sop

plural sops · alternative obsolete soppe

1. countableuncountableSomething entirely soaked.

   The bounded Waters, / Should lift their boſomes higher then the Shores, / And make a ſoppe of all this ſolid Globe:

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], column 1

2. countableuncountableA piece of solid food to be soaked in liquid food.

   […]Hee it is to whom I ſhall giue a ſoppe, when I haue dipped it.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 13:26, column 1

   1 more example

   […]Sops in Wine, (Quantitie for Quantitie,) inebriate more, than Wine of it ſelfe.

   1631, Francis [Bacon], “VIII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, paragraph 726, page 182

3. abbreviationcountableellipsisfigurativelyuncountableEllipsis of sop to Cerberus, something given or done to pacify or bribe.

   As a sop, though, NATO leaders committed one of the LTDP [long-term defense program] task forces to an examination of tactical nuclear forces.

   2025, Sten Rynning, NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine, a History of the World's Most Powerful Alliance, page 123

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   Ill Nature, in fine, is not to be Cur’d with a Sop; but on the contrary, Quarrelſome Men, as well as Quarrelſome Currs are worſe for fair Uſage.

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] LXXXVIII. A Man Bit by a Dog.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 85

   The suggested petrification of the ship is a sop to gratify Poseidon and compensate him for a concession--the Phaeacians will not be cut off from the sea.

   1996, Bernard Knox, Introduction to Robert Fagles's translation of The Odyssey

   That agreement, with its lofty promises of “one country, two systems,” was a fig leaf, as most knew at the time — a sop to Western consciences guilty for condemning the people of Hong Kong to their ultimate fate as wards of Beijing. What is happening today is exactly what was predicted and exactly what Chinese leaders intended. Our outrage, while appropriate, is also embarrassing.

   2020, Robert Kagan, “China’s dangerous Taiwan temptation”, in Washington Post

   Conservatives have long had it out for Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, whose appointment they viewed as a sop to progressive diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

   2024 January 2, David A. Graham, “An Old-Fashioned Scandal Fells a New Harvard President”, in The Atlantic

4. abbreviationcountablederogatoryellipsisuncountableEllipsis of milksop, a weak, easily frightened or ineffectual person.
5. AppalachiacountableuncountableGravy.
6. countableuncountableA thing of little or no value.

   Here, in Barcelona, your streets are alive at night, you walk, you eat for hours, you interact, you share your minds. Americans watch their 91 channels of superficial satellite sop. The whole country and everything you've ever believed about it really functions only on the surface.

   1988 August 20, Rex Wockner, “Nobody Can Do It Like The USA”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 6, page 5

7. countableuncountableA piece of turf placed in the road as a target for a throw in road bowling.

present singular third person sops · participle present sopping · participle past sopped · past sopped

1. transitiveTo steep or dip in any liquid.

   A messe of milke sopt with white bread.

   1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 29

   2 more examples

   When I die, don't bury me deep, / Put a jug of 'lasses at my feet, / And a piece of corn bread in my hand, / Gwine to sop my way to the promised land.

   1928, Newman Ivey White, American Negro Folk-Songs, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, page 227

   So again let me say that sopping bread into gravy can be done properly merely by putting a piece down on the gravy and then soaking it with the help of a knife and fork as though it were any other food. But taking a soft piece of bread and pushing it under the sauce with your fingers, submerging them as well as the bread, or even wiping the plate with it would be very bad manners indeed.

   1945 December 27, Emily Post, “Sopping Bread May Be Done”, in The Spokesman-Review

2. intransitiveTo soak in, or be soaked; to percolate.

plural sops

1. abbreviationclippinginformalentertainmentClipping of soprano.

1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of State of Palestine.

plural SOPs

1. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableInitialism of sex on or over the phone.
2. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableInitialism of standard operating procedure.
3. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablebusinessInitialism of start of production.
4. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablebusinessInitialism of setting-out point.
5. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableInitialism of system/systems of provision.

   An in-depth political economy analysis using, for example, the system of provision (SOP) approach could reveal the magnitude of this potential block to phasing out coal.

   2020, P. Purnell, J. Millward-Hopkins, O. Zwirner, “Complex Value Optimisation for Resource Recovery (CVORR): Assessing the Systemic Impact of Multiple Low-carbon Decisions in the Interlinked Concrete-steel-electricity Sectors”, in Lynne E. Macaskie, Devin J. Sapsford, Will M. Mayes, editors, Resource Recovery from Wastes: Towards a Circular Economy (Green Chemistry Series; 63), London: Royal Society of Chemistry, →ISBN, section 4 (Circular Economy and Governance), page 373

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   As Lockie and Kitto (2000: 5) note, this important dimension is recognized by the SOP approach but they argue that it is “poorly developed in both theorisation and operationalisation.” Furthermore, production activities are privileged in SOP analysis as “determinants of consumption practices” and the “role of agency is marginalised” by giving primacy to structural tendencies in the shaping of SOPs (ibid.: 5).

   2012, David Goodman, E. Melanie DuPuis, Michael K. Goodman, “Bridging production and consumption: alternative food networks as shared knowledge practice”, in Alternative Food Networks: Knowledge, Practice, and Politics, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part I (Alternative food networks: reflexivity and shared knowledge practice), page 39

   The chapter then explores new directions for conceptualizing the relationship between production and consumption, including proposals to modify the GVC approach or to develop entirely different frameworks, as advanced by proponents of the system of provision (SOP) and global poverty chain (GPC) approaches.

