
b. transf. A pistol. slang.
1728[De Foe] Street Robberies Consider'd 33 Popps, Pistols. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. viii, I gleaned a few things, such as a pair of pops, silver mounted. 1834H. Ainsworth Rookwood iii. v, His pops in his pocket. 1896Harper's Mag. XCII. 784/2 Pops all put away, so she won't be finding one and be killing herself.
4. In the names of two West Indian species of Physalis (Bladder-herb or Winter Cherry): the cow-pop or pops, and horse pop or pop-vine: see quots.
1750G. Hughes Barbadoes 161 Pops; Lat. Alkekengi Indicum majus. This Plant hath..thin bluish capsular Pods, which inclose a round..Fruit of about the Bigness of a small Cherry... There is another Plant, which bears the same kind of Fruit..being a creeping scandent Plant... This is called the Pop-Vine, and grows in most Parts of the Island. 1848R. Schomburgk Hist. Barbados 610 Physalis barbadensis, Jacq. Pop Vine, Hughes. Horse Pop. Physalis angulata, Linn. Pops, Hughes. Cow Pop.
5. A name for any effervescing beverage, esp. ginger-beer or (later) champagne, from the sound made when the cork is drawn from the vessel containing it. colloq.
1812Southey Lett. (1856) II. 284 A new manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called pop, because ‘pop goes the cork’ when it is drawn. 18..J. Wilson Laking in Casquet of Lit. I. 39/2 With plenty of ginger-beer,..soda, and imperial pop. 1884H. Smart Post to Finish II. xvi. 251 He don't warrant my calling for ‘pop’ [champagne]. 1894H. Drummond Ascent Man 214 [A man], when he calls champagne fizz, or a less aristocratic beverage pop, is following in the wake of the inventors of Language. 1926Scribner's Mag. Aug. 116/2 Senior officers may for dignity's sake get off with light treatment and a fine of cigars or pop (it was beer in the good old days). 1931W. S. Maugham in Hearst's International Oct. 51/2 A bottle of pop tonight, my pet, and a slap-up dinner. 1969L. Kennedy Very Lovely People ii. 106 The waiter said, ‘All I got is bottled pop. Take your choice.’ 1976A. Hill Summer's End i. 18 We sat in the stern drinking the pop, trying to count the bubbles as they rose behind our noses.
6. a. A mark made by a slight rapid touch; a dot; a spot, a speck. Also fig.
1718Mrs. Bradshaw in Lett. C'tess Suffolk (1824) I. 28 You are a pop nearer being a countess than you was last week. c1840J. D. Harding in Collingwood Life Ruskin (1893) I. viii. 92 That marvellous pop of light across the foreground. 1886C. Scott Sheep-Farming 138 The draft ewes..only receive a ‘pop’ or dot of the same tar from a round stick on the shoulder. 1894R. S. Ferguson Westmorland xviii. 290 Strokes and pops and letters marked with tar or ruddle.
b. pops and pairs: app. a corruption of post and pair (see post n.4).
c1780M. Lonsdale Upshot in S. Gilpin Songs (1866) 276 At pops an' pairs laikt long an' sair. 1804R. Anderson Cumberld. Ball. 94 Pay me the tuppence I wan frae thee Ae neet at pops and pairs.
7. slang. The act of pawning. in pop: in pawn or pledge: cf. pop v.1 7, pop-shop.
1866Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 292 ‘Great shame—put him in pop—gentleman's son’..I knew that her ‘put him in pop’ meant that I was pawned when a baby. 1886J. K. Jerome Idle Thoughts (1896) 7 Yet what a piece of work a man makes of his first ‘pop’... He hangs about outside the shop..he enters..he comes out of the shop [etc.].
Add:8. The ability of a horse to jump fences, esp. with spirit. Usu. with qualifying word, as good pop. colloq.
1977Horse & Hound 25 Mar. 66/1 Genuine little pony with a good ‘pop’ and excellent mouth and manners. 1982Barr & York Official Sloane Ranger Handbk. 159/1 Must have a good pop in him to pop over the fences. 1987Field Nov. 66/2 This chestnut had the ‘pop’ of a showjumper, which he is, and was also extremely fast.
▪ II. pop, n.2|pɒp|
[app. short for poppet or poplet. Cf. also obs. F. popine, poupine a pretty little woman (see poppin).]
A term of endearment for a girl or woman; darling; also, a mistress, a kept woman.
1785G. A. Bellamy Apology II. 39 A few nights after my benefit, Lord Tyrawley came into the room smiling, and said,..‘Pop, I have got you a husband!’ 1825T. Creevey Papers, etc. (1904) II. 87 When I look at these three young women, and at this brazen-faced Pop who is placed over them,..the marriage appears to me the wickedest thing I ever heard of. Ibid. 209, 268. 1898 Tit-Bits 11 June 201/1 Well, pop, since I'm your father, I'm going to give you a ticket to the circus.
▪ III. pop, n.3 dial.
[perh. from prec. n.]
A local name of the Redwing (Turdus iliacus).
1848Zoologist VI. 2258 The redwing is a ‘pop’.
▪ IV. pop, n.4|pɒp|
A colloquial abbreviation of popular concert: see popular 3 b.
1862Geo. Eliot in Life (1887) 355 We have been to a Monday Pop, to hear Beethoven's Septett. 1891Newcastle Even. Chron. 14 Dec. 2/6 The Saturday Pops in Newcastle are in a bad way. 1898Westm. Gaz. 19 Dec. 10/2 A Dohnanyi ‘Pop’. In every respect Mr Ernest von Dohnanyi was the hero of Saturday's Popular Concert at St James's Hall. 1934M. H. Weseen Dict. Amer. Slang 381 Pop..a popular concert.
Hence ˈpoppite, a performer at, or a frequenter of, the popular concerts.
1895Westm. Gaz. 5 Nov. 3/2 The death of that old and famous ‘Poppite’, Sir Charles Hallé. 1902Ibid. 13 May 1/3 The itinerant muffin-man who vexes the souls of devout ‘Poppites’ on Saturday afternoons.
▪ V. pop, n.6 colloq. (chiefly U.S.).|pɒp|
a. Abbreviation of poppa.
1838in Southwestern Hist. Q. (1926) XXX. 147 Sent my packet..to pop in the post office at N Orleans. 1840Knickerbocker XVI. 207 ‘Pop!’ screamed a white-headed urchin from the house, ‘Mam says supper's ready.’ 1904H. R. Martin Tillie iii. 33 Are you feelin' too mean to go help pop? 1911[see mom]. 1948Denison (Texas) Herald 1 July 1/3 Butch..was vacationing with his pop at the popular National Park Service Lake Texoma resort. 1958H. E. Bates Darling Buds of May i. 11 ‘Larkin, that's me,’ Pop said... ‘Larkin by name, Larkin by nature.’ Ibid. ii. 39 ‘We're in the library,’ Ma said. ‘Pop, look at the library.’ 1962, etc. [see mom]. 1973P. Dickinson Gift v. 77 ‘Oh yes, Pop' please,’ said Sonia. 1979R. Rendell Make Death love Me i. 12 His father-in-law came in... Alan and Pam called him Pop, and Christopher and Jillian called him Grandpop.
b. Hence in extended use, an elderly man.
1844in Amer. Speech (1965) XL. 131 And I'll go down to ole birginy, And marry pop Miller's sister. 1889Sporting Life (Philadelphia) 29 May 2/6 ‘Pop’ Chadwick is among those who are opposed to the wire. 1943K. Tennant Ride on Stranger (1968) vii. 78 You've just told us, pop,..that if the cops catch up on you, you'll be lining a cell. 1947Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City) 28 Dec. 5/8 ‘Pop’, as he is known in this area, will use the ‘fancy’ cane to help guide his sightless way during his strolls along Shamrock streets. 1980P. Gosling Zero Trap iii. 29 ‘Can somebody give me a hand with Pop, here? He still wants to stay sleepies for a while.
▪ VI. pop, n.7|pɒp|
Abbrev. of poppycock.
1890Kipling Barrack-Room Ballads (1892) 11 All we ever got from such as they Was pop to what the Fuzzy made us swaller. 1924Galsworthy White Monkey ii. iv. 151 Nobody pitied her; why, then, should she pity them? Besides, pity was ‘pop’, as Amabel would say.
▪ VII. pop, a. (n.8) colloq.|pɒp|
[Abbrev. of popular a. (n.): cf. pop n.4]
1. a. Designating music (esp. song) having or regarded as having a wide popular appeal (see popular a. (n.) 6 b). Freq. absol. as n., a popular song or piece of music; popular music collectively.
Quot. 1862 is an isolated nonce-use influenced by and alluding to pop n.4
1862Geo. Eliot Let. 26 Nov. (1956) IV. 67 There is too much ‘Pop’ for the thorough enjoyment of the chamber music. 1926Amer. Mercury Dec. 465/1 She coos a pop song. 1935Hot News Aug. 19/1 Turn the record over and you have another winner—‘Add a Little Wiggle’—a masterpiece made out of a song-and-dance ‘pop’. 1945S. Hughes in C. Madge Pilot Papers 78 Cole Porter's ‘Begin the Beguine’..has twice the regulation number of bars that a good ‘pop’ should have. 1947A. J. McCarthy Jazzbook 1947 119 Jelly would play one of his new ‘pop’ songs, watching..for its effect. 1954Unicorn Bk. 1953 320/1 A magazine..each December publishes a list of the year's top pop music and musicians. Ibid. (heading) Top pop tunes. 1954Billboard 13 Nov. 38 It is interesting to note that the preponderance of local over national sponsorship of deejay programs varies according to the program category, with the weight of local sponsorship most evident in rhythm & blues then country & western and finally pop. 1957D. Hague in S. Traill Concerning Jazz 129 The veteran Lizzie Miles from New Orleans has evoked nostalgia with her selections of blues and early ‘pops’. 1959J. Braine Vodi iv. 63 At this time there'd be some pop tunes... They could sometimes induce a vapid cheerfulness. 1959D. Cooke Lang. Mus. ii. 62 The Irving Berlin tune..is a rare example of minor ‘pop’ music. 1962D. Lessing Golden Notebk. i. 102, I remember the sharp feeling of dislocation it gave me to hear the pop-song in London, after Willi's sad nostalgic humming of what he told us was ‘A song we used to sing when I was a child’. 1963Daily Tel. 7 Dec. 9/7 A ‘pop music’ dispute between song writers and concert promoters is to go before the Performing Right Tribunal in London on Monday next. 1967Crescendo Feb. 23/2 A pop that will only last a couple of weeks. 1970Observer 20 Sept. 26/1 In the world of pop, the death of Jimi Hendrix on Friday from a suspected overdose of drugs will seem as if Tchaikovsky or Mozart had also been struck down at only 24. 1973Country Life 13 Dec. 2015/1 Pop-song writers masquerading as composers in the grand manner. 1974J. Cooper Women & Super Women 9 During the holidays they..play pop music too loudly for their parents' liking. 1975Gramophone Jan. 1357/2 Incidentally the ‘pop’ purchaser may well be disconcerted that the battery and carillon at the end of ‘1812’ are relatively restrained. 1976H. Nielsen Brink of Murder i. 12 An aged spinster..not only refused to sell to Pucci but insulted the dignity of his project by leasing the premises to a group of pop musicians. 1977Rolling Stone 21 Apr. 91/1 He..makes a misguided stab at pop blues in ‘Bluesman’.
b. Phr. top of the pops, applied to the most popular or the best-selling gramophone record over a given period; also transf. and fig., highly successful or popular.
1958Punch 8 Oct. 483/1 ‘Wagon Train’ stays top of the pops in ITV features on every channel. 1964[see dolly a. c]. 1965[see chart n. 3 c]. 1970J. Porter Rather Common Sort of Crime vi. 64 Your little friend Rodney was a dodo, a brontosaurus, last week's top of the pops..but dead, finished, a stale bun. 1978G. Greene Human Factor ii. iii. 84 The top of the pops for any given year came as readily to Davis's memory as a Derby winner.
c. In various special collocations: attributive, as pop album, pop ballad, pop band, pop concert, pop disc, pop fan, pop festival, pop group, pop lyric, pop number, pop opera, pop record, pop single, pop star, pop world; objective, as pop-singer, pop-singing adj.; similative, as pop-style(d) adj.
Quot. 1880 for pop-concert is properly in the sense of pop n.4
1949Billboard 8 Oct. 26/2 (heading) Pop albums. 1955L. Feather Encycl. Jazz 100 Basie also used a girl singer, usually for the pop ballads.
