Gloppen

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To be in fear; gaze in alarm or astonishment; look downcast Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal, intransitive

    ""O Job! if you will help me," exclaimed Mary, brightening up (though it was but a wintry gleam after all), "tell me what to say, when they question me; I shall be so gloppened,* I shan't know what to answer." / *Gloppened; terrified."

  2. 2
    To terrify; astonish; surprise. Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal, transitive

    "A pause before the intense guy cut in: "The Word of the Day is gloppen. Verb, transitive and intransitive. … One. To surprise or astonish. Two. To be startled or astonished. Gloppen.""

Example

More examples

""O Job! if you will help me," exclaimed Mary, brightening up (though it was but a wintry gleam after all), "tell me what to say, when they question me; I shall be so gloppened,* I shan't know what to answer." / *Gloppened; terrified."

Etymology

From Middle English glopnen, from Old Norse glúpna (“to frighten, grieve, look downcast”), from Proto-Germanic *glupnōną (“to frighten, cause to stare”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰlub(ʰ)- (“to yawn, gape”). Cognate with Icelandic glúpna (“to put to shame”). More at glope.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.