▪ I. † ˈmopish, a.1 Obs.
Also 7 moppish, 4 mop(p)isch(e.
[f. mop n.1 + -ish. (Sense 1 is akin to that of mope v. 1, though appearing much earlier.)]
1. Stupidly bewildered. Obs.
| c 1300 Beket 78 Heo..ȝeode aboute as a best that ne couthe no wysdom, As heo were of another wordle, that folc thicke ynouȝ To biholde such a mopisch best aboute hire ther drouȝ. 13.. St. Brandan 115 (Trin. Coll. Camb. MS.) Hu wende aboute as moppysche [Harl. MS. maskede] men that nuste wer hu were. |
2. Foolish.
| 1568 Hist. Jacob & Esau v. x. G iij, Yea mother, see that ye holde with that mopishe elfe. 1577 T. Kendall Flowers of Epigr. 107 As mopish Monkes and foolish Friers did weare most commonly. 1608–11 Bp. Hall Medit. & Vows ii. §51, I need not be so mopish as not to beleeue rather the language of the hand than of the tongue. 1609 Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 315 Presenting nothing worthy view but moppish toies, in ridiculous fables. |
▪ II. mopish, a.2
(ˈməʊpɪʃ)
[f. mope v. + -ish.]
Given to moping; causing moping; characterized by a weak melancholy; dejected.
| 1621 S. Ward Life of Faith 16 Why are many of thy followers so dead, so mopish, so melancholy? 1675 Howe Liv. Temple i. v, 'Tis a sad moapish disconsolate Temper, cuts off, and quite banishes all manly rational joy. 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. Suppl. Diss. Drama 18 Becoming stupid and mopish as well as sottish and foolish. 1889 Clark Russell Marooned (1890) 262 A woman who had been fretful and mopish. |
Hence ˈmopishly adv.; ˈmopishness.
| 1598 J. Dickenson Greene in Conc. (1878) 100 Tush (quoth he) thou art too scrupulous; this is not modesty, but mopishnesse. 1651 Bp. Hall Soliloq. xxix. Wks. 1808 VI. 359 Here, one mopishly stupid, and so fixed to his posture, as if he were a breathing statue. 1707 Sloane Jamaica I. p. cxiv, By degrees she fell into a perfect Mopishness or stupidity. 1859 C. S. Henry Dr. Oldham's Talks xi. (1860) 93 His mopishness vanished with his wife's return. 1879 M. E. Braddon Vixen III. 115 You have behaved mopishly of late. |