gallop

[ gal-uhp ]
See synonyms for gallop on Thesaurus.com
verb (used without object)
  1. to ride a horse at a gallop; ride at full speed: They galloped off to meet their friends.

  2. to run rapidly by leaps, as a horse; go at a gallop.

  1. to go fast, race, or hurry, as a person or time.

verb (used with object)
  1. to cause (a horse or other animal) to gallop.

noun
  1. a fast gait of the horse or other quadruped in which, in the course of each stride, all four feet are off the ground at once.

  2. a run or ride at this gait.

  1. a rapid rate of going.

  2. a period of going rapidly.

Origin of gallop

1
1375–1425; late Middle English galopen (v.) <Old French galoper<Frankish *wala hlaupan to run well (see well1, leap) or, alternatively, verbal derivative of *walhlaup, equivalent to *wal battlefield (cognate with Old High German wal;see Valkyrie) + *hlaup run, course (derivative of the v.)

Other words for gallop

Other words from gallop

  • gal·lop·er, noun
  • outgallop, verb (used with object)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use gallop in a sentence

  • Nearly all the mutineers swung round and galloped headlong for the landward boundary of the paddy field.

    The Red Year | Louis Tracy
  • Felipe glanced at the horses, then driving his spurs deep into his horse's sides, galloped after them.

    Ramona | Helen Hunt Jackson
  • And presently we galloped across a mile or two of level grassland and pulled up on the very brink of Sage Creek canyon.

    Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair

British Dictionary definitions for gallop

gallop

/ (ˈɡæləp) /


verb-lops, -loping or -loped
  1. (intr) (of a horse or other quadruped) to run fast with a two-beat stride in which all four legs are off the ground at once

  2. to ride (a horse, etc) at a gallop

  1. (intr) to move, read, talk, etc, rapidly; hurry

noun
  1. the fast two-beat gait of horses and other quadrupeds

  2. an instance of galloping

Origin of gallop

1
C16: from Old French galoper, of uncertain origin

Derived forms of gallop

  • galloper, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012