lope

American  

[lohp] / loʊp /

verb (used without object)

• lopes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• loped,
  past participle,  past
• loping
  present participle

1. 

   to move or run with bounding steps, as a quadruped, or with a long, easy stride, as a person.

2. to canter leisurely with a rather long, easy stride, as a horse.

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verb (used with object)

• lopes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• loped,
  past participle,  past
• loping
  present participle

1. to cause to lope, as a horse.

noun

1. the act or the gait of loping.

2. a long, easy stride.

lope British  

/ ləʊp /

verb

1. (intr) (of a person) to move or run with a long swinging stride

2. (intr) (of four-legged animals) to run with a regular bounding movement

3. to cause (a horse) to canter with a long easy stride or (of a horse) to canter in this manner

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noun

1. a long steady gait or stride

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• loper
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• loping
  present
• loped
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• lope
  simple
• lopes
  simple
• have loped
  perfect
• has loped
  perfect
• am loping
  progressive
• are loping
  progressive
• is loping
  progressive
• have been loping
  perfect progressive
• has been loping
  perfect progressive

Past

• loped
  simple
• had loped
  perfect
• was loping
  progressive
• were loping
  progressive
• had been loping
  perfect progressive

Future

• will lope
  simple
• will have loped
  perfect
• will be loping
  progressive
• will have been loping
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of lope

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English verb lopen, loupen, laupen “to jump, leap,” from Old Norse hlaupa; see also leap, loup ² ( def. )

Explanation

Some words are fun to say: lope is one of them. It's also fun to think about, as it means to move with a casual, striding gait. Imagine a horse cantering along with an easy lope. A pleasant image indeed. Before 1825, the meaning of lope was in the line of a leap or springy jump. This comes from the Old Norse word hlaupa, which sounds like its English meaning, "to leap." This is similar to the Old Dutch lopen, "to run," and the Old English hlēapan, "leap," as well as the Scots loup, all related to the modern meaning: a long, striding gait with a little bounce to it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lope lopes loped loping

The only time I remember them speaking is a goodbye as he turns his back to lope down a hallway.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 2, 2026

We stroll, stride, plod, traipse, amble, saunter, shuffle, tiptoe, lumber, tromp, lope, strut and swagger.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 5, 2022

Well, you could start by giving Adam Driver the starring role, hiring Jon Hamm to lope in and out of otherwise stagnant scenes, and threading shocking flashbacks through the more arid patches.

From New York Times ● Nov. 14, 2019

Despite the double electrified fence, the scene looks almost primal as the apes lope like shadows through the lush, golden grass.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2018

As I watched, the small girl rose with her tray — unopened soda, unbitten apple — and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway.

From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer

In a wordless two-page spread, a dog lopes solemnly toward the pickle, trailed by a mournful earthworm.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

The NWS has warned that severe weather could return later this week as a storm lopes into the Great Lakes region over Friday and Saturday.

From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2024

What endures from those days is the sense of motion: A creature lopes through incongruous environments, often entering a spaceship that descends, hovers and ascends again.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 4, 2022

Once he’s gone — back with the grown-ups among the rusty waves of Richard Serra’s “Wake” — the rabbit lopes back out and resumes grazing, the picture of dignified ease.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 29, 2022

But he lopes along and says nothing except to ask people where Terenure is.

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt

We scared up a jackrabbit that loped off past blooming yarrow, then walked to within about 50 yards of his herd.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Since then, director Julie Taymor’s life-size puppets of elephants and rhinoceros, leopards and giraffes have loped onto the Broadway stage for the heart-stopping opener, “The Circle of Life,” on more than 9,750 evenings and afternoons.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2022

Then we waited a few more minutes while our kids loped back and forth between the hoops, not really communicating, before taking our charges home.

From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2022

The risk did not pay off - Russell ran wide at the second corner on his first attempt, put a wheel on the painted pit-exit line and loped into a slow spin.

From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2022

Trashman loped past with a T-bone steak in his teeth.

From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer

It has a twangy guitar, stately woodwinds and a loping groove that makes you feel like you’re nudging a herd of cattle through a mountain pass on a cloudless day.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

Wharton's loping, languid style may sometimes disguise a classy, fiercely competitive midfielder, but his England breakthrough has not arrived, despite going to Germany as part of Southgate's Euro 2024 squad.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2025

It was Wayne — America’s biggest movie star, the self-reliant enforcer, the loping lawman who set the world to rights by virtue of his unbending fortitude.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2025

“The Ballad of Paladin,” a loping instrumental, was used as the theme for the CBS television series “Have Gun — Will Travel.”

From New York Times ● May 1, 2024

The sound carried down the mountainside, and there was a rustling, a hiss and bubble of conversation, as two dozen sphinxes came loping back up it.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

Related Words

• gallop
• trot