What is a lifeline? What is the dictionary definition of the verb SOP?

Question

1.) What is a lifeline? How is Angelou's use of word different from its usual use? How does this diction affect your inderstanding of the sentence?

2.) What is the dictionary verb of SOP? This word is not usually used to desrcibe a person's actions. What effect does this have on the reader?

"For nearly a year, I SOPPED around the house, the Store, the school, and the church, like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible. Then I met, or rather got to know, the lady who threw me my first LIFELINE.

Answer 1

1. in lamens terms a lifeline is a way out or a means to survive, angelou uses it to mean the lady gave her a escape from her current condition, yes it did because it subconsciously makes you interpret the first have as a bad situation that she needed to be rescued from...

2. webster's may say its the soaking up/ or drawing in of a substance, it is taking an a negative effect, almost interchangeable with the verb moaping or in other words "moved sluggishly"