loop through vt. To process each element of a list of things. Hold on, I've got to loop through my paper mail. Derives from the computer-language notion of an iterative loop; compare cdr down (under cdr ), which is less common among C and Unix programmers. ITS hackers used to say IRP over after an obscure pseudo-op in the MIDAS PDP-10 assembler (the same IRP op can nowadays be found in Microsoft's assembler).