soppy, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

soppy adj.

[? joc. use of SE sopping wet]

1. (UK teen) vapid, naïve, esp. romantic.

1890		Whitstable Times 3 May 7/6: Defendant said he had just seen some extracts from that soppy thing plaintiff called a catechism, and asked ‘whoever suckled him upon such bosh?’.
1898		H. Macilwaine Dinkinbar 19: ‘It’s the way the old hands talk about the boys fresh from home, Susie dear.’ ‘When they’re green and soppy.’.
1900		Marvel XIV:357 12: That soft-headed, soppy house wench.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 15 May 2nd sect. 12/8: For all their blasted tommy-rot / And all their soppy tripe, / There’s comfort in the wallop-pot, / And solace in the pipe.
1916		N. Douglas London Street Games 160: And our youngsters don’t want to be soppy fatheads.
1921		Western Morn. News 3 Nov. 3/5: [headline] Lady Astor Scorns ‘Soppy Idealists’.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 81: These Traverses seemed to be a pretty soppy couple of blighters.
1949		K. Amis letter 9 May in Leader (2000) 203: SILLY OLD DIPPY OLD SOPPY OLD DAPPY OLD POTTY OLD FOOLS.
1956		J. Osborne Look Back in Anger Act III: I’m a bit of a soppy, scruffy sort of a bear.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 56: Maybe lady Blazer isn’t as soppy as you, with your Chinese gardens.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 42: Of all the soppy families introduced to his notice the Bassetts took the biscuit.
1982		Beano 16 Jan. 4: Soppy Susan’s Dad’s a famous dancer.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 156: I don’t want any of that soppy shit.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 225: That’s why people live out here, yer soppy cunt.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] [A]fraid Davie was going to say something soppy.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 131: ‘I buy the soppy old bastard a beer’.

2. drunk.

1941

G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 123: One night ’e got a bit you-know, soppy, an ’e told me abaht ’is face.

In compounds

soppyballs (n.)

a general derog.; the implication is of stupidity.

1989

in G. Tremlett Little Legs 39: Soppyballs, McVicar, says to me, ‘Did you have it off?’.

soppy date (n.)

a naive, foolish person.

1935		G. Ingram Cockney Cavalcade 47: He’s a soppy date!
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 201: ‘Soppy date’, a ‘wet’, or a ‘drip’.
2001		(con. late 1940s) Violet Foot Sixteen Shillings And Tuppence Ha’penny 30: I jist told yer – yer soppy date!

soppy ha’porth (n.) (also daft ha’porth)

a fool, often used affectionately.

1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 120: One thing, when ’e does get a girl, it’ll be a good girl, one with some sense in ’er ’ead, not like the soppy ’aporths you run after.
1961		Dly Mirror 2 Mar. 14/2: [cartoon caption] Your’re soaking qwet / Why didn’t you wear your rain coat, you soppy ha’porth.
1998		Guardian 27 June 19/4: Idiot questions from onlookers were always answered [...] whether they were from daft ha’porth kids [...] or rich nit-wits.

In phrases

soppy on (adj.) (also soppy about)

obsessed with to a foolish extent.

1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 1115/1: [...] from ca. 1924.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 272: I’m soppy about you.
1960		J.R. Ackerley We Think The World Of You (1971) 101: ‘He’s soppy about her.’ ‘Soppy?’ ‘You know, sentimental.’.
1973		P. Wilson N.Z. Jack 123: She’s soppy on you all right.