Delope – to fire in the air in a duel

“There was a flash of fire, but Alexander realised the moment he shot that his opponent had deloped.”

This word came up on ‘Call My Bluff’ once, much to my amazement. I knew exactly what it meant, thanks to years of reading Georgette Heyer novels and the like. Again, beautifully specific in meaning – if you were obliged to duel with someone but you had no wish to hurt them, you could delope. I’ve never had the chance to delope, strangely enough – and I imagine you haven’t, either. But it is a splendid word (and I’m particularly fond of it because it has the same last five letters as my name: I also like antelope and elope for similar reasons!). It also sounds like something you might do if you had intended to elope with someone but then changed your mind at the last moment.