Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A mixture of high-energy foods, such as nuts and dried fruit, eaten as a snack.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A loose mixture of dried fruit, nuts, frequently salt, and sometimes other ingredients; designed as an energy supplement while hiking, climbing, canoeing, etc.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1913 reference to the verb "gorp", meaning "to eat greedily". The occasionally theorised good old raisins and peanuts is probably a backronym.

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Examples

  • I remember the days when we used to call trail mix "gorp" and my aunt Melantha, one of the original hippies replete with unshaven legs and armpits and flowers in her hair, used to make it with carob instead of chocolate because that was the "natural" way.

    Politics Salon Staff 2010

  • I remember the days when we used to call trail mix "gorp" and my aunt Melantha, one of the original hippies replete with unshaven legs and armpits and flowers in her hair, used to make it with carob instead of chocolate because that was the "natural" way.

    Politics Mandee Tatum 2010

  • Back when I had little fat to draw on I needed a lot of calories to keep me going - during the day, gorp worked (raisins, peanuts, and M&Ms).

    what is the best food to keep you energized and alert while hunting big game? 2010

  • But then as the zombie virus spreads it seems they all get bruised looking eyes, blood and gore on their faces and they spit blackish or green gorp from their mouths, which might be blood or rotting guts or who knows.

    Movie Review: Zombieland « Colleen Anderson 2009

  • So, we slouched back to the bug, turned down the road, and pulled in to the campsite for the night, where we shared a hefty bag of gorp.

    Richard Bangs: Death Valley Daze, Part I Richard Bangs 2011

  • Back when I had little fat to draw on I needed a lot of calories to keep me going - during the day, gorp worked (raisins, peanuts, and M&Ms).

    what is the best food to keep you energized and alert while hunting big game? 2010

  • So, we slouched back to the bug, turned down the road, and pulled in to the campsite for the night, where we shared a hefty bag of gorp.

    Richard Bangs: Death Valley Daze, Part I Richard Bangs 2011

  • They snacked on gorp and water and, after refilling their bottles, moved on.

    Broken Symmetry Angela Brett 2010

  • WHY THAT'S GREAT NEWS: Even when the aliens spread out to the rest of the world, their mistaken first impressions will cause them to spin their wheels trying to liquidate humanity's "gorp reserves."

    Rob Kutner: Today's Sign of the Apocalypse: Little Green Measures 2008

  • Our older subconscious brain moves reflexively ( "We're hungry, eat that mushroom now"), while our newer prefrontal cortex struggles to catch up with other alternatives ( "Check your guidebook to see if it's poisonous or wait until we get to camp and eat some gorp").

    Faulty Powers 2008

  • GORP — shorthand for outdoor gear, for any beautiful BBSP newcomers out there — is bigger than any one fire garment.

    Are you wearing CURSED GORP?? Blackbird Spyplane 2020

Comments

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  • "She was still a puppy at the time ... the quintessential Alaskan mutt. Before we could break out the dog biscuits and gorp, there was a sudden release of the tremendous compressed energy that the ... glacier had exerted on the lake ice...."

    --Tom Yeager, "Marking Time With a Glacier," Newsweek, May 12, 2008, 17.

    May 15, 2008

  • A mixture of high-energy foods, such as nuts and dried fruit, eaten as a snack. Origin by acronym for "Good Old Raisins and Peanuts". (From WordCraft)

    May 20, 2008

  • Yay! I found a new rhymeless word today!

    March 11, 2016

  • Once sign for a number or pound

    Now hashtag and hex more abound.

    I pluck from this gorp

    The bright octothorpe -

    A name for a key sans a sound.

    March 11, 2016

  • whorp

    March 11, 2016

  • Oh.

    March 13, 2016

  • Yay! I found a new word with an obscure rhyme today!

    March 13, 2016

  • :-)

    March 14, 2016