dop, noun
/dɔp/
- Forms:
- Also with initial capital.
- Plurals:
- dops, doppe /ˈdɔppə/.
- Origin:
- South African Dutch, DutchShow more South African Dutch, from Dutch dop husk, shell.
1. A container or lid.
a. Any more-or-less bowl-shaped or spherical object, as a bowl, husk, shell, skull, etc. Cf. doppie sense 1 c.
1841 B. Shaw Memorials 144I here engage, before God and his people, that the dop (part of a calabash which serves as a cup) shall no more pass my lips.
1978 J. Hobbs Darling Blossom 57Another thing about Dumbo, he scorns to wear a crash helmet (what he calls a dop)...He reckons nobody’s gonna catch him looking like a..pampoen.
b. Usually in pl. : Grape-skins, the residue which is left after grapes have been pressed for wine-making; doppie sense 1 b.
1909 E. London Dispatch 18 May 5It is a fair assumption that ‘Dops’ are at present responsible for an output of from 500,000 to 600,000 gallons per annum.
1988 J. Taylor in Inside S. Afr. July 31Now you must work fast and take off the skins. This is where a press would come in handy. If you haven’t got one then you will have to resort..to wringing the doppe out in sacking with your bare hands.
2. noncount. a. In full dop brandy: i. In historical contexts. A brandy distilled from the grape-husks left after grapes have been pressed for wine-making, and usually aged in wood; Cape dop (see sense c below); cf. witblits sense b. ii. transferred sense Any brandy; see also Cape brandy. b. transferred sense. Any spirituous drink. Also attributive.
1870 E. Prov. Herald 13 Sept.250 hogsheads White Dop Brandy,..40 hogsheads Fine Old Boer Brandy, 10 hogsheads Cango Brandy.
1991 Best of S. Afr. Short Stories (Reader’s Digest Assoc.) 92Used as a general term for a tot or a drink, especially of spirits, ‘dop’ more specifically refers to brandy.
c. historical. With defining word, Cape dop: dop brandy, see sense 2 a i. Also attributive.
1896 Johannesburg Weekly Times 8 Aug. 8Several samples of whiskies, Cape dop, and Cape brandy were examined.
1972 Sunday Times 23 Apr. (Mag. Sect.) 4The canteens carried a surprisingly large range of goods — from Cape ‘dop’ and ‘mampoer’ to imported liquors.
3.
a. colloquial. A drink; a quantity of alcohol; a ‘tot’ of spirits; doppie sense 3. Cf. sopie.
1950 Cape Times 17 June (Weekend Mag.) 5The pay of the mailer is good...Added to this, there is an occasional dop from both shebeener and customer.
1993 S. Gray in Weekly Mail & Guardian 5 Nov. 48As a newcomer I was stood my first complimentary dop of the local mampoer — 75 percent proof, not a degree less.
b. With defining word: overdop, an extra quantity of wine given to workers under the tot system (see tot noun2 sense 2).
1952 ‘Mr Drum’ in Drum June 8When there is extra work or they have to work at week-ends, they are given an extra tot or ‘overdop’ as an incentive.
c. combinations
1987 Cape Times 17 Apr. 4The outdated and obviously wrong practices such as the dop system have been discarded by most farmers a long time ago.
1991 J. Platter in Sunday Tribune 19 May 18Important wine authors in Britain..always included the Dop system among specific anti-apartheid aversions. Let’s hope the Dop will be history soon.
4. In the noun phrase dop en dam, also dop and dam, dop-en-dum, dop-’n-dam /ˌdɔpənˈdam/ [Afrikaans, dop brandy + en and + dam ‘dam’ i.e. water], (a drink of) brandy and water.
1964 D. Marais I Like it Here (cartoon)Take that filthy stuff (sc. whisky) away and bring me a good, honest dop-en-dam.
1990 Personality 27 Aug. 12If a man walks into a pub now and asks for a dop and dam, they look at you as if you’re mad. You have to spell it out: ‘Brandy and water, you fool?’
A container or lid.
Any more-or-less bowl-shaped or spherical object, as a bowl, husk, shell, skull, etc.
Usually in pl. :Grape-skins, the residue which is left after grapes have been pressed for wine-making; doppie sense 1 b.
A brandy distilled from the grape-husks left after grapes have been pressed for wine-making, and usually aged in wood; Cape dop (see sense c below);
Any brandy;
Any spirituous drink. Also attributive.
A drink; a quantity of alcohol; a ‘tot’ of spirits; doppie sense 3.
, tot system (see tot noun2 sense 2)
In the noun phrase dop en dam, also dop and dam, dop-en-dum, dop-’n-dam /ˌdɔpənˈdam/ [Afrikaans, dop brandy + en and + dam ‘dam’ i.e. water],(a drink of) brandy and water.
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