1964Punch 28 Oct. 658/2 Those sentimental pop-ballads of the 'thirties.
1958Amer. Speech XXXIII. 225 A mickey or Mickey Mouse band is..the kind of pop band that sounds as if it is playing background for an animated cartoon. 1967Listener 16 Feb. 229/1 Some acoustical engineers in the United States believe that the sound produced by teenage pop bands is actually damaging to human ears.
1880Geo. Eliot Jrnl. in Lett. (1956) VII. 342 Went to our first Pop-Concert and heard Norman Neruda, Piatti, etc. 1963‘D. Shannon’ Death of Busybody iv. 51, I went to the Hollywood Bowl... It was a pop-concert night, Gershwin. 1973R. Parkes Guardians ii. 49 He imagined continental pop-concerts had something to do with the youth counter-culture.
1957Times 19 Dec. 5/1 The most recent phenomenon in the world of the ‘pop disc’ has been the astonishing rise of the ‘teen-age’ singer. 1973R. Parkes Guardians iii. 64 His income as a disc-jockey; his profits from the few pop-discs he cut; and..his chairman's salary.
1960Guardian 13 Apr. 3/3 An out and out ‘pop’ fan. 1966B.B.C. Handbk. 44 They have to cater for..the ‘pop’ fan. 1979S. Smith Survivor xvii. 176, I was obviously beyond the age group of the average hippy or pop fan.
1970Guardian 31 July 9/5 Pop festivals..are big business. 1975Times 8 Aug. 1/1 The Government has ordered an urgent review of public policies on pop festivals.
1965M. Bradbury Stepping Westward i. 65 A pop group, called the Haters, were tunelessly celebrating dim proletarian adolescent oestrus. 1967Listener 18 May 644/1 Two of the Rolling Stones ‘pop group’ are sent for trial on drugs charges. 1977‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon viii. 147 Ten minutes alone inside the tent, with Miss Bale to keep intruders away, and that pop group to cover up any noise.
1960Guardian 22 July 10/2 The committee have found that pop lyrics are drivel and often debasing. 1966Vogue Oct. 177/1 Almost the only simple, open-hearted verse we now have are pop-lyrics.
1945S. Hughes in C. Madge Pilot Papers 76 The term Dance Music is used here to denote..the playing and singing of ‘pop’ numbers as opposed to the cult of ‘Jazz’. 1958P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz ii. 38 The popularity of jangle-piano, and of pop numbers performed in cool ragtime style. 1960News Chron. 31 Mar. 4/4 Pop numbers..can be sung and understood outside the story's context.
1969N. Cohn A Wop Bopa Loo Bop (1970) xviii. 172 Townshend has finally written a full⁓scale pop opera. 1976Cumberland News 3 Dec., 56 11-year-olds..were practising an ambitious production of ‘Smike’, a pop opera based on the Dickens novel, ‘Nicholas Nickleby’.
1950Billboard 7 Oct. ii. 27/2 (heading) Top pop records of the year. 1961H. E. Bates Day of Tortoise 60 She played pop records such as What Do You Want If You Don't Want Money? 1973L. Cooper Tea on Sunday ii. 27 The..strident noise of pop records.
1948Billboard 25 Dec. 38 At press time it was learned that Apollo had re-signed pop singer Mary Small for another year with options. 1955L. Feather Encycl. Jazz 79 The Decca company began to record him..in duets with pop singers. 1958J. Townsend Young Devils 8 The sickly exhortations of ‘pop’ singers. 1973J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 30 The pop singer finished his protest song and there was a thin ripple of applause.
1955L. Feather Encycl. Jazz 160 Grotesque distortions..valid more as entertainment than as jazz or pop singing. 1962Times 28 Feb. 5/4 An atmosphere more suggestive of pop-singing..than great artistry.
1949Billboard 8 Oct. 26/1 (heading) Best-selling pop singles. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 252 Pop singles contain the same amount as a 10-inch 78, whereas e.p. records contain perhaps double. 1978Sunday Times 29 Jan. 43/1 A record by two Jamaican girls is currently No. 2 in the BBC's top twenty pop singles.
1967Listener 23 Feb. 271/2 We were taken, step by step, through the process of manufacturing a pop star. 1972J. McClure Caterpillar Cop v. 71 She was behaving as if Boetie had become a pop star, rather than a corpse.
1955L. Feather Encycl. Jazz 159/2 Eddie [Heywood], Jr...formed own sextet late '43, made name through pop-style arr. of Begin the Beguine. 1963Times 24 May 15/7 The pop-style hymn-settings of John Gardner. 1974Publishers Weekly 26 Aug. 302/2 It's a pop-styled run-through of the big moments, great plays and subway series heroics.
1959‘F. Newton’ Jazz Scene i. 22 Jazz has made much of its way as part of the pop world. 1967M. Drabble Jerusalem the Golden vii. 170 She had as resolutely and as puritanically scorned the pop world..as her mother had done before her. 1973Melody Maker 25 Aug. 27 In the pop world, the rule is that musicians are a special breed.
2. pop art, art that uses themes drawn from popular culture, spec. an art form characterized by the depiction of commonplace subjects using strong colour and imagery, sharp features, and a photographic technique of representation (see also quot. 1967). Also ellipt., as pop. Hence pop artist, pop-painter; pop-painting vbl. n.
