different between gallop vs slouch

English

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 *hlaupan? (“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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æl?p/
• Homophone: Gallup

Noun

gallop (plural gallops)

1. The fastest gait of a horse, a two-beat stride during which all four legs are off the ground simultaneously.
2. An abnormal rhythm of the heart, made up of three or four sounds, like a horse's gallop.

Derived terms

• Gish gallop

Translations

Verb

gallop (third-person singular simple present gallops, present participle galloping, simple past and past participle galloped)

1. (intransitive, of a horse, etc) To run at a gallop.

2. (intransitive) To ride at a galloping pace.
   • a. 1631, John Donne, Epithalamion Made at Lincoln's Inn

     Gallop lively down the western hill.

3. (transitive) To cause to gallop.

4. (transitive, intransitive) 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.
5. (intransitive) To run very fast.
6. (figuratively, intransitive) To go rapidly or carelessly, as in making a hasty examination.

   • Such superficial ideas he may collect in galloping over it.

   • 1847, Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

     Soon after breakfast Miss Matilda, having galloped and blundered through a few unprofitable lessons, and vengeably thumped the piano for an hour, in a terrible humour with both me and it, because her mama would not give her a holiday, […]

7. (intransitive, of an infection, especially pneumonia) To progress rapidly through the body.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English slugge, from Old Norse slókr (“a slouching, lazy fellow”), cognate to Swedish sloka (“to wilt, slouch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sla?t??/
• Rhymes: -a?t?

Noun

slouch (plural slouches)

1. A hanging down of the head; a drooping posture; a limp appearance

   He sat with an unenthusiastic slouch.

2. Any depression or hanging down, as of a hat brim.

   The plant hung in a permanent slouch.

3. Someone who is slow to act.
   • 2014, Ian Jack, "Is this the end of Britishness", The Guardian, 16 September 2014:

     In any case, Scotland has been no slouch at national invention. The Greek temple to commemorate James Thomson wasn’t the only monument raised by the 11th Earl of Buchan, who was a friend and neighbour of Walter Scott, and as great a romancer in his obsession with ruins, battlements and fancy dress.

4. (dated) An awkward, heavy, clownish fellow.

Derived terms

• slouch hat

Translations

Verb

slouch (third-person singular simple present slouches, present participle slouching, simple past and past participle slouched)

1. (intransitive) To hang or droop; to adopt a limp posture

   Do not slouch when playing a flute.

2. (intransitive) To walk in a clumsy, lazy manner.

   I slouched to the fridge to see if there was anything to eat.

3. (transitive) To cause to hang down or droop; to depress.
   • 1896, Duncan Campbell Scott, In the Village of Viger (page 107)

     […] then he slouched his head down on the table and pretended to sleep.

   • 2012, Kim Vogel Sawyer, When Hope Blossoms (page 281)

     Disappointment slouched him into the pew.

References