gallop
/ˈɡæləp/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms gallops galloping galloped
- noun The fastest gait of a horse, a two-beat stride during which all four legs are off the ground simultaneously.
- noun An act or instance of going or running rapidly.
- noun (cardiology) An abnormal rhythm of the heart, made up of three or four sounds, like a horse's gallop.
- noun (music) A rhythm consisting of an 8th note followed by two 16th notes, resembling a horse's gallop. “A gallop rhythm: \drums{\repeat unfold4{wbl8wbh16 16”
- verb (intransitive, of a horse, etc) To run at a gallop. “The horse galloped past the finishing line.”
- verb (intransitive) To ride at a galloping pace.
- verb (transitive) To cause to gallop. “to gallop a horse”
- verb (ambitransitive) To make electrical or other utility lines sway and/or move up and down violently, usually due to a combination of high winds and ice accrual on the lines.
- verb (intransitive) To run very fast.
- verb (figurative, intransitive) To go rapidly or carelessly, as in making a hasty examination.
- verb (intransitive, of an infection, especially pneumonia) To progress rapidly through the body.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English galopen (“to gallop”), from Old French galoper (compare modern French galoper), from Frankish *wala hlaupan (“to run well”), from *wala (“well”) + *hlaupan (“to run”), from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to run, leap, spring”), from Proto-Indo-European *klaup-, *klaub- (“to spring, stumble”). Possibly also derived from a deverbal of Frankish *walhlaup (“battle run”) from *wal (“battlefield”) from a Proto-Germanic word meaning "dead, victim, slain" from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“death in battle, killed in battle”) + *hlaup (“course, track”) from *hlaupan (“to run”).
More at well, leap, valkyrie. See also the doublet wallop, coming from the same source through an Old Northern French variant.
English surname, variant of Gallup.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To move or run in the mode called a gallop; as a horse; to go at a gallop; to run or move with speed.
- verb To ride a horse at a gallop.
- verb To cause to gallop.
- noun A mode of running by a quadruped, particularly by a horse, by lifting alternately the fore feet and the hind feet, in successive leaps or bounds. Hand gallop, a slow or gentle gallop.
Etymology [OE. galopen, F. galoper, of German origin; cf. assumed Goth. ga-hlaupan to run, OHG. giloufen, AS. gehleápan to leap, dance, fr. root of E. leap, and a prefix; or cf. OFlem. walop a gallop. See Leap, and cf. 1st Wallop.]
Etymology [Cf. F. galop. See Gallop, v. i., and cf. Galop.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gallop”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details