1957Listener 26 Sept. 464/1 A sophisticated apologia for subtopia is to call it ‘pop art’ which the middle-aged are perverse to frustrate. Ibid. 470/1 Some people even defend Subtopia as a type of vigorous folk art—or ‘pop art’—to be fostered. 1958Archit. Rev. CXXIII. 208/1 Four chairs.. would not have been known to the designer of this room had they not been published in the popular magazine Look, which gave the chaise-longue version the full pop-art treatment. 1962Listener 9 Aug. 217/3 All three of the painters are adherents of the new school of ‘pop’. Ibid. 30 Aug. 324/1 Certain of the ‘pop’ painters can apparently be paired off with artists on the other side of the Atlantic. Ibid. 324/2 The tendency of ‘pop’ paintings, Hockney's for instance, to resort to the use of words in order to help out the images is in itself significant. Ibid. 27 Dec. 1087/1 The third wave of pop artists use their imagery to differentiate themselves from the regular audience for art. 1964, etc. [see op4]. 1966‘H. MacDiarmid’ Company I've Kept iii. 78 The pop artist does not address any audience, does not represent any point of view; he has staked everything on nothingness. 1967L. Alloway in L. R. Lippard Pop Art 27 The term ‘Pop Art’ is credited to me, but I don't know precisely when it was first used. (One writer has stated that ‘Lawrence Alloway first coined the phrase ‘Pop Art’ in 1954’; this is too early.) Furthermore, what I meant by it then is not what it means now. I used the term, and also ‘Pop Culture’, to refer to the products of the mass media, not to works of art that draw upon popular culture. In any case, sometime between the winter of 1954–55 and 1957 the phrase acquired currency in conversation, in connection with the shared work and discussion among members of the Independent group. 1968New Yorker 24 Feb. 100 There were about a hundred and fifty paintings on view in the huge Main Hall..and they ranged from Op and Pop to Picasso. 1971‘A. Burgess’ MF xiii. 144 There was a big pop-art poster whose crude yellows and blues were an obscenity. 1972E. Lucie-Smith in Cox & Dyson 20th-Cent. Mind III. xvi. 470 The first example of Pop is now generally conceded to have been a small collage made by the English painter Richard Hamilton..in 1956. 1976New Yorker 22 Mar. 107/1 Among the Pop artists shown, Claes Oldenburg is by far the most gifted as a draftsman. 1977Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVI. 47/2 Out of Léger came aspects of Pop: in particular that aspect known as Roy Lichtenstein.
3. Appealing to or expected to appeal to popular taste generally (chiefly in the senses of popular a. (n.) 4 a). Also absol. as n. Spec. pop culture, culture based on popular taste and disseminated widely and usu. on a commercialized basis; hence pop-cultural adj. Also, of a technical subject, etc.: popularized, presented in a popular form, as pop psychology (hence pop-psycher, pop-psychologist).
1958Spectator 14 Feb. 197/2 The promoters of ‘pop’ fiction must ruthlessly wipe out any tragedy that remains unique and personal. 1958Observer 23 Mar. 14/3 As a sop to pop, the gallants on the benches at the sides of the stage could be TV personalities. 1958Ibid. 25 May 14/2 His admirable pop science New Horizon series. 1959C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 73 It's my aim..to bring quality culture material to the pop culture masses. 1962Observer 20 May 12/7 Pop archaeology books sell like hot cakes. 1962Punch 12 Sept. 390/2 A highly competent performer on these pop-science occasions. 1963Ibid. 3 July 30/2 Pop religion is the dreariest mixture imaginable. 1963Dædalus Winter 22 Available critiques of pop⁓cultural depravities (from Playboy to the National Geographic) and compilations of economic facts about massification..are, to be sure, of some help. 1964Punch 5 Feb. 211/1 An almost naïvely sensational bit of pop⁓psychology sex. 1966D. Jenkins Educated Society ii. 58 That commercialized ‘pop culture’ which is a form of anti-culture. 1967New Scientist 25 May 473/1 Expo is dominated by technology, but it is a gay, often pop technology that you meet, technology that is confident enough to laugh at itself. 1968Punch 27 Nov. 753/1 Pop-psychologists are saying that certain trigger phrases used by Enoch Powell expose a sub⁓conscious racial prejudice. 1969Listener 17 July 92/2 If Pop means mass media and consumer goods, ads and comics, Coke bottles and plastic, what then can it have to do with Art? 1970G. Greer Female Eunuch 171 The pop revolution..has replaced sentiment with lust. 1970K. Millett Sexual Politics (1971) ii. iv. 186 In such cases Freud and his school after him will do all in their power to convince her of the errors of her ways:..by the actual mental policing of ‘pop psych’. 1971Time 14 June 16/2 The fact that Ed [Cox] proposed so quickly after Tricia [Nixon] began her new life at the White House might suggest to pop-psychers that he was afraid of losing her. 1972Nature 25 Aug. 471/2 The author has shrugged off..practically everything that animal ethologists have tried to contribute to our understanding..―dismissing..[Desmond] Morris's books as ‘pop ethology’. 1973J. Wainwright High-Class Kill 41 Pop culture: garbage done up in poster-colours and caterwauling to badly played guitars. 1975Imperial Oil Rev. iv. 30/2 How to make work more satisfying or, to use the word of pop sociology, how to ‘humanize’ it. 1975New Yorker 21 Apr. 111/1 No one has yet piously complained of too much violence in the Ngorongoro Crater or tried to shroud a beehive in pop psychology. 1977P. Johnson Enemies of Society xi. 160 At various levels, too, psychology and sociology have become the pop-science, or folk-science, of the western urban masses. 1977Time 14 Mar. 43/1 Most of the Morgan message is standard to all the pop self-help books that publishers have been churning out ever since Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale reaped their first millions. 1978Encounter July 96/1 On the debit side..are the evils of ‘development’ and the pap of pop culture.
▪ VIII. pop, v.1|pɒp|
Also 5–7 poppe, 7–8 popp, 9 dial. pap, pawp.
[Onomatopœic: goes with pop n.1, int., adv.]
1. trans. To strike, rap, knock (? obs.). Also, to strike with a slight rap or tap. dial.
c1386[implied in popper n. 1]. c1442Chron. London (1827) 130 Redy to a popped hym in the face with his dagger. 1483Cath. Angl. 286/2 To Poppe; vbi to stryke. c1817Hogg Tales & Sk. I. 336 She popped her master on the forehead.
2. intr. To make a small quick explosive sound; to burst or explode with a pop.
1576Newton Lemnie's Complex. 124 b, Popping or smacking with the mouthe. 1809Malkin Gil Blas x. iii. ⁋9 The report of musketry, popping so near the head-quarters of our repose. 1855Delamer Kitch. Gard. (1861) 179 When you hear the first gun pop at the unhappy partridges. 1859[see 3]. 1894K. Grahame Pagan P. 159 When the chestnuts popped in the ashes.
b. Of the eye: To protrude (as if to burst out).
1680J. Aubrey in Lett. Eminent Persons (1813) III. 565 Full eie, popping out and working. 1931E. O'Neill Mourning becomes Electra (1932) 217 Small comes tearing out and down the portico steps, his face chalky white and his eyes popping. 1940W. Faulkner Hamlet i. ii. 37 They looked exactly like two fellows that had done hung themselves in one of these here suicide pacts, with their heads snubbed up together and pointing straight up..and their eyes popping. 1951M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael ii. i. 73 Pray Bess, what was he like? Oh, says Bess, her eyes popping, he's terrific! 1961N. Manero Cook-Out Barbecue Bk. 16 You'll have the neighbor's eyes popping as well as their mouths watering! 1979G. Hammond Dead Game xi. 143 He sold the Dickson Round Action [gun] there for a price that made Molly's eyes pop.
