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gallop

Pronunciation: /ˈgaləp/

Translate gallop | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of gallop

noun

[in singular]
  • the fastest pace of a horse or other quadruped, with all the feet off the ground together in each stride:the horse broke into a furious gallop [mass noun]:a mounted police charge at full gallop
  • a ride on a horse at a gallop:Wilfred went for a gallop on the sands
  • a very fast pace of running by a person: she ran after them at a gallop figurativeWest Ham began at the gallop
  • British a track or ground where horses are exercised at a gallop: Dancer fractured a foreleg on the gallops

verb (gallops, galloping, galloped)

[no object, with adverbial of direction]
  • 1(of a horse) go at the pace of a gallop: we galloped along the sand (as adjective galloping)the sound of galloping hooves
  • [with object and adverbial of direction] make (a horse) gallop: Fred galloped the horse off to the start
  • (of a person) run fast: Leota galloped in from the halfway line
  • 2proceed at great speed:don’t gallop through your speech
  • (of a process or event) progress in a rapid and seemingly uncontrollable manner:his life gallops headlong towards disaster (as adjective galloping)galloping inflation

Derivatives

galloper

noun

Origin:

early 16th century: from Old French galop (noun), galoper, variants of Old Northern French walop, waloper (see wallop)

Spelling rule

Do not double the final consonant when adding endings which begin with a vowel to a word which ends in a vowel plus a consonant, if the stress is not at the end of the word (as in target): (gallops, galloping, galloped).

gallop in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of gallop in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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