Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to go, to run, to run away.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 19: To lope in, alias to go in [...] To loap off, alias to get away.
1741		Canting Academy, or the Pedlar’s-French Dict. 116: To go away Brush or Lope.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxviii: To Lope off To Run away.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Loap, to run away.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: To Lope. To leap, to run away. He loped down the dancers; he ran down stairs.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1796].
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 114: Loap’d, run away.
1858		G.W. Harris ‘Sut Lovingood at Bull’s Gap’ N.Y. Atlas XXI Nov. in Inge (1967) 144: I loped ofen the stage waggin an put out at a peart lick towards the supper bell.
1861		Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 9 Nov. 216: Kinchins and cullies, all must have their bingo, / Keep the lush from them and they’ll lope, by jingo!
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 46: Lope, to be off.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 57: A-keepin’ of him from lopin’ off, is mighty likely to be a heap exhaustion.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 97: Billy Fat Belly and his Indians were loping down the canyon, trying to get in front of the fleeing animals.
1919		Perrysburg Jrnl (Wood Co., OH) 22 May 2/2: We could lope to where Roses bloom and the robins nest.
1927		B. Cormack Racket Act II: I told you we were nuts to lope out here.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 34: He stepped into his saddle and loped off in the direction of the Circle B ranch.
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 169: He [...] loped off fairly silently yet at considerable speed.
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 125: Buddy came lopin’ down the bar.

2. to steal.

1873

Sl. Dict. 218: To lope is also to steal. German, laufen.