Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a lump; thus dollops of, lots of.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 393: The Laundress, who disdains to be termed a dry washer, dearly loves a dollop* of Ould Tom.
1833		‘The Stray Donkey’ in Lummy Chaunter 75: Till a dollop of blunt I have got, / Then another donkey I’ll buy.
1841		‘Ax My Eye’ Dublin Comic Songster 101: Of grub I stows a dollop in / My tripes at least four times a day.
c.1850		‘The Workhouse Boy’ in Henderson Victorian Street Ballads (1937) 42: A dollop of bones lay grizzling there.
1869		R.D. Blackmore Lorna Doone (1923) 19: The great blunderbuss [...] was chocked with a dollop of slough-cake.
1878		Besant & Rice By Celia’s Arbour III 190: Another dollop o’ that cold ham on the sideboard [...] would be very grateful.
1879		‘’Arry on Niggers’ in Punch 15 Mar. 113/2: To blow off the steam in your ear will, I feel, do me dollops of good.
1883		W.C. Russell Sailors’ Lang. 42: Dollop — A lump, a piece: as in ‘a dollop of duff’.
1897		Kipling ‘Slaves of the Lamp — Part I’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 68: Gum! Gum! Dollops of gum!
1914		R. Tressell Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 475: Chuck us over another dollop of that there white stuff, Bob.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 211: Someone did hand him a sample o’ England as she was – free – in the form of a dollop o’ mud.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 403: No dollop this but thick rich bonnyclaber.
1929		(con. c.1910) J.B. Booth London Town 306: A dollop of gum.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 319: As though he were a nigger [they] did not ask him in to dinner but sent a portion out to him on a tin plate. [...] He sat staring at the nigger’s dollop.
1939		(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 51: I’m really a woman an’ different in every way after gettin’ down me a dollop of tea.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 178: Get some action on them triflin’ legs o’ yourn, yu dollop o’ darkness.
1947		N. Marsh Final Curtain (1958) 109: A dollop of Emerald Oxide of Chromium.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 14: Scraping the cow dollop from his shoe.
1969		F. Norman Norman’s London 188: She sits perched on her stool [...] listening to juicy dollops of scandal.
1979		S. King Long Walk in Bachman Books (1995) 254: Like a dollop of glue.
1986		J. Campbell Gate Fever 46: Someone is stirring a massive dollop of mushy peas with a wooden spoon.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 148: He splodged a dollop of rancid yoghurt down her back.
2000		Observer Mag. 9 Jan. 49: Slap dollops of foam on to face, attack with a blunt blade.
2016		V. McDermid Out of Bounds (2017) 428: He was a smart man with a hefty dollop of paranoia in his make-up.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 176: ‘Big dollops of money’.

2. a large sum of money.

1847		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 24 Jan. 4/2: Those who had got the dollop, stuck to it like leeches.
1867		M. Lemon Golden Fetters II 70: ‘Two thousand pounds is a dollop.’ said Dick. ‘No security, I suppose?’.

3. a three-month sentence, i.e. a small ‘lump’ of time.

1860

Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).