3. trans. To cause to make a sudden explosive report; to fire, let off, as an explosive or fire-arm (also fig.); to cause (anything) to burst with a pop. to pop corn: see quot. 1859, and cf. pop-corn.
1595Drake's Voy. (Hakl. Soc.) 23 We popt away powder and shott to no purpose. a1652A. Wilson Inconstant Ladie ii. i, Haue a speech readie to popp of in triumph. 1832Lytton Eugene A. i. ix, When a musket's half worn out, schoolboys buy it—pop it at sparrows. 1850Quincy (Illinois) Whig 12 Nov. 4/1 One barrel of rice corn will make 32 barrels after popping. 1853Harper's Mag. May 853/1 A little boy sat by the kitchen⁓fire, A-popping corn in the ashes. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), To Pop Corn, to parch or roast Indian corn until it ‘pops’ open... ‘A little boy sat by the kitchen fire A popping corn in the ashes.’ 1873‘S. Coolidge’ What Katy Did x. 201 ‘I popped the corn!’ cried Philly. 1883O. W. Holmes Seasons in Pages fr. Old Vol. Life 160 The ginger-beer carts rang their bells and popped their bottles. 1887Daily News 17 June 5/1 There was popped corn. 1907St. Nicholas May 614/1 Grandma lives on a farm and we used to have great fun popping corn whenever we went to see her. 1949Sat. Even. Post 21 May 36/1 Last year American farmers grew some 300,000,000 pounds of pop⁓corn. This, when popped, is enough to fill 2,400,000,000 ten-cent bags. 1979Sunset Apr. 129/2 (Advt.), The Popaire hot air popper pops 4 quarts of light, fluffy pop⁓corn in 5 minutes!
4. intr. To shoot, fire a gun. colloq.
1725New Cant. Dict., To pop, to fire a Pistol. 1776Earl Percy Lett. (1902) 74 They sent down..a number of their rangers to pop at our advanced posts and sentries. a1845Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. iii. Ld. Thoulouse, Popping at pheasants. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile xix. 563 We heard our sportsman popping away..in the barley.
b. trans. To shoot down; to pick off with a shot.
1762Pennsylv. Archives (1853) IV. 84 They knew the woods well, and would pop them down 3 for 1. 1813Sir G. Jackson Diaries & Lett. (1873) II. 280 Many unwary stragglers have been popped off in this way. 1861P. B. Du Chaillu Equat. Afr. ix. 106 Keeping our guns in readiness to pop down anything which should come in our way.
5. trans. To put promptly, suddenly, or unexpectedly (sometimes implying quiet or furtive action): usually with some extension, as down, in, on, out, up, into or out of (a place), etc.
a1529Skelton Replyc. 122 Whan ye..porisshly forthe popped Your sysmaticate sawes Agaynst Goddes lawes. 1553Respublica (Brandl) v. vii. 18 He vaire [= fair] popt me to silence. 1567Golding Ovid vi. 73 b, Now diue they to the bottome downe, now vp their heades they pop. 1577Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619) 329 To put by him that poppeth in any other seeds. 1587Greene Tritameron of Loue Wks. (Grosart) III. 77 What moues you..to pop forth so sodainlie this darke probleme? 1596Nashe Saffron Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 174 You..popt out your Booke against me. 1662R. Mathew Unl. Alch. §82. 109 She..popt it into her mouth, and swallowed it all at once. 1750H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 355 Another fellow of Eton has popped out a sermon against the Doctor since his death. 1778F. Burney Evelina xxxiii, He takes and pops me into the ditch! 1834Lytton Pompeii i. vii, To..pop him slily into the reservoir. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. ix, Popping his head out of some window or door. 1858Punch 20 Nov. 206 If you will pop on your hats..I'll take you and your friend out for a drive. 1860Thackeray Round. Papers, Screens in Dining Rooms, One dear little lady..popped her paper under the tablecloth. 1891B. Potter Let. in J. Mackenzie Victorian Courtship (1979) ix. 125, I popped on an old skirt and a mackintosh and trudged through the rain. 1977B. Pym Quartet in Autumn ii. 22 ‘I should put the bacon in a cooler place if I were you,’ said Letty. ‘Yes, I'll pop it in one of the filing cabinets.’ 1977K. O'Hara Ghost of T. Penry viii. 67 Sit you down and I'll pop the kettle on.
b. spec. To put out (a light) suddenly; to jot down (words); † to put off (a person) with (something), put off or put aside (a thing).
1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. iii, Ile conquer Rome, Pop out the light of bright religion. 1602― Ant. & Mel. i. Wks. 1856 I. 16 Swarthy darknesse popt out Phœbus eye. a1625Fletcher Noble Gent. i. i, And do you pop me off with this slight answer? 1658–9in Burton's Diary (1828) III. 149, I would have you not to pop off the question. 1774F. Burney Early Diary (1889) I. 304 Popping down my thoughts from time to time upon paper. 1822E. A. Porden in L'Estrange Friendships Miss Mitford (1882) I. v. 141, I..shall at once pop down what occurs to me. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxviii, Pop me down among your fashionable visitors. 1894A. Dobson 18th Cent. Vignettes Ser. ii. i. 3 He popped out the guttering candle.
6. To put (a question) abruptly, to ‘come out with’ († also with out); spec. to pop the question (slang or colloq.), to propose marriage (also ellipt. to pop).
1725Byrom Rem. (1854) I. i. 148 Dear Governor and Governess, the boy here having given me leave to ask you how you do, I have made bold to pop the question to you. 1754Richardson Grandison (1810) VI. xx. 101 Afraid he would now, and now, and now, pop out the question; which he had not the courage to put. 1809Malkin Gil Blas iv. i. ⁋6 You..pop the question without making any bones of it. 1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 432, I have reason to think the formidable interrogatory, which is emphatically called ‘popping the question’, is actually the only question which he has never popped. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset I. 58 ‘Is it settled?’ she asked. ‘Has he popped?’ 1885E. C. Johnson Track of Crescent xv. 190 When a young man wanted to ‘pop’ to the object of his affections, he called at the house. 1960M. Sharp Something Light vii. 64, I haven't actually{ddd}popped, yet. 1972N.Y. Times 3 Nov. 7/1 (Advt.), Now's the time to pop the question! 20% off diamond engagement rings. 1976Daily Mirror 16 Mar. 9/3 The thought of popping the question to Princess Marie Therese de Bourbon Parma ‘has never entered my head,’ he added.
b. intr. to pop off, to speak hastily, angrily, or wildly; to state one's opinions vociferously; to complain loudly. U.S. colloq.
