glop

American  

[glop] / glɒp /

noun

Informal.

1. unappetizing food, especially of a semiliquid consistency.

2. any messy substance, especially of a semiliquid consistency.

3. sentimentality; mawkishness.

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Etymology

Origin of glop

First recorded in 1940–45; expressive word akin to goop ² gulp

Explanation

Glop is an unidentified blob of some damp, sticky, or slushy material. When you're walking down a city sidewalk, every once in a while you have to avoid stepping in some glop. If you don't like the looks of your oatmeal, you might describe it as glop, and your cat's stinky wet food is definitely glop — there's a distinctly distasteful implication to the word. You can also use glop to describe maudlin, overly sentimental poetry or movies: "I couldn't stand to watch that glop, so I turned off the TV." Glop came along in 1943, its sound imitating a ladleful of gummy gunk hitting a plate.

Example Sentences

It’s gloop and glop, with maybe more gloop.

From Salon • Jun. 8, 2026

Remove as much of the glop as possible with your fingers — that’s the best way to do it — and then transfer the seeds to a sieve or colander.

From Washington Times • Oct. 26, 2023

But mostly, Cronenberg jacks up his own career-long obsessions with glop and grunge and decay to fever pitch.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 27, 2023

Sometimes the glop is pale green or yellow, sometimes it’s deep red.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 31, 2023

A jelly-like, starchy-looking glop resulted from the lye and potatoes, and Shorty broke in the two eggs, stirring real fast— his own conk and dark face bent down close.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

Related Words

• goo
• grease
• gunk
• muck
• sediment
• silt
• slime