gallop. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

gallop

SYLLABICATION:	gal·lop
PRONUNCIATION:	glp
NOUN:	1a. A natural three-beat gait of a horse, faster than a canter, in which all four feet are off the ground at the same time during each stride. b. A fast running motion of other quadrupeds. 2. A ride taken at a gallop. 3. A rapid pace: Events were proceeding at a gallop. 4. Medicine A disordered rhythm of the heart characterized by three or four distinct heart sounds in each cycle and resembling the sound of a galloping horse. Also called cantering rhythm, gallop rhythm.
VERB:	Inflected forms: gal·loped, gal·lop·ing, gal·lops
TRANSITIVE VERB:	1. To cause to gallop. 2. To transport at or as if at a gallop: gallop the mail to the next station.
INTRANSITIVE VERB:	1. To ride a horse at a gallop. 2. To move or progress swiftly: Summer was galloping by.
ETYMOLOGY:	From Middle English galopen, to go at a gallop, from Old French galoper, of Germanic origin. See wel-¹ in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS:	gallop·er —NOUN


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.