1933Partridge Slang To-day & Yesterday 455 Pop off, to, talk wildly, threateningly, argumentatively. C20. 1934M. H. Weseen Dict. Amer. Slang 381 Pop off, to lose one's temper; to give vent to anger. 1943Sun (Baltimore) 20 Sept. 16/8 The dealer ‘popped off without knowing what he was talking about’. 1951R. S. Prather Bodies in Bedlam vi. 47, I popped off to Brane last night, but I didn't kill him. 1970Daily Tel. 7 Feb. 16/2 Company chairmen have been popping-off about the iniquities of selective employment tax for four years. 1977Time 7 Mar. 40/3 Most Plains residents dismissed Billy's charge. ‘He was just poppin' off,’ said one woman. 1977J. Wambaugh Black Marble (1978) x. 241 He remembered what happened to him today in a phone booth when he popped off, so he bit his lip and kept quiet.
7. To put in pledge, to pawn. slang.
1731Fielding Lett. Writer ii. ii, Ay,..he'll make us pop our unders for the reckoning; we'll not go with him. 1851Mayhew Lond. Lab. I. 474 [She] took one to pop..for an old 'oman what was on the spree. 1902Barrie Little White Bird vi, It was plain for what she had popped her watch.
8. intr. To pass, move, go or come promptly, suddenly, or unexpectedly (up, down, in, out, about, between, over, off, etc.). Also (Austral. colloq.) phr. how are you popping (up)?: how are you getting on?
1530Palsgr. 662/1 He went so nere the banke that soudaynly he popped in to the water over heed and eares. 1589Nashe Anat. Absurd. Wks. (Grosart) I. 25 The temperature of the wether will not permitte them to pop into the open ayre. 1602Shakes. Ham. v. ii. 65 He that hath..Popt in betweene th' election and my hopes. 1660Fuller Mixt Contempl. (1841) 200 Some presently popped up into the pulpit. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 76 A hundred or more Cartesian Puppits pop up upon Deck. 1710Brit. Apollo III. No. 67. 3/1 She might Pop in. 1770J. Baretti Journ. Lond. to Genoa IV. App. 266, I expected..to see some beautiful damsel pop out suddenly. 1780F. Burney Diary 6 Dec., In the evening..I just popped down to play one rubber with dear Mr. Thrale. 1829Scott Jrnl. 27 Feb., Some [copies]..will be popping out one of these days in a contraband manner. 1834Tait's Mag. 421/2 Just pop home for a bundle of prospectuses. 1860F. Nightingale Notes on Nursing iv. 29 Many of the accidents which happen from feeble patients tumbling down stairs..happen..from the nurse popping out of a door. 1899F. T. Bullen Log Sea-waif 151 He requested me to ‘pop across the road’ and get him a drop of rum. 1904E. Nesbit Phoenix & Carpet xii. 224 If you'll excuse me, I'll just pop out and see what I can do. 1913C. Mackenzie Sinister St. I. i. iv. 54 Nurse..had acquired a habit..of popping out of the back-door on secret errands. 1919Wodehouse Damsel in Distress xv. 186 ‘And now you get along,’ said the man. ‘You pop off.’ 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 156 He [sc. Glinka] was more than a gifted amateur who happened to pop up at the right time. 1942Tee Emm (Air Ministry) II. 88 A cunning safety switch..pops up when there is a short. 1960Guardian 26 Feb. 5/4 Mrs Harris popped out to do some shopping. 1960I. Jefferies Dignity & Purity ii. 28 Let's pop off for a drive. 1965Listener 2 Dec. 934/2 ‘Afternoon Theatre’, sometimes infinitely trivial, popped up with a winner in The Aquarium on Platform Two, by Peter Preston. 1968‘N. Blake’ Private Wound v. 79 Maire'll look after you till I get back. I just have to pop out and see a fella for a minute or two. 1977B. Pym Quartet in Autumn vii. 63 ‘Goodbye, then,’ she said. ‘I'll pop in again some time.’ 1978J. Thomson Question of Identity xiv. 146 Will you pop over to my tent and bring me my little box?
1894H. Lawson Short Stories in Prose & Verse 89 ‘How are yer?’ ‘Oh! I'm alright!’ he says. ‘How are ye poppin' up!’ 1907N. Spielvogel Cocky Farmer 16 Whatto, Joe. How are you popping up? 1933N. Lindsay Saturdee 10 What-oh, Stinker, how you poppin' up? 1942S. Campion Bonanza 207 Howya poppin', cobber?
b. To come on or upon abruptly, suddenly, unexpectedly, or by chance; to light upon, happen upon.
1741Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 61, I was but talking to one of her maids just now,..and she popt upon us. 1759Sterne Tr. Shandy I. xiv, I had the good fortune to pop upon the very thing I wanted. 1791M. Wollstonecraft Rights Wom. v. 131 We pop on the author when we only expected to meet the father. 1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 165 She pops, as perchance, upon kind Mistress Meeke.
c. to pop off (or pop off the hooks or ellipt. to pop): to die. slang. Also trans., to kill, destroy.
