# gallop
## 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 *hlaupaną (“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: /ˈɡæləp/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Homophone: Gallup

### Noun

gallop (plural gallops)
* The fastest gait of a horse, a two-beat stride during which all four legs are off the ground simultaneously.
* An act or instance of going or running rapidly.
** 2013 March 18, The "Girls" Roundtable, “The 'Girls' Season-Finale Gut Check: And Hannah Lived Happily Ever After?”, in The Atlantic‎:Charlie and Marnie fought at brunch and then confessed their undying love for each other; Ray got promoted by his coffee-shop boss and then dumped by his croissant-purse-toting girlfriend; and Hannah, with a deadline looming, her OCD blaring, and all her friends elsewhere, desperately FaceTimed Adam—who took a shirtless, rom-commy gallop across Brooklyn to meet her.
* (cardiology) An abnormal rhythm of the heart, made up of three or four sounds, like a horse's gallop.
* (music) A rhythm consisting of an 8th note followed by two 16th notes, resembling a horse's gallop.
    A gallop rhythm: Audio playback is not supported in your browser. You can download the audio file.

#### Derived terms

* Canterbury gallop
* Gallipoli gallop
* Gish gallop
* hand gallop

#### Translations
### Verb

gallop (third-person singular simple present gallops, present participle galloping, simple past and past participle galloped)
* (intransitive, of a horse, etc) To run at a gallop.
    The horse galloped past the finishing line.
* (intransitive) To ride at a galloping pace.
** a. 1631, John Donne, Epithalamion Made at Lincoln's Inn:Gallop lively down the western hill.
* (transitive) To cause to gallop.
    to gallop a horse
* (ambitransitive) 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.
* (intransitive) To run very fast.
** 2012 September 15, Amy Lawrence, “Arsenal's Gervinho enjoys the joy of six against lowly Southampton”, in the Guardian‎:In the 11th minute the German won possession in midfield and teed up the galloping Kieran Gibbs, whose angled shot was pushed by Kelvin Davies straight into the retreating Jos Hooiveld.
* (figurative, intransitive) To go rapidly or carelessly, as in making a hasty examination.
** a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC: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, […]
* (intransitive, of an infection, especially pneumonia) To progress rapidly through the body.

#### Derived terms

* agallop
* galloper
* gallopingly
* outgallop