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Glite Dictionary
🍞 To absorb liquid 🧠 To take in
to sop up

to sop up

3.7
To take in liquid or things like information and feelings
  • phrasal verb
  • /sɑp ʌp/
translation icon : asumir
  • After the rain, I had to sop up the water that pooled in the kitchen.

They're all being sopped up by these major corporations.

Examples

  • I'm just quickly going over everything just to SOP up any extra product on there and to really give my skin a skin like finish.

  • They're all being sopped up by these major corporations.

    Dad Saves America

  • But running around just sopping up that that Jaff has isn't a good thing.

  • As if the bunch behind him, with their necks out like an ostrich farm, were sopping up.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Those programs that aren't even mentioned in the constitution and amount to a perpetual vote-getting machine for the crooks you try to tell us "CARE" about the poor, the downtrodden, the victims of evil capitalists whose money socialism is all too eager to sop up?

    Blog text (12)

  • He used a sponge to sop up the spilled juice on the counter.

  • She felt relieved as the therapist helped her sop up her feelings about the difficult situation.

Synonyms

to absorb
vsto sop up
217 3.0

To take in things such as liquid, light, or information

applies especially to liquids or feelings as well as ideas
to take in
vsto sop up
37 3.2

Understand new information or ideas

covers physical soaking as well as mental reception
to suck up
vsto sop up
22 4.3

To take in liquid or information

focuses equally on liquids, feelings, and figurative reception
to soak up
vsto sop up
  • Informal
16 3.9

To take in and enjoy the atmosphere or information

is more general and also used for short or light absorption
to imbibe
vsto sop up
9 7.4

Drink alcohol or absorb ideas and knowledge

is not about drinking but about absorbing liquids or feelings
to take up
vsto sop up
7 3.2

To soak up liquid or learn and keep new information

leans more toward absorbing liquids or feelings alongside ideas
to suck in
vsto sop up
7 3.6

To take in and hold something, like a sponge taking water

is gentler and can be figurative as well as physical
to soak up knowledge
vsto sop up
  • Informal
1 4.0

To take in new information quickly and easily

is broader, not limited to eager or quick learning situations
to sponge up
vsto sop up
1 3.7

To take liquid from a surface using something like a cloth

is less tied to a physical tool and more general
to osmose
vsto sop up
9.0

Slowly and without noticing, people get ideas or habits from others

is neutral about speed and can be fast or deliberate

How Thorough

to soak up
  • Informal
16 3.9
to sop up
3.7
to take in
37 3.2
to notice
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

sop up infinitive
sopped up past
sopped up past participle
sopping up present participle
sops up third person singular

Morphology

sop + up

The verb 'sop' denotes soaking/absorbing and the particle 'up' adds a completive/directional sense, so 'sop up' meaning 'to absorb liquid' is directly and compositionally derivable from the parts. This verb+particle pattern is common in English (and has clear parallels in many languages), so an average B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand the basic literal sense; figurative extensions (e.g. absorbing information) are metaphorical but follow transparently from the literal meaning.

Etymology

Sop up was first used for bread soaking up sauce, and people later used the same idea for learning or feelings: your mind or heart can 'sop up' facts and emotions like bread soaks sauce. So sop up can mean 'to absorb or take in' information or feelings.