pop

Etymology 1

From Middle English pop, poppe (“a blow; strike; buffet”) (> Middle English poppen (“to strike; thrust”, verb)), of onomatopoeic origin – used to describe the sound, or short, sharp actions. The physics sense is part of a facetious sequence "snap, crackle, pop", after the mascots of Rice Krispies cereal.

noun

1. (countable) A loud, sharp sound, as of a cork coming out of a bottle.
   Listen to the pop of a champagne cork.
2. (uncountable, regional, Midwestern US, Canada, Inland North, Britain) An effervescent or fizzy drink, most frequently nonalcoholic; soda pop.
   Lunch was sandwiches and a bottle of pop.
   The best thing on the table was a tray full of bottles of lemon pop. 8 September 1941, LIFE, page 27
3. (countable, regional, Midwestern US, Inland North, Canada) A bottle, can, or serving of effervescent or fizzy drink, most frequently nonalcoholic; a soda pop.
   Go in the store and buy us three pops.
4. A pop shot: a quick, possibly unaimed, shot with a firearm.
   The man with the gun took a pop at the rabbit.
5. (colloquial, in the phrase "a pop") A quantity dispensed; a portion; apiece.
   They cost 50 pence a pop.
   British rockers Radiohead solved the "music is dead" dispute last year by allowing fans to name a price for the group's new album, In Rainbows. (More than a million albums sold in the first week alone, at an average $8 a pop). 2008 January–February, Matt Bean, “Your cultural calendar: 7 things to look forward to this year”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 134
6. Something that stands out or is distinctive to the mind or senses.
   a white dress with a pop of red
   a pop of vanilla flavour
7. (computing) The removal of a data item from the top of a stack.
   Pushes and pops change the stack; indexing just accesses it. 2011, Mark Lutz, Programming Python, page 1371
8. A bird, the European redwing.
9. (physics) The sixth derivative of the position vector with respect to time (after velocity, acceleration, jerk, jounce, crackle), i.e. the rate of change of crackle.
10. (slang, dated) A pistol.
11. (US, mostly in plural) A small, immature peanut, boiled as a snack.
    Immature peanuts, called "pops," are often included when the peanuts are boiled at home […] 1986, Mid-America Folklore, volume 14, page 6
    If the peanuts weren't yet mature, boiling them would make the tiny nuts—or “pops,” as they're called at that immature stage—swell up and become more filling. 2013, Becky Billingsley, A Culinary History of Myrtle Beach & the Grand Strand
12. (colloquial) Clipping of freeze pop.
    Although they go by many names across the world freezer pop, ice-pole, pop stick icy-pole ice pop, tip top and ice candy but in the hoods of America they are known and respected as Freeze Pops. The pops are made by freezing flavored liquid such as sugar water, Kool-Aid or some form of fruit juice or purée inside a plastic tube - at least the kinds we ate. 2017, Kenny Attaway, Black Cream: A Handful of Sky & a Pocketful of Confetti
13. (colloquial) A lollipop.
14. (professional wrestling slang) A (usually very) loud audience reaction.

