pop

• (UK, Canada) enPR: pŏp, IPA^(key): /pɒp/
• (US) enPR: pŏp, IPA^(key): /pɑp/

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒp

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.

pop (countable and uncountable, plural pops)

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.

   • 1941, LIFE magazine, 8 September 1941, page 27:

     The best thing on the table was a tray full of bottles of lemon pop.

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.

   • 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 1054-4836, page 134:

     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).

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.
   • 2011, Mark Lutz, Programming Python, page 1371:

     Pushes and pops change the stack; indexing just accesses it.

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.
    • 1986, Mid-America Folklore (volume 14, page 6)

      Immature peanuts, called "pops," are often included when the peanuts are boiled at home […]

    • 2013, Becky Billingsley, A Culinary History of Myrtle Beach & the Grand Strand

      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.

• (soda pop): see the list at soda

pop (third-person singular simple present pops, present participle popping, simple past and past participle popped)

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.

   • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, OCLC 19736994; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, OCLC 258624721:

     The waves came round her. She was a rock. She was covered with the seaweed which pops when it is pressed. He was lost.

   • 2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian‎:

     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.

   • 2016 October 10, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Monday, Oct 10, 2016:

     "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."

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.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii], line 65:

     He that hath . . ./ Popp'd in between the election and my hopes.

   • 1712 January 21 (Gregorian calendar)​, Joseph Addison; Richard Steele [et al.], “THURSDAY, January 10, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 271; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697:

     I startled at his popping upon me unexpectedly.

   • 1626, John Donne, "On the Nativity", Sermons, iv

     So, diving in a bottomless sea, they [the Roman Church] pop sometimes above water to take breath.

   • 1720, Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Young Clergyman

     others again have a trick of popping up and down every moment from their paper, to the audience, like an idle schoolboy

   • 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, ii

     When company comes, you are not to pop out and stare, and then run in again, like frightened rabbits in a warren.

   • 1989, Clifford Stoll, The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage:

     Lee Cheng popped on the phone line. "Right. I'm tracing it." More keytaps, this time with a few beeps thrown in.

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.

   • 2011 July 18, Robert Costa, “The Battle from Waterloo: Representative Bachmann runs for president”, in National Review:

     She also looked like a star - and not the Beltway type. On a stage full of stiff suits, she popped.

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.
   • 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “Bang to Rites”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 219:

     Ah concur wi Sharon’s wishes n fuck her in the fanny. […] Ah think aboot how close she is tae poppin and how far up ah am, […]

10. (transitive, computing) To remove (a data item) from the top of a stack.
    • 2010, Enrico Perla, Massimiliano Oldani, A Guide to Kernel Exploitation: Attacking the Core (page 55)

      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.

    • 2011, John Mongan, Noah Kindler, Eric Giguère, Programming Interviews Exposed

      The algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf).

11. (intransitive, slang) To give birth.
    • 2011 May 28, Matthew Graham; Julian Simpson, director, “The Almost People”, in Doctor Who, season 6/32, episode 6, spoken by Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber):

      Well, dear. You're ready to pop, aren't you? Little one's on its way.

    • 2021 April 12, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 1362 - Prophecy:

      "Gavin told me one of his friends was pregnant, but my goodness, she looks ready to pop."

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).
    • 1994, Ruth Garner and Patricia A. Alexander, Beliefs about text and instruction with text:

      We were drinking beer and popping pills — some really strong downers. I could hardly walk and I had no idea what I was saying.

    • 2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, ISSN 1054-4836, page 135:

      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.

14. (transitive, informal) To perform (a move or stunt) while riding a board or vehicle.
    • 1995, David Brin, Startide Rising:

      Huck spun along the beams and joists, making me gulp when she popped a wheelie or swerved past a gaping hole...

    • 2009, Ben Wixon, Skateboarding: Instruction, Programming, and Park Design:

      The tail is the back of the deck; this is the part that enables skaters to pop ollies...

15. (intransitive, of the ears) To undergo equalization of pressure when the Eustachian tubes open.

    My ears popped as the aeroplane began to ascend.

    • 2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, page 49:

      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.

16. (dance) To perform the popping style of dance.
    • 1985, “King of Rock”, performed by Run-DMC:

      Let the poppers pop and the breakers break / We're cool, cool cats, it's like that

17. (transitive, slang) To arrest.

    He's on probation. We can pop him right now for gang association.

pop

1. Used to represent a loud, sharp sound, as of a cork coming out of a bottle.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], OCLC 1042815524, part I, page 203:

     Pop, would go one of the eight-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech - and nothing happened.

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 2:

     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.

From papa or poppa.

pop (plural pops)

1. (colloquial, endearing) One's father.

   My pop used to tell me to do my homework every night.

• Pop (US nickname for a stage doorman)

• papa, pa
• pap, paps

Clipping of popular.

pop (not comparable)

1. (used attributively in set phrases) Popular.

pop (uncountable)

1. Pop music.

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

• pope

pop (plural pops)

1. (Russian Orthodoxy, uncommon) A Russian Orthodox priest; a parson.
   • 1822, Mikhaïlov Vasiliï, Adventures of Michailow, 4

     There was at that time in the house of the Consul a Pop (or Russian Priest) named Iwan Afanassich.

   • 2001, Spas Raïkin, Rebel with a Just Cause, 292 n.28

     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)

   • 2006, Peter Neville, A Traveller's History of Russia, 123

     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.

• OPP, Opp, PPO, opp, opp.

From Dutch pop.