   2019, Gavin Fridell, “Conceptualizing Political Consumerism as Part of the Global Value Chain”, in Magnus Boström, Michele Micheletti, Peter Oosterveer, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Political Consumerism, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part II (Theory and Designing Research on Political Consumerism), page 250

6. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableInitialism of sum of parts.

   a stock analyst might refer to a DCF (discounted cash flow), DDM (dividend discount model), EVA (economic value added), NAV (net asset value) or SOP (sum of parts) calculation. Comparisons can be made against the stock's historic[…]

   2010, Jeremy Bolland, Writing Securities Research: A Best Practice Guide, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 129

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   In like manner, the "not-SOP/ROP" complement of a system (SOP + ROP) is called the nature of the whole, or the organizing essence of a systemic whole. […] And it is there as an aspect of the whole which differs from the sum of parts (SOP) .

   1999, Grant Venerable, Managing in a Five Dimension Economy: Ven Matrix Architectures for New Organizations, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 19

   2002; Lamont and Polk 2002; Vilalonga 2004). They are therefore keen to establish that “sum of parts” (SOP) valuation gives a more realistic firm value. Acquirers which may buy the target and then unbundle it to divest some of the acquired[…]

   2012, David Faulkner, Satu Teerikangas, Richard J. Joseph, The Handbook of Mergers and Acquisitions, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 206

7. InternetabbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableInitialism of same-origin policy.
8. InternetabbreviationcountableinitialismInitialism of super operator (“an IRC user with special privileges”).
9. InternetabbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableInitialism of semen on picture.

plural SoPs

1. Alternative letter-case form of SOP (“system/systems of provision”).

   The SoP approach could help identify barriers, misconceptions, and societal attitudes toward nuclear power, which can impact the acceptance and adoption of SMRs.

   2025, Benito Mignacca, Federico Tassone, Giacomo Dei, Stefano Lorenzi, Giorgio Locatelli, Marco Enrico Ricotti, Paolo Trucco, “Small modular reactor deployment and a system of provision approach”, in Trevor M. Letcher, Vasilis M. Fthenakis, editors, Energy and Climate Change: Our New Future, London: Academic Press, →ISBN, part D (Nuclear energy), chapter 19 (Small modular reactors: economic, safety, and environmental aspects), page 495

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   In retrospect, it is worth mentioning that, going into the 1990s, the range of SoP applications expanded from private commodity consumption to public consumption—especially as the neoliberal drive to denationalize was peaking but being augmented by an accelerating pressure for privatization through new forms of state/private partnerships.

   2020, Kate Bayliss, Ben Fine, “Insights from Operationalizing the Systems of Provision Approach”, in A Guide to the Systems of Provision Approach: Who Gets What, How and Why, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, Introduction, page 75

   The SoP analysis seeks to connect the financing, funding, governance, production, and use of public services and allows for a comprehensive analysis of broader distributional implications of particular formations across the financing, funding, governance, production, and consumption nexus.

   2021, Maria Jose Romero, Elisa Van Waeyenberge, “Beyond typologies: what questions should we be asking?”, in Jasmine Gideon, Elaine Unterhalter, editors, Critical Reflections on Public Private Partnerships (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, chapter 3 (Beyond typologies: What is a Public Private Partnership?)

2. Alternative letter-case form of SOP (“sum of parts”).

   All my price-targets are a blend between DCF and Sum of the Parts (SoP). So for all of our stocks, we have one DCF value and one SoP value and the price target is between these two.

   2008 fall, Shahed Imam, Richard Barker, Colin Clubb, quoting a technology analyst, “The Use of Valuation Models by UK Investment Analysts”, in European Accounting Review, volume 17, number 3, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge Journals on behalf of the European Accounting Association, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 526

   2 more examples

   WiG-SoP? / [ECOSYSTEM (science)] Yes (unequivocal) emergent hierarchical / SCALE / [MANAGEMENT (governance)] No (< SoP?) reductionist sectoral […] WiG-SoP = Whole is Greater than Sum of Parts; […]

   2006, Bruce G. Hatcher, Roger H. Bradbury, “Marine ecosystem managements: is the whole greater than the sum of the parts?”, in Donald R. Rothwell, David L. VanderZwaag, editors, Towards Principal Oceans Governance: Australian and Canadian Approaches and Challenges (Routledge Advances in Maritime Research), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part IV (Ecosystem-based management), page 210

   Of the different measures, the unadjusted or “clean” market-consistent values best reflected both the analysts’ Sum of Parts (SoP) valuation (−50%) and the actual average share price development (−45.5%) for the firms from year-end 2007 to 2008. […] It was also substantially much, much more flattering than the average decline in analyst SoP valuations (−64.4%) and the actual average share price decline (−57.7%) for the companies in this group.

   2015 August 10, Thomas C. Wilson, “Evidence from the Insurance Industry”, in Value and Capital Management: A Handbook for the Finance and Risk Functions of Financial Institutions (Wiley Finance Series), Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, →ISBN, part 2 (Better Information – Measuring Value), chapter 6 (Valuing Financial Services – The Evidence), page 87