Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) to hit.

1915		Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/1: Boped [sic] on bean — To get hit on head.
1920		A. Baer Puttin ’Em Over 24 Aug. [synd. col.] The Yanks have bopped almost 80 home runs this season.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Romance in the Roaring Forties’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 32: Dave the Dude reaches across the table and bops One-eyed Solly right in the mouth.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 123: ’E fell aht of a pear-tree, and the branches ’ad sort of bopped ’im as ’e come froo ’em.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 210: The kid who [...] bopped him in the hallway and took his whole goddam pushcart.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 8: Mortimer, who had been bopped by the best, ducked.
1962		(con. 1953–7) L. Yablonsky Violent Gang (1967) 94: ‘Come on, man, let’s go boppin’.’ Then we would go and look for guys to beat up.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 146: Jay and I had to defend ourselves and we booped a few beaks.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 35: So [...] I don’t bop her a couple, like I would like to.
1983		T. Paulin ‘From the Death Cell: Iambes VIII’ in Liberty Tree 53: Someone / bops a tight balloon against the window-panes.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 41: Yes you just like to bop him please? Not on the head you might kill him. Just tap him in the belly or somewhere.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 203: Choko McGruder nearly got bopped by Heavy Harold.
2000		F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 123: She saw him looking at her bruise. She grinned cheekily. ‘I got bopped by a champagne cork.’.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 57/1: It was [...] the biggest knock down drag-out in the history of Oz rock concert violence [...] one thousand people are supposed to have been bopping into each other.
2023		J. Jackson Pineapple Street 120: Brady playfully bopped Georgiana on her bum with his racket.

2. (US) to have sexual intercourse.

1930		F. Jaxon ‘You Got to Wet It’ 🎵 If you bip it and bop it and tell us too bad jim / The next day you’ll be minus of your vigor and vim.
1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 9: Boppin’ yer dingus on ol’ Sweet Slit Annie.
1989		Eble Campus Sl. Mar.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 41: Additional examples can be found in many subject areas, particularly in terms for [...] sex (boff, bong, bonk, bop, bump uglies, grub, and pork).

3. (orig. US) to kill.

1934		B. Appel Brain Guy (1937) 87: How many saps had been bopped because they thought they were wise?
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 83: It’s kind of goddamned lucky for you I didn’t bop Geiger.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Dead Don’t Dream’ in Hollywood Detective July 🌐 It [i.e. drugged whisky] caused him to fall and bop himself.
1951		P. Whelton In Comes Death 71: If Mauriel was bopped on some other street, okay, but there’s no sense to his being on Frog Lane Road.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1983		(con. 1940s) D. Nobbs Second From Last in the Sack Race 69: He liked it best when people bopped Huns.
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] She reckon they never bopped their bro’.

4. (orig. US, also bap) to walk, esp. in a carefree, bouncy way.

1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] He had been lone top dog on the turf, walkin and bopping the way he wanted.
1959		‘Gator (U. Fla.) Sl.’ AS XXXIV:2 154: With all plans made clear [...] it’s time to boo out, bop off, or ease on (make a parting gesture).
1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 72: Bop on over. And tell her to snap it.
1969		B. Beckham My Main Mother 146: Walking abreast but moving around [...] Leaning to one side and swinging one arm, the other in their pockets. I mean, bopping.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 83: I just bopped into the house.
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 126: I bopped past my own compartment.
1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 65: Six teenage boys bop through wearing rabbit-ear hats, crooked caps, or hooded parkas.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 3: Check Miss Thing boppin’ down the street.
2002		L.K. Johnson ‘Double Scank’ in Mi Revalueshanary Fren 4: I site breddah Buzza / bappin in style / comin doun front line.
2007		T. Dorsey Hurricane Punch 165: I bop on out to the manatee-viewing platform.
2011		G. Knight Hood Rat 139: They are always bopping, walking like one of their legs is broken, slanting to one side.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Adjusting his sag as he slow-bopped to the car.
2017		Harlem Spartans ‘Kennington Where It Started’ 🎵 Flip flops when I bop in Harlem.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 108: Bimz starts bopping off, doing his lean walk.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 3: Violated victims bop by my cell.

5. (US) to fight (with a weapon); thus bopping n., fighting.

1953		F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 92: He wants no bopping on our side.
1958		Life 28 Apr. 78: You gotta go on bopping (gang fighting) and hanging around on street corners all your life? [W&F].
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 85: You guys wanna bop? Is that what you want? War?
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 30: I [...] hung round with a crew up there setting fire to mansions early in the morning and bopping skinheads.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 312: The Owls bopped from the mid-’30s to the early ’40s.

6. (orig. US) to dance; thus bopping n., dancing.

1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 4: The stash begins to rock the band starts hopping, the real gone hits the floor and starts bopping.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 87: Boppin and sloppin A wild party.
1971		B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 115: They bopped in unison [...] each dancing in his casual, habitual orbit.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Go West Young Man’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] She was bopping the night away in a pair of jodhpurs.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 163: A throng of people, mainly big-bummed girls, were bopping away.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Nov.
1999		Guardian 2 July 21: Wear what you like, bop or lie down, eat or be sick.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 39: Hardly a thousand people were milling about, crowding the bars or bopping on the dance floor.

7. (orig. US) to ride, i.e. a bicycle or car.

1980

M. Thelwell Harder They Come 202: Cagney bopped his bronc [i.e. bicycle] through the traffic, eyes alert for the carelessly placed wallet or purse.

8. (orig. US) to look for someone to seduce.

1997–2000

College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Bop (verb) To look for someone of the opposite sex.

9. (US) to move at speed.

2008		W.D. Myers Sunrise Over Fallujah 90: [T]he 4th Marines were bopping around Baghdad.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] [H]e’s on call, having to bop out whenever Darnell needs him.