gallop

Meanings

1. The fastest gait of a horse, a two-beat stride during which all four legs are off the ground simultaneously.
2. An act or instance of going or running rapidly.
3. An abnormal rhythm of the heart, made up of three or four sounds, like a horse's gallop.
4. A rhythm consisting of an 8th note followed by two 16th notes, resembling a horse's gallop.

1. To run at a gallop.
2. To ride at a galloping pace.
3. To cause to gallop.
4. To make electrical or other utility lines sway and/or move up and down violently, usually due to a combination of high winds and ice accrual on the lines.
5. To run very fast.
6. To go rapidly or carelessly, as in making a hasty examination.
7. To progress rapidly through the body.

1. A surname.

Etymology

From Middle English galopen (“to gallop”), from Old French galoper (compare modern French galoper), from Frankish *wala hlaupan (“to run well”), from *wala (“well”) + *hlaupan (“to run”), from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to run, leap, spring”), from Proto-Indo-European *klaup-, *klaub- (“to spring, stumble”). Possibly also derived from a deverbal of Frankish *walhlaup (“battle run”) from *wal (“battlefield”) from a Proto-Germanic word meaning "dead, victim, slain" from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“death in battle, killed in battle”) + *hlaup (“course, track”) from *hlaupan (“to run”). More at well, leap, valkyrie. See also the doublet wallop, coming from the same source through an Old Northern French variant.