sop

Etymology 1

From Middle English sop, soppe, sope, from Old English sopa (“sopped bread”), from Proto-Germanic *supô (compare Dutch sop, Old High German sopfa), deverbative of *sūpaną (“to sup”). More at sup; compare soup.

noun

1. Something entirely soaked.
2. A piece of solid food to be soaked in liquid food.
3. Something given or done to pacify or bribe.
   The suggested petrification of the ship is a sop to gratify Poseidon and compensate him for a concession--the Phaeacians will not be cut off from the sea. 1996, Bernard Knox, Introduction to Robert Fagles's translation of The Odyssey
   That agreement, with its lofty promises of “one country, two systems,” was a fig leaf, as most knew at the time — a sop to Western consciences guilty for condemning the people of Hong Kong to their ultimate fate as wards of Beijing. What is happening today is exactly what was predicted and exactly what Chinese leaders intended. Our outrage, while appropriate, is also embarrassing. 2020, Robert Kagan, “China’s dangerous Taiwan temptation”, in Washington Post
4. A weak, easily frightened or ineffectual person; a milksop
5. (Appalachia) Gravy.
6. (obsolete) A thing of little or no value.
7. A piece of turf placed in the road as a target for a throw in road bowling.

verb

1. (transitive) To steep or dip in any liquid.
   When I die, don't bury me deep, / Put a jug of 'lasses at my feet, / And a piece of corn bread in my hand, / Gwine to sop my way to the promised land. 1928, Newman Ivey White, American Negro Folk-Songs, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, page 227
   So again let me say that sopping bread into gravy can be done properly merely by putting a piece down on the gravy and then soaking it with the help of a knife and fork as though it were any other food. But taking a soft piece of bread and pushing it under the sauce with your fingers, submerging them as well as the bread, or even wiping the plate with it would be very bad manners indeed. 1945-12-27, Emily Post, “Sopping Bread May Be Done”, in The Spokesman-Review
2. (intransitive) To soak in, or be soaked; to percolate.

Etymology 2

noun

1. (music, informal) Clipping of soprano.