verb

1. (intransitive) To make a pop, or sharp, quick sound.
   The muskets popped away on all sides.
2. (ergative) To burst (something) with a popping sound.
   The boy with the pin popped the balloon.
   This corn pops well.
   The court was told Robins had asked if she could use the oven to heat some baby food for her child. Knutton heard a loud popping noise "like a crisp packet being popped" coming from the kitchen followed by a "screeching" noise. When she saw what had happened to the kitten she was sick in the sink. December 14, 2011, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian
   To torture another metaphor, it would be the difference between slowly letting the air out of a balloon, and popping it. Though the dam metaphor is more apt, what with the excess magic flooding outward. 10 October 2016, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Monday, Oct 10, 2016
3. (intransitive, with in, out, upon, etc.) To enter, or issue forth, with a quick, sudden movement; to move from place to place suddenly; to dart.
   A rabbit popped out of the hole.
   So, diving in a bottomless sea, they [the Roman Church] pop sometimes above water to take breath. 1626, John Donne, “On the Nativity”, in Sermons, section IV
   others again have a trick of popping up and down every moment from their paper, to the audience, like an idle schoolboy 1720, Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Young Clergyman
   When company comes, you are not to pop out and stare, and then run in again, like frightened rabbits in a warren. 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, section II
   Lee Cheng popped on the phone line. "Right. I'm tracing it." More keytaps, this time with a few beeps thrown in. 1989, Clifford Stoll, The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
4. (transitive, UK, Australia) To place (something) (somewhere); to move or position (something) with a short movement.
   Just pop it in the fridge for now.
   He popped his head around the door.
5. (intransitive, UK, Canada, Australia, often with over, round, along, etc.) To make a short trip or visit.
   I'm just popping round to the newsagent.
   I'll pop by your place later today.
6. (intransitive) To stand out; to be distinctive to the senses.
   This colour really pops.
   She also looked like a star - and not the Beltway type. On a stage full of stiff suits, she popped. July 18, 2011, Robert Costa, “The Battle from Waterloo: Representative Bachmann runs for president”, in National Review
7. (transitive) To hit (something or someone).
   He popped me on the nose.
8. (transitive, slang) To shoot (usually somebody) with a firearm.
9. (intransitive, vulgar, slang) To ejaculate; to orgasm.
10. (transitive, computing) To remove (a data item) from the top of a stack.
    Once the callee (the called function) terminates, it cleans the stack that it has been locally using and pops the next value stored on top of the stack. 2010, Enrico Perla, Massimiliano Oldani, A Guide to Kernel Exploitation: Attacking the Core, page 55
    The algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf). 2011, John Mongan, Noah Kindler, Eric Giguère, Programming Interviews Exposed
11. (intransitive, slang) To give birth.
    Well, dear. You're ready to pop, aren't you? Little one's on its way. 28 May 2011, Matthew Graham, “The Almost People”, in Julian Simpson, director, Doctor Who, season 6/32, episode 6, spoken by Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber)
    Gavin told me one of his friends was pregnant, but my goodness, she looks ready to pop. 12 April 2021, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 1362 - Prophecy
12. (transitive, slang) To pawn (something) (to raise money).
    I had to pop my watch to see me through until pay-day.
13. (transitive, slang) To swallow or consume (especially a tablet of a drug, sometimes extended to other small items such as sweets or candy).
    We were drinking beer and popping pills — some really strong downers. I could hardly walk and I had no idea what I was saying. 1994, Ruth Garner, Patricia A. Alexander, Beliefs about text and instruction with text
    31 pop some chocolate You'll stay sharp and focused for that final lunge toward the weekend. Milk chocolate has been shown to boost verbal and visual memory, impulse control, and reaction time. 2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135
14. (transitive, informal) To perform (a move or stunt) while riding a board or vehicle.
    Huck spun along the beams and joists, making me gulp when she popped a wheelie or swerved past a gaping hole... 1995, David Brin, Startide Rising
    The tail is the back of the deck; this is the part that enables skaters to pop ollies... 2009, Ben Wixon, Skateboarding: Instruction, Programming, and Park Design
15. (intransitive, of the ears) To undergo equalization of pressure when the Eustachian tubes open.
    My ears popped as the aeroplane began to ascend.
    With its airtight seals, the pressure change as trains entered the black, dust-covered station areas caused our ears to pop and doors to flap and bang every time. June 30 2021, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, page 49
16. (dance">dance) To perform the popping style of dance">dance.
    Let the poppers pop and the breakers break / We're cool, cool cats, it's like that 1985, “King of Rock”, performed by Run-DMC
17. (transitive, slang) To arrest.
    He's on probation. We can pop him right now for gang association.

intj

1. Used to represent a loud, sharp sound, as of a cork coming out of a bottle.
   So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, 'Up we go! Up we go!' till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow. 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 2

Etymology 2

From papa or poppa.

noun

1. (colloquial, endearing) One's father.
   My pop used to tell me to do my homework every night.

Etymology 3

Clipping of popular or Clipping of population.

adj

1. (used attributively in set phrases) Popular.

noun

1. Pop music.
2. population

Etymology 4

From colloquial Russian поп (pop) and Попъ (Pop), from Old Church Slavonic попъ (popŭ), from Byzantine Greek πάπας (pápas) (see pope). Doublet of pope.

noun

1. (Russian Orthodoxy, uncommon) A Russian Orthodox priest; a parson.
   There was at that time in the house of the Consul a Pop (or Russian Priest) named Iwan Afanassich. 1822, Mikhaïlov Vasiliï, Adventures of Michailow, section 4
   The contemporary priest's... own children are ashamed and some abusers are openly "transmitting the pop" (a gesture of mocking the priest on the street, where a man would touch his private parts while smiling at other passers-by) 2001, Spas Raïkin, Rebel with a Just Cause, 292 n.28
   By the end of 1809 she was declaring to all and sundry that she would sooner marry 'a pop than the sovereign of a country under the influence of France'. Since a pop was a Russian Orthodox parish priest, the reference was hardly likely to endear her family to the French. 2006, Peter Neville, A Traveller's History of Russia, section 123