Meanings of mere sop in English

The scientific part is a mere sop; it amounts to nothing.

The legislature was a mere sop to democratic prejudice, to pray over it heightened the travesty.

I called the Bill timid, narrow, a mere sop to the jealousies of sects and little-minded people.

After all, she was very young, and abnormal instincts may be quieted with a mere sop at the first.

I am tempted to believe the threat to arrest Fletcher was the last mutter of the declining tempest and a mere sop to Knappe's self-respect.