▪ I. † mop, n.1 Obs.
Forms: 4 mopp, 4–5 moppe, 5 mop.
[Of obscure origin: prob. related to mope v. and n.; and perh. also related to mop v.1
Cf. Du., LG. mop, mops, G. mops poodle, LG. mops blockhead.]
1. A fool. Cf. mope n. 1.
| 13.. Seuyn Sages (W.) 1414 Ther was a burgeis in this toun..That wolde spouse no nethebours schild, But wente fram hom as a moppe wild. He let his negheboures child for a vice, And wente from hem als moppe and nice. 13.. Evang. Nicod. 21 in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LIII. 392 Þis mopp, þat merres our men, calles him god son of heuen. c 1440 York Myst. xxxi. 196 This mop meynes þat he may marke men to þer mede. |
2. A playful term for a baby; in quot. 1440 app. a rag doll. Cf. moppet2 2.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 342/2 Moppe, or popyne [cf. ‘Popyne, chylde of clowtys’, ibid. 409], pupa, pusio. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xiii. 724 Hayll, lytyll tyne mop! 1598 Florio, Pupo..a daintie mop, a playing babie. |
▪ II. mop, n.2
(mɒp)
Also 5 mappe, 7–8 map(p, mopp, 9 dial. map.
[Late 15th c. mappe; the relation to the earlier mapple is not quite clear.
On the assumption that mapple is ad. L. mappula (dim. of mappa napkin) which may in monastic Latin have been used for ‘mop’, it would be possible that mappe is similarly a direct adoption of L. mappa. The ordinary hypothesis that the word is a. OF. mappe:—L. mappa involves the difficulty that the evidence for this OF. form is slender and doubtful, the Fr. representative of the L. word having been nap(p)e from the 11th c. Cf., however, mod. Walloon map table-cloth, mappe napkin (Remacle).
The form mop first appears in the 17th c. (cf. however moppet1, which is recorded much earlier), and may have been due to association with mop n.1 in the sense of ‘rag doll’. The W. Flem. moppe, a ship's mop (De Bo), may possibly be adopted from Eng.]
1. a. A bundle of coarse yarn or cloth fastened at the end of a stick and arranged so as to soak up liquid easily, used in cleaning floors, etc., and nautically for laying on pitch.
| 1496 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 174 Shepeskyns bought & spent abought makyng of mappes for layng on of piche Rosyn & talow uppon the seid ship. 1614 Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 169 A mapp: for the pulpitt, iiij d. 1623–4 Middleton & Rowley Sp. Gipsy ii. ii, Not such maps as you wash houses with, but maps of countries. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia 245 Thrums for pitch Maps. 1659 Torriano Ital. Dict., Pannatore, a maulkin, a map of clouts or rags to rub or cleanse withall. 1711 Tempest Cryes of London 28 Maids buy a Mapp. |
| 1665 Boyle Exp. Hist. Cold Postscr. 678 The water that was imployed to wash them, being thinly spread with a Mop, would presently congeal. 1709 Swift Morning in Tatler No. 9 ¶1 Now Moll had whirl'd her Mop with dext'rous Airs. 1801 M. Edgeworth Gd. Fr. Governess (1831) 200 A woman was twirling a mop at the door. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. xii, She was supposed to be..helping Molly the maid with the mop. 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Rubber Mop. The mop-head has a plate of thick rubber which is used as a scrubber or squeezer. |
b. (to be) mops and brooms: half-drunk.
It has been conjectured that this is an allusion to the drinking that took place at the hiring fairs (see mop n.5), at which the maids carried mops or brooms in token of the capacity in which they wished to be hired.
| 1814 Sporting Mag. XLIV. 188 ‘Now Tom, you're drunk!’ ‘No Dame not I, I'm only mops and brooms!’ 1858 S. Brooks Gordian Knot xxiv. (1868) 217 If I had married a wife, I don't think I should go home to her in a state of mops and brooms. 1891 T. Hardy Tess xxxiv. (1892) 288 There is not much doing now, being New Year's Eve, and folