Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. brandy; thus dop and dam, brandy and water.

1870		East Province Herald 13 Sept. n.p.: 250 hogsheads White Dop Brandy [DSAE].
1897		R.S.S. Baden-Powell Matabeleland Campaign 347: We had sufficient dop (Dutch brandy) to give every man a tot in which to drink the Queen’s health.
1900		B. Mitford Aletta 341: Shall I tell you what else I like? I like dop.
1902		A.G. Hales McGlusky 31: [He] noticed a man who had been present when he was sjamboked in Pretoria. [...] He pushed his flast of ‘dop’ on the burgher, and made his heart merry.
1913		C. Pettman Africanderisms.
1966		J. Bennett Hawk Alone 72: He turned to the bar. ‘Dop-’n-dam, please,’ he said [...] The barman poured him a brandy-and-water.
1990		R. Gool Cape Town Coolie 15: When I think of all that dop brandy in the cellar!
1990		R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart (1991) 294: I asked him in for a brandy [...] ‘Call you boy to the door, man, and I’ll give him a dop (a shot of spirits) too.’.
2009		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 2 Apr. 🌐 Dop-en-dam, on the other hand, has plenty of brandy in it at the ‘dop’ end. And the ‘dam’ part is tap-water.

2. whisky.

1941

C.R. Prance Tante Rebella and her Friends (1951) 127: Each of them must put a bottle of ‘dop’ or Hatherley Whiskey into the pool.

3. a drink, a tot; thus doppie, a little drink, a small one.

1950		Cape Times 17 June (Wkend Mag.) 5: The pay of the mailer is good [...] Added to this there is an occasional dop from both shebeener and customer [DSAE].
1959		A. Delius Last Division 75: Me and some old pallies from the war / Drank a few doppies to the old Cape Corps.
1962		A. La Guma Walk in the Night (1968) 27: Want a dop, Uncle Doughty?
1969		A. Fugard Boesman and Lena Act I: Quiet, hey! Let’s have a dop.
1982		P. Slabolepszy Sat. Night at the Palace (1985) 42: Maybe I should have a few dops before I go.
1984		P. Slabolepszy ‘Over the Hill’ in Mooi Street (1994) 73: I gotta have a dop.
1985		B. Simon ‘Outers’ Born in the RSA (1997) 43: I don’t drink flam. I’d rather make a plan for a decent dop even if it’s just a nippy.
1990		A. Dangor Z Town Trilogy 171: I just lus for a small dop. Celebrate the new year?
1996		CyberBraai Lex. at www.matriots.com 🌐 A dop is a drink, a cocktail, a sundowner, a noggin. If you are invited over for a dop, be careful. It could be one or two sedate drinks or a blast, depending on the company you have fallen in with.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 102: Dop meant any hot drink – coffee, tea, whatever.
2006		M. Orford Like Clockwork 140: My mother was a dronklap [...] who loaned my sister out to any ‘uncle’ who would buy her a dop.
2010		IOL News Online 12 Oct. 🌐 Everyone congregates in the bar [...] where good vibes flow as freely as the dop.

4. attrib. use of sense 3.

1988

S. Gordon Under the Harrow 160: They gazed at the evening line-up of the volkies, each with a jam tin to be half-filled with wine. This was the dop system whereby a daily wine ration was sometimes given in lieu of money.