Now only north. dial. Also 5 sope, 5–6 soppe. [perh. a. ON. sopp-r ball.]
† 1. A compact body, troop, or company, esp. of fighting men. Obs.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, III. 47. Samyn in-till a sop held thai. Ibid., VII. 567. Sa did thai all…, Syne in a sop assemblit ar.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1493. Sodanly in a soppe they sette in att ones.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), ii. After … þei put hem in herdes and in soppes with þe rascaile.
c. 1450. Merlin, xiv. 218. Than thei lepe to horse, and gedered to-geder on a soppe.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, X. vii. 31. Quhar ȝondir sop of men thikkis in a rout.
2. † a. A cloud of mist or smoke. Obs.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, I. vi. 176. Venus with ane sop of mist baith tway, And with ane dirk clud closit round about. Ibid., V. xii. 5. Thai … gan behald The fyre sparkis wp fleand thik fald in a blak sop of reik.
b. dial. (See quot. 1828.)
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Sops, small, detached clouds hanging on the sides of a mountain, which prognosticate rain.
1866. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton, I. xii. 272.
3. A lump or mass of blacklead in the ground.
1794. Hutchinson, Hist. Cumb., II. 220. [Blacklead] is sometimes found in sops or floats, in a body without branches.
1855. Ht. Martineau, Engl. Lakes, 155. ‘Nests’ or ‘sops’ or ‘bellies’ of black lead are found in the greenstone.
