1
: an easy natural gait of a horse resembling a canter
2
: an easy usually bounding gait capable of being sustained for a long time
Examples of lope in a Sentence
Verb
The horses loped easily across the fields.
He went loping up the hill.
The outfielder loped after the ball.
Recent Examples on the Web
Daniel Bromfield, SPIN, 7 June 2024
Horses used the warning track to stretch their legs, ranging from a walk to a trot, maybe even a lope.
—Kirk Kenney, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Jan. 2024
Recounting this memory at the house in Braddock, Fetterman pauses our conversation and lopes back to the bedroom to retrieve the Post-its.
—Molly Ball, Time, 20 July 2023
The pop mélange builds to a lope then decelerates for the chorus, all while retaining enormous swagger.
—Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 12 May 2023
Reum, a boyish and buoyant Midwesterner in navy sweats, lopes into the room to check on his wife.
—Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 14 Mar. 2023
That impression is compounded when a lone wolf lopes into the frame, the blood on its snout indicating a recent kill.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Feb. 2023
Stalking the thrust stage of the Griffin Theater at the Shed with an awkward lope, his mouth fixed in a perpetual grimace, Fiennes applies a hypnotic antiheroic varnish to the man who remade New York’s byways, parklands and beachfronts.
—Peter Marks, Washington Post, 2 Nov. 2022
In between construction sites, Riddle turned his head to watch a coyote lope across the road.
—Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 29 June 2022
Lewis Gordon, Vulture, 1 May 2024
Maserati was loping along at a similar pace, and Lamborghini—just born—made fewer than 100 cars a year after its founding.
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 14 May 2024
As Patrick lopes through the film intruding into people’s space with his strength and his shameless habit of stealing their snacks (and dropping his shorts), Guadagnino over-indulges in close-ups of O’Connor scrunching up his mouth in a put-on smirk.
—Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2024
Camels appeared, strolling elegantly in loping slow motion, like elderly promenaders.
—Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Mar. 2024
Through it all, Bear happily lopes along beside me.
—Michael Charboneau, Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2024
If this weren’t sad enough, the clanging piano chords—loping around in circular motion—taunt her dead-end state.
—Joshua Minsoo Kim, Rolling Stone, 28 Feb. 2024
The footage shows skiers nonchalantly turning back and forth across a groomed trail when a bruin is seen loping across the slope on the left-hand side.
—Sage Marshall, Field & Stream, 14 Dec. 2023
In the distance, the Mustang Mountains loped across the horizon.
—Gina Decaprio Vercesi, Travel + Leisure, 27 Oct. 2023
Noun
Kaytranada’s signature beat, halfway between the pulse of house and the drunken lope of J Dilla, rarely lets up.
—Daniel Bromfield, SPIN, 7 June 2024
Horses used the warning track to stretch their legs, ranging from a walk to a trot, maybe even a lope.
—Kirk Kenney, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Jan. 2024
Recounting this memory at the house in Braddock, Fetterman pauses our conversation and lopes back to the bedroom to retrieve the Post-its.
—Molly Ball, Time, 20 July 2023
The pop mélange builds to a lope then decelerates for the chorus, all while retaining enormous swagger.
—Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 12 May 2023
Reum, a boyish and buoyant Midwesterner in navy sweats, lopes into the room to check on his wife.
—Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 14 Mar. 2023
That impression is compounded when a lone wolf lopes into the frame, the blood on its snout indicating a recent kill.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Feb. 2023
Stalking the thrust stage of the Griffin Theater at the Shed with an awkward lope, his mouth fixed in a perpetual grimace, Fiennes applies a hypnotic antiheroic varnish to the man who remade New York’s byways, parklands and beachfronts.
—Peter Marks, Washington Post, 2 Nov. 2022
In between construction sites, Riddle turned his head to watch a coyote lope across the road.
—Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 29 June 2022
Verb
Each element, including the exaggerated architecture that teems with unearthly detail and strangely loping electronic score, reinforces her own shaky perspective being reforged in real-time.
—Lewis Gordon, Vulture, 1 May 2024
Maserati was loping along at a similar pace, and Lamborghini—just born—made fewer than 100 cars a year after its founding.
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 14 May 2024
As Patrick lopes through the film intruding into people’s space with his strength and his shameless habit of stealing their snacks (and dropping his shorts), Guadagnino over-indulges in close-ups of O’Connor scrunching up his mouth in a put-on smirk.
—Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2024
Camels appeared, strolling elegantly in loping slow motion, like elderly promenaders.
—Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Mar. 2024
Through it all, Bear happily lopes along beside me.
—Michael Charboneau, Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2024
If this weren’t sad enough, the clanging piano chords—loping around in circular motion—taunt her dead-end state.
—Joshua Minsoo Kim, Rolling Stone, 28 Feb. 2024
The footage shows skiers nonchalantly turning back and forth across a groomed trail when a bruin is seen loping across the slope on the left-hand side.
—Sage Marshall, Field & Stream, 14 Dec. 2023
In the distance, the Mustang Mountains loped across the horizon.
—Gina Decaprio Vercesi, Travel + Leisure, 27 Oct. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lope.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near lope
Cite this Entry
“Lope.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lope. Accessed 2 Jul. 2024.
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