lope

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To travel an easy pace with long strides.

   He loped along, hour after hour, not fast but steady and covering much ground.

2. 2
   verb

   To jump, leap.

   And as he cam by a ryver, in hys woodnes he wolde have made hys horse to have lopyn over the watir; and the horse fayled footyng and felle in the ryver.

3. 3
   noun

   An easy pace with long strides.

   Hares have larger, leaner bodies, longer legs, and longer ears than the true rabbit. They also run with a lope instead of a hop. It is thought that they developed this more stream-lined body and swifter gait from running on the plains […].

4. 4
   noun

   a smooth three-beat gait

From Middle English lopen, from Old Norse hlaupa (“to leap, jump”). See leap. Cognate with German laufen (“walk, run”), Danish løbe (“run”), Dutch lopen (“walk, run”), Norwegian løpe (“run”). Doublet of leap.

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