Literary notes about sopping (AI summary)
The word “sopping” is used to impart an immediate, tactile sense of extreme wetness that affects both characters and settings. Authors often employ it in physical contexts—illustrating, for example, clothing so drenched that it must be discarded carelessly when soaked through [1] or a ship’s deck rendered nearly unworkable by the heavy, sopping rain [2]. At other times, “sopping” works metaphorically to amplify emotional states, as when a character wipes away tears with a handkerchief completely drenched in sorrow [3]. This recurrent descriptor not only establishes a vivid, almost palpable environment but also deepens the reader’s immersion by aligning external conditions with the internal atmosphere of the narrative [4, 5].
- Then he began to tear off his sopping clothes and throw them down into the dust at his feet.
— from One Woman: Being the Second Part of a Romance of Sussex by Alfred Ollivant - It was certain death for a man to attempt to stand upright upon the sopping deck, for the huge spar swung shoulder high.
— from The Slave of the Lamp by Henry Seton Merriman - I went alone, and I was so lonely; so miserable——" Katherine was weeping desolately and sopping the tears up with her delicate handkerchief.
— from Mam'selle Jo by Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa) Comstock - He was brought in, or more correctly carried in, by a sopping and tattered night-cabman.
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - A dry sail clinging to your legs and wrapping itself round your head is not pleasant, but, when the sail is sopping wet, it becomes quite vexing.
— from Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome
