▪ I. bop, n.1 colloq.
(bɒp)
[Echoic.]
= pop n.1 2 a.
| 1937 Hemingway To Have & Have Not iii. x. 149 Harry..heard the bop-bop-bop-bop, small and hollow sounding in the wail of the siren. 1942 ‘B. J. Ellan’ Spitfire! xv. 82 Shells seemed to be exploding very close to us although the familiar ‘bop’ was inaudible. |
▪ II. bop, n.2 orig. U.S.
(bɒp)
1. = bebop. Also attrib. Hence ˈbopper, ˈbopster = bebopper.
| 1948 Language Mar. 132 People in Chicago use rebop and bop for the same kind of music. 1948, 1955 [see bebop]. 1948 Sat. Rev. 25 Dec. 48/2 It is, in the words of bop hepsters, real crazy. 1950 J. Vedey Band Leaders p. xi, The BBC has not been lacking in fostering its development, even to the point of broadcasting Bop—most advanced of all jazz forms. Ibid. 27 He [Harry Roy] is an acknowledged past master at the art of Bop-Scat singing. 1951 M. L. Wolf Dict. Arts 573/1 Be-bop and bop, its adherents..are known as bopsters. 1957 New Yorker 26 Oct. 174/2 One of the leaders of an increasingly fashionable school of modern jazz called..‘hard bop’ or ‘funky’ is Horace Silver. Ibid., The hard-boppers employ a heavy or sharply accented beat, a florid, staccato attack, and a hardness of timbre that is in direct contrast to the soft, inky sounds of the cool school. 1962 Radio Times 10 May 42 Hard bop, aggressive, neurotic brand of bop, with a delinquent, flick-knife cutting edge. 1965 G. Melly Owning-Up vi. 66 A whole row of the audience raised, during Bruce Turner's first alto chorus, a long banner reading ‘go home dirty bopper’. |
2. A dance to pop music; a party or other occasion for this style of dancing. colloq.
| 1956 G. P. Kurath in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 107/1 Jitterbugging..after the forties..took the name of Bop, no matter what music was used. 1970 H. E. Roberts Third Ear 4/2 Bop, a dance. 1982 Barr & York Official Sloane Ranger Handbk. 97/1 Couples meet at bops or know each other from London. |
▪ III. bop, v.1
(bɒp)
[Echoic; cf. bop n.1]
1. trans. a. (See quot.) dial.
| 1887 Parish & Shaw Dict. Kentish Dial. 16 Bop, to throw anything down with a resounding noise. |
b. colloq. To hit, strike, punch. orig. U.S.
| 1931 D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) vi. 117 Dave the Dude reaches across the table and bops One-eyed Solly right in the mouth. 1937 ‘E. Queen’ Door Between iii. xv. 158 If the doc hadn't been on a ship..when she was bopped, I'd say he did it himself. 1938 Wodehouse Summer Moonshine xv. 181 I'll bop you over the head with this chair. 1948 C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incid. 8, I can use it [sc. a football] to bop them on the head. |
2. intr. To fight. So ˈbopping vbl. n. and ppl. a. U.S. slang.
| 1958 Daily Tel. 8 Apr., Bop, to fight. Bopping club, a fighting gang. 1958 Life 28 Apr. 78 You gotta go on bopping (gang fighting) and hanging around street corners all your life? 1959 Listener 29 Jan. 201/2 The ‘turf’ of a well-known ‘bopping club’—and that means the small area of pavement and street called their own by a well-known fighting gang. 1959 H. E. Salisbury Shook-up Generation iii. 49 Arms and armament..are not a problem for bopping gangs. |
▪ IV. bop, v.2 colloq.
(bɒp)
[f. bop n.2]
intr. a. To play bop music, or in the style of this. b. To dance to pop music.
| 1947 in R. S. Gold Jazz Lexicon (1964) 33 [Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra] He beeped when he shoulda bopped. 1962 Down Beat 6 Dec. 23 We all started bopping. 1976 New Musical Express 17 Apr. 12/3, 27 year old Alan Longmuir now feels he is ‘too old’ to bop. 1979 J. Cooper Class (1980) vi. 145 The conference gang, on the other hand, bop until their thatched hair nearly falls off. 1983 Daily Tel. 31 May 28/5 A pumpkin-shaped female bopped furiously. |