1764Foote Patron i. (1781) 17 If Lady Pepperpot should happen to pop off. 1778F. Burney Lett. 5 July, What a pity it would have been had I popped off in my last illness. c1820Keats Let. to Haydon Poet. Wks. (1886) 24, I am afraid I shall pop off just when my mind is able to run alone. 1824J. Hogg Private Mem. Justified Sinner 253 Might we not..pop him off in private and quietness? 1887G. R. Sims Mary Jane's Mem. 112 He'd said his mother would soon pop off the hooks, and he'd have all her money. 1922E. Wallace Flying Fifty-Five x. 58 ‘If he'd only popped off in the war, Jacques.’.. ‘You might have been ‘popped off’ yourself if you'd only got within range of a bullet.’ 1928D. L. Sayers Unpleasantness at Bellona Club ix. 110 Perhaps it's just as well he popped off when he did. He might have cut me off with a shilling. 1940G. S. Gordon Let. 24 May (1943) 221, I have joined the Defence Volunteers, and hope to pop a parachutist before the business ends. 1945J. B. Priestley Three Men in New Suits v. 65 He fancies he might pop off at any time. 1952W. R. Burnett Vanity Row (1953) v. 45 She'd be worrying how to knock me off. Or trying to get me het up..so's I'd pop. 1975J. Goulet Oh's Profit vi. 36 Oh popped a carpenter ant, chewed. 1975New Yorker 26 May 32/2, I agreed not to say ‘death’, ‘dying’,..‘go home feet first’, ‘pop off the hooks’. 1977Navy News Sept. 21/5 It is possible for a Seacat or Seaslug missile to get close enough to topple the target off course and ‘pop’ the parachute recovery system.
d. to pop in and out: to visit or come and go frequently or casually.
1858Mrs. Gaskell Let. 19 Oct. (1966) 517 We have more people popping in & out than we expected. 1926Wodehouse Heart of Goof iv. 126 He drew a picture of their little home, with Crispin for ever popping in and out. 1971N. Freeling Over High Side i. 40 Martinez was not altogether unknown... He had often ‘popped in and out’. 1974‘S. Woods’ Done to Death 14 He can't keep popping in and out... But if she had a companion—. 1979‘M. Hebden’ Death set to Music iii. 26 He spent most of his time off duty popping in and out of bed with any pretty woman he could find.
e. Cricket. Of the ball: to rise sharply off the pitch when bowled; to get up (get v. 80 h). Also to pop up.
1871‘Thomsonby’ Cricketers in Council 39 ‘Spin’ is not twist, it is that which gives the ball a tendency to twist, break back, shoot, pop up, or, in fact, do something eccentric. 1888Steel & Lyttelton Cricket iii. 153 The ball will twist a great deal on this class of wicket [hard and crumbled]... It is also inclined both to ‘pop’ and keep low. 1906A. E. Knight Compl. Cricketer iii. 119 The ball, too, will rear up quickly, kick or ‘pop up’. 1921P. F. Warner My Cricketing Life vi. 126 On a sticky wicket he was capable of sending down a difficult off break, and of making the ball pop. 1926J. B. Hobbs Test Match Surprise xxi. 211 Then the ball commenced to ‘pop’, in cricket parlance—to ‘stop and look at them’—and Grimmell..had the two brilliant batsmen in difficulties. 1959Times 29 May 4/2 Nicholls skied a catch..aiming across the line at one that popped.
f. To pay (for). slang.
1959R. Bloch Big Kick in Blood runs Cold (1961) 213 He popped for three jugs tonight, just to get in. Likes to make the scene. Ibid. 218 He didn't pop... I said we were leaving..and all he did was smile. 1968L. J. Braun Cat who turned on & Off (1969) xxi. 182 Hell. I didn't buy you anything, but I'll pop for lunch.
9. trans. In Baseball: to hit (a ball) high into the air but close to the batter, thus providing an easy catch. Also intr., to get put out by hitting a high ball that is caught by an opponent. N. Amer.
1867Ball Players' Chron. 6 June 2/3 On Hunniwell popping one up which fell into Sumner's hands, Smith had to retire, a double play putting both out. 1886[see fan v. 8 b]. 1912C. Mathewson Pitching in a Pinch 204 Then Doyle popped up a weak foul behind the catcher. 1931Kansas City (Missouri) Times 19 Oct., Hallahan replaced Grimes on the mound for the Cardinals and then Bishop popped out to ‘Pepper’ Martin. 1947Los Angeles Times 3 Oct. ii. 1/7 Johnson swung and popped up to end the inning. 1948Chicago Tribune 7 Mar. ii. 1/4 Lupien popped to Johnson. 1974Los Angeles Times 13 Oct. iii. 10/2 Bando struck out. Messersmith grounded to the pitcher. Rudi popped to short.
10. trans. To inject (a narcotic drug). Also, to take (a narcotic drug). Also intr. slang.
1956R. Thorp Viper vi. 92 Nearly everyone there seemed to be popping. There were so many needles working you might have thought it was a tailors shop. 1959W. Burroughs Naked Lunch 29 Ever pop coke in the mainline? 1962‘K. Orvis’ Damned & Destroyed xii. 79 Was there ever a junkie..that was too pooped to pop? 1968N.Y. Times 2 Aug. 46 Executives of finance and insurance companies are popping pills these days to tranquilize their nerves. 1968M. Woodhouse Rock Baby ii. 109 For him the day..started when he swallowed the first pill or popped the first vein. 1972Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 2 July 14/3 The addict..now bangs, pops, shoots and jabs his veins with the hypodermic needle. 1976R. Rosenblum Sweetheart Deal iv. 46 The half⁓million ghetto kids who'll start popping junk this year. 1977Amer. Speech 1975 L. 64 Pop,..take an amphetamine in order to stay awake (to study). ‘I popped for my history final.’
Add:[2.] c. Of the ears: to make a small popping sound within the head as pressure is equalized between different parts of the auditory canal, esp. during a change of altitude.
1962Underwater Swimming (‘Know the Game’ Ser.) 15 It is often possible to assist ears that are difficult to clear by pinching the nose and blowing gently, when the ears will be felt to ‘pop’ as the pressures equalise. 1977D. Bagley Enemy xxxvi. 300 My ears popped as the pressure changed. 1984R. Frame Winter Journey (1986) ii. 134 We started to come down at last—through another cloud like grey steam—and I felt my ears pop. 1989Chicago Tribune (Sunday Mag.) 30 Apr. 18/2 The ride takes 90 seconds, your eyes widen, your ears pop about four times.
[3.] b. To open (a can of beer, etc.) with a pop by pulling the tab. Often to pop open. colloq. (chiefly N. Amer.).
1976National Observer (U.S.) 10 Apr. 18/2 Settled now on a sofa in the youth center, popping cans of Busch Bavarian. 1976T. O'Brien Northern Lights i. 76 He..popped open two cans of beer. 1978M. Kenyon Deep Pocket vi. 67 Carter popped a [beer] can. 1985A. Lurie Foreign Affairs viii. 186 Electricians and carpenters..pop open cans of soda. 1987New Yorker 24 Aug. 26/2 Steve popped another beer.
