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Glite Dictionary
💡 To appear suddenly 🏪 To visit quickly
to pop into

to pop into

9 4.1
Visit a place for a short time, often without planning
  • phrasal verb
  • /pɑp ˈɪntu/
  • Informal
: pasar por
  • I think I'll pop into the store on my way home to grab some milk.
  • pop into the kitchen
  • pop into a shop
  • pop into a store

So a few days ago I popped into my local Lush cosmetics store.

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Examples

  • A young man felt hungry, so he popped into a bakery and asked for a doughnut.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Wonder if I could ask you two to pop into the study for a second?

    Death at a Funeral (2007)

  • Be like just going to pop into the hotel, guys.

  • Oh whoa, did we just pop into like a professional photo studio?

  • l think l might pop into your class tomorrow.

    F (2010)

  • Like just walk down the Main Street of wherever you live and pop into a store you have never been in before.

  • Just pop into the fitting room.

    The Tailor of Panama (2001)

  • I'll pop into the surgery tomorrow.

    Saving Grace (2000)

  • I'm just gonna pop into the library and see if I can find any books on trucks.

    Barbie (2023)

  • Christie, I'm just going to pop into town.

    A Good Year (2006)

Synonyms

to walk in
vsto pop into
396 1.6

To enter a room or building by walking without knocking

focuses on brief unexpected visiting rather than the mode of entry
to drop in
vsto pop into
  • Informal
72 3.6

Visit someone without arranging it first

is briefer and usually unexpected rather than merely informal
to pop in
vsto pop into
  • Informal
25 3.4

To make a short informal visit to a place

is similar but stresses being unexpected rather than only informal
to call in
vsto pop into
  • UK
1 2.8

Pay a short, often unplanned visit to someone

is usually unexpected rather than just an unarranged short visit

Antonyms

to avoid
∞ 1.0

To stay away from something or not do it to stop something bad from happening

to stay away
590 1.6

Keep a distance from people or things you want to avoid

How Expected

to plan
∞ 1.0
to visit
∞ 1.0
to drop by
  • Informal
206 2.5
to pop into
  • Informal
9 4.1
to stumble
171 2.8

Surface Forms

pop into infinitive
popped into past
popped into past participle
popping into present participle
pops into third person singular

Morphology

pop + into

The sense 'to occur to someone suddenly' is directly built from 'pop' (to appear quickly) + 'into' (movement into). The motion-into-head metaphor is a simple, common composition (appear + move into) and is cross-linguistically familiar, so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the meaning.

Etymology

Pop into comes from the quick picture of someone popping their head into a room or shop for a moment, so it means 'to visit briefly and usually unexpectedly'.