▪ I. mope, n.
(məʊp)
Also 6 moope.
[Related to mope v., from which senses 2 and 3 are derived.]
1. A fool; = mop n.1 1.
| 1540 R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) I viij, Nor thou shalt not thereof be reckoned the more moope and foole but the more wise. 1638 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iv. iv. (ed. 3) 142 They will be scoffing..till they haue made by their humoring or gulling, ex stulto insanum, a mope or a noddy. 1932 J. T. Farrell Young Lonigan vi. 259 They had a lot of pep, and weren't a bunch of mopes. 1962 E. O'Brien Lonely Girl i. 8 It happens to country mopes like you, as soon as you dance with a fellow. |
2. One who mopes; a gloomy, listless person.
| 1693 Humours Town 125, I shou'd grow the veriest Mope in the World, if I shou'd forsake this Town. 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 33 A Poet's form she plac'd before their eyes, No meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin. 1747 W. Horsley Fool (1748) II. 257 All dull and disconsolate, as the Mopes in Bedlam. a 1766 F. Sheridan Sidney Bidulph IV. 121 She is become such a mope, that she is really fit company for no one but herself. 1878 M. C. Jackson Chaperon's Cares xiii, She is no mope, only thoughtful and quiet. |
3. pl. the mopes; depression of spirits.
| 1825 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 944, I have got the mopes. 1838 Thackeray Yellowpl. Corr. iii, Master still in the mopes. 1845 P. Parley's Ann. VI. 199 If I go with my eyes fixed upon the ground, they say I have got the mopes, and am going mad. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 29 Mar. 3/2 If you did not take exercise you fell into a state of weakness and mopes, in which you were an easy victim to enteric. |
▪ II. mope, v.
(məʊp)
Also 6–7 moop(e, 7–8 moape.
[Of obscure origin; connexion with mop v.1 is doubtful. Cf. mop n.1, map v.2, mop v.3
In mod. dialects (see Eng. Dial. Dict.) the vb. has the senses ‘to wander about aimlessly’, ‘to grope’; among the dialectal forms are maup, maap, etc. The corresponding word is found in several Scandinavian langs.: cf. Sw. dial. mopa to look discontented, sulk, Da. maabe to be stupid or unconscious, to mope, Norw. maapa to lay about one wildly with a weapon, Bornholm måva to stand gaping, expecting something good. (MSw. mopa to befool seems to be more nearly connected with mop n.1)]
1. intr. ‘To be in a state of unconsciousness, to move and act without the impulse and guidance of thought’ (Schmidt). Obs. exc. dial. (see E.D.D.).
| 1568, 1593 [see moping ppl. a.]. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iii. vii. 143 What a wretched and peeuish fellow is this King of England, to mope with his fat-brain'd followers so farre out of his knowledge. 1602 ― Ham. iii. iv. 81 (1604 Qo.) What deuill wast That thus hath cosund you at hodman blind; Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight... Or but a sickly part of one true sence Could not so mope. 1610 ― Temp. v. 240 Euen in a dreame, were we diuided from them, And were brought moaping hither. |
2. a. To yield oneself up to ennui; to remain in a listless, apathetic condition, without making any effort to rouse oneself; to be dull, dejected and spiritless.
| c 1590 Greene Alphonsus iv. Wks. (Grosart) XIII. 395 And as for Mars..He moping sits behind the kitchen-door. 1676 G. Etherege Man of Mode v. ii, Sitting moping like Three or Four Melancholy Birds in a spacious vollary. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 2 ¶2 Here I sit moping all the live-long Night, Devour'd with Spleen, and Stranger to Delight. 1770 Foote Lame Lover ii. Wks. 1799 II. 73 For this fortnight he has gone about sighing, and musing, and moping. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. v, He's out somewhere, thinking of what is going on, instead of moping in the house. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. iii. 31 She was still moping and regretting the discarded lover. |
| fig. 1795 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Pindariana Wks. 1812 IV 164 See yonder cloud that mopes with mournful shade. |
b. quasi-trans. with away.
| 1791 C. Smith Celestina II. 227 Celestina has too much spirit and too much sense to mope away her youth and beauty. a 1792 Horne Disc. (1795) IV. xii. 279 His religion..directs him not to shut himself up in a cloister alone, there to mope and moan away his life. |
3. trans. To make dull, dejected, or melancholy. Now only refl. and in pass., to be the victim of ennui.
| 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. xii. lxxi. (1612) 297 Not moop't at home, but mapping Lands. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iv. iv. (1624) 134 Many men are vndone by this meanes, moped, and so dejected that [etc.]. 1681–4 J. Scott Chr. Life i. iv. (ed. 3) 283 It is doubtless a great Disgrace to our Religion to imagine..that it is an Enemy to Mirth and Chearfulness,..that men are never serious enough till they are mope'd into Statues. 1740 J. Clarke Educ. Youth (ed. 3) 140 Boys of mild..Tempers, must be dispirited, and moaped..by it. 1799 Mrs. J. West Tale of Times II. 94 The viscountess..urged her not to mope herself at home. 1803 J. Porter Thaddeus xxxvi, My father is moped to death for want of you both. 1881 M. E. Herbert Edith 16 Gordon could not compel her to remain at home and ‘mope herself to death’ as she expressed it. 1903 Longm. Mag. Apr. 494 Any one can see you are moped to death. |
4. To confine or shut up (in a place).
| 1863 A. D. Whitney Faith Gartney's Girlhood xvi. 140 The child shouldn't be moped up here, all winter! |