11. trans. Computing. To retrieve (a piece of data, etc.) from the ‘top’ of a stack; also (const. up), to remove the top element of (a stack); = *pull v. 1 g. Also absol. Opp. *push v. 1 o.
1962R. S. Ledley Programming & Utilizing Digital Computers v. 178 The push-down list can be conceived as a non-branched threaded list made up by placing each new element ‘on top’ of the list in the same memory location... When an element is removed from the list, it is always taken off the top by removing it from this same memory location and the remaining elements are then made to ‘pop up’. 1963[see *push v. 1 o]. 1964Proc. AFIPS Conf. XXVI. 47 Termination of a subexecution results in the LIFO list being popped up and the cell returned to the SCL (also returning the SCB space). 1976M. M. Mano Computer Sys. Archit. vii. 267 A return to the running program is effected by first popping the contents of registers out of the stack and then popping the return address and placing it into PC. 1983Your Computer Aug. 64/1 The resume command..simply restores the registers by popping them in reverse order. 1985Austral. Personal Computer Oct. 181/3 In Forth, we use the operator . (dot) to pop the stack.
▸ trans. colloq. (chiefly Brit.). Perhaps after sense 8, although compare also sense 9a.to pop one's clogs: to die; (of a thing) to cease to exist.
1970Pick of Punch 186 He was forced to retire in 1933 after a disastrous Catholic/Protestant punch-up among the bugs. He's just popped his clogs. 1976Times 14 Dec. 10/4 When she pops her slender clogs in next week's concluding part, who knows but that I may not shed a tear myself? 1983G. MacDonald Fraser Pyrates vi. 108 It's either join us or pop your clogs. 1993T. Barnes Taped (BNC) 127 ‘So is the company going bust?’ ‘Oh no, nothing like that. TVL's got problems, but no one says it's going to pop its clogs.’ 2003Independent on Sunday 19 Oct. (Life Etc section) 2/4 There's been precious little monumental waywardness in literary circles since Hemingway popped his clogs.
▪ IX. † pop, v.2 Obs. rare.
(Also 5 erron. papphe.)
[Origin uncertain: cf. OF. popiner (later poupiner) to adorn (oneself), said of a woman (Godefr.), f. po(u)pin dressy, showy: see poppin.]
trans. To paint or patch (the face) with a cosmetic.
a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 1019 No wyntred browis had she, Ne popped hir, for it neded nought To wyndre hir, or to peynte hir ought. c1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 1368 It needed noght to papphe hir face, For she was..Ryght agreable of look and chere. 1430–40― Bochas i. xx. (MS. Bodl. 263) 81/1 To farce and poppe ther visage. a1450Knt. de la Tour 68 Whi popithe they, and paintithe, and pluckithe her uisage? 1483Quatuor Sermones in Festivall, etc. a v b, Ne haue not your vysage poppyd, ne your here pullyd or crowlyd [ed. 1532 pomped].
Hence † ˈpopping vbl. n. (a) lit. Also (b) concr. (?) materials used in painting the face.
1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 13372 In ffrench ycallyd ‘ffarderye’ And in ynglyssh, off old wrytyng, Ys ynamyd ek ‘poppyng’. a1450Knt. de la Tour 70 Doughtres, takithe here..ensaumple to leue all suche lewde folyes and counterfeting, poppinge, and peintinge.
b.14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 562/1 Acumen, a popyn. 1483Cath. Angl. 286/2 Poppynge, acus, cerusa, stibium, venenum.
▪ X. pop, int., adv.|pɒp|
[The same onomatopœic word as pop n.1, pop v.1, used interjectionally and adverbially.]
1. a. With (the action or sound of) a pop; instantaneously, abruptly; unexpectedly.
pop goes the weasel, name of a country dance very popular in the eighteen-fifties, in which these words were sung or exclaimed by the dancers while one of them darted under the arms of the others to his partner; also the name of the tune; hence as a vb. and in other humorous uses. See N. & Q. (1905) 10th Ser. III. 492, IV. 209.
1621Fletcher Pilgrim iii. ii, Into that bush Pop goes his pate, and all his face is comb'd over. 1672Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Rehearsal i. (Arb.) 31 As soon as any one speaks, pop I slap it down, and make that, too, my own. 1801G. Colman Poor Gentlem. i. ii, It fell out unexpected—pop, on a sudden; like the going off of a field-piece. c1854(Music-seller's Advt. in Newspaper), The new country dance ‘Pop goes the weasel’, introduced by her Majesty Queen Victoria. ― Musical Bouquet No. 409, Pop goes the Weasel; La Tempête; and Le Grand Père. These fashionable dances as performed at the Court balls. 1855in N. & Q. 10th Ser. IV. 211/1 This dance is very popular, it is without deception, ‘Pop goes the weasel’ has been to Court, and met a good reception. 1855Smedley H. Coverdale xxxiv, Dear old Punch, with his private band pop-going-the-weasel like an harmonious steam-engine. 1855O. W. Holmes Poems 139 Pop cracked the guns! Mod. I heard it go ‘pop’.
b. spec. in phr. to go off pop (N.Z. colloq.), to break into angry speech.
1933‘P. Cadey’ Broken Pattern xii. 126 There's no need to go off pop like that. 1940F. Sargeson Man & Wife (1944) 65 He'd do things wrong too, and every chance he got he'd pick on me and go off pop. And of course I'd tell him off back.
2. In repeated form, with (the action or sounds of) a series of pops. Also as adj. and n., the sound of such a series.
1928V. Woolf Writer's Diary 22 Mar. (1953) 124 A rabbit that passes across a shooting gallery, and one's friends go pop-pop. 1951J. Frame Lagoon 10 The pop⁓pop boats we used to whizz round in the bath on Christmas morning. 1957― Owls do Cry 29 Sometimes the coal makes a pop-pop.
▪ XI. pop n.10 U.S. colloq.|pɒp|
[Abbrev.]
= popsicle n.
1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang s.v., Pop,..the common written and spoken abbr. for a popsicle, any ice or ice cream frozen on a stick and sold by street vendors or refreshment stands. 1974H. L. Foster Ribbin' iv. 124 Usually the New York City folks call ice cream on a stick a pop while to the Buffalonians it is the soda that is called pop. 1983N.Y. Times Mag. 28 Aug. 16/2 A sultry summer Sunday is a time for people to drive somewhere with the kids and when they arrive to buy them a pop. A what? You know, a pop—short for Popsicle—ice on a stick. |