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pop (plural poppe, diminutive poppie)

1. doll

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈpop/

From Latin polypus, from Ancient Greek πολύπους (polúpous).

pop m (plural pops)

1. octopus

• polp

• calamars

Abbreviation of popular.

pop (indeclinable)

1. popular

• “pop” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “pop”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
• “pop” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “pop” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): /pɔp/

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• Hyphenation: pop
• Rhymes: -ɔp

From Middle Dutch poppe, from Latin pupa; sense of “cocoon, pupa” from New Latin. The sense “guilder” derived from student slang as a reference to the image of the Dutch Maiden on guilders from 1694 until the early nineteenth century.

pop f (plural poppen, diminutive popje n or poppetje n)

1. cocoon, pupa

   Synonym: cocon

2. doll

   Synonym: (Belgium) poppemie

3. As a term for a girl or woman:
   1. (often diminutive) A term of endearment: darling, sweetheart.
   2. A pretty girl or young woman.

      Synonym: (Belgium) poppemie

   3. (often derogatory) A girl or woman who wears a lot of make-up.

      Synonym: (Belgium) poppemie

4. (Netherlands, colloquial) guilder

   Synonym: gulden

• Berbice Creole Dutch: pubiki (from the diminutive form)
• Petjo: pop
• → Indonesian: pop
• → Papiamentu: pòpchi, pouchi (Aruba), poptsje
• → Sranan Tongo: popki (from the diminutive form)
  • → Aukan: pobiki
  • → Caribbean Hindustani: popki
  • → Galibi Carib: popiki
  • → Saramaccan: pobiki

pop

1. first-person singular present indicative of poppen
2. imperative of poppen

From English pop, possibly through shortening of popmuziek.

pop f (uncountable)

1. pop, pop music

• popidool
• poppodium
• poptempel
• popzanger

• poppi (noun only)

From English pop.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpop/, [ˈpo̞p]
• Rhymes: -op
• Syllabification^(key): pop

pop (not comparable)

1. (chiefly in compounds) pop (popular)

pop

1. pop (popular music)

• IPA^(key): /pɔp/

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pop (feminine pope, masculine plural pops, feminine plural popes)

1. pop (popular)

pop m (plural pop)

1. pop, pop music

• musique pop

• “pop”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From English pop(ular).[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈpop]
• Rhymes: -op

pop (plural popok)

1. (music) pop, pop music

• popegyüttes
• popénekes
• popfesztivál
• popzene

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɔp̚]
• Hyphenation: pop

From clipping of populer.

pop

1. popular.

From Dutch pop, from New Latin pupa. Doublet of pupa and popi.

pop (first-person possessive popku, second-person possessive popmu, third-person possessive popnya)

1. (colloquial) doll.

   Synonym: boneka

• “pop” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

From Proto-Mayan *pohp.

pop

1. reed mat

• Church, Clarence; Church, Katherine (1955) Vocabulario castellano-jacalteco, jacalteco-castellano‎ (in Spanish), Guatemala C. A.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, pages 47; 41

pop

1. (slang) flirting

   Shichʼįʼ nił pop!

   You’re flirting with me!

• IPA^(key): /pɔp/

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• Rhymes: -ɔp
• Syllabification: pop

Borrowed from English pop music.

pop m inan

1. pop music

Borrowed from Old Czech pop.

pop m pers

1. Eastern Orthodox priest

   Synonym: (colloquial) batiuszka

• pop in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• pop in Polish dictionaries at PWN

pop m (uncountable)

1. pop (music intended for or accepted by a wide audience)

Unadapted borrowing from English pop.

pop m or f or n (indeclinable)

1. (music) pop

pop n (uncountable)

1. (music) pop, pop music

From Old Church Slavonic попъ (popŭ), from Ancient Greek παπάς (papás), variant of πάππας (páppas, “daddy, papa”).

• IPA^(key): /pôp/

pȍp m (Cyrillic spelling по̏п)

1. priest (usually Catholic or Orthodox)

From Serbo-Croatian pop.

• IPA^(key): /pôp/

pop m

1. priest

• Walter Breu and Giovanni Piccoli (2000), Dizionario croato molisano di Acquaviva Collecroce: Dizionario plurilingue della lingua slava della minoranza di provenienza dalmata di Acquaviva Collecroce in Provincia di Campobasso (Parte grammaticale)., pp. 395

• IPA^(key): /pop/

From Old Church Slavonic попъ (popŭ), from Ancient Greek παπάς (papás), variant of πάππας (páppas, “daddy, papa”).

pop m (genitive singular popa, nominative plural popi, declension pattern of chlap)

1. priest (usually Catholic or Orthodox)

Borrowed from English pop.

pop m (genitive singular popu, declension pattern of dub)

1. pop music, pop

• pop in Slovak dictionaries at slovnik.juls.savba.sk

• IPA^(key): /ˈpop/ [ˈpop]
• Rhymes: -op
• Syllabification: pop

pop m (plural pops)

1. (Uruguay) popcorn

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:palomita

2. pop, pop music

• “pop”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

From English Pope.

pop

1. Pope

pop (definite accusative popu, plural poplar)

1. pop
2. Pop music

pop (nominative plural pops)

1. (obsolete, Volapük Rigik) people, nation

• pöp (Volapük Nulik)

• popik

From English pop.

• IPA^(key): /pɔp/
• Rhymes: -ɔp

pop (feminine singular pop, plural pop, not comparable)

1. pop (popular)

pop m

1. pop (pop music)

   Synonym: cerddoriaeth bop

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “pop”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /pop/

pop c (plural poppen, diminutive popke)

1. baby
2. doll, dummy, puppet
3. dear, darling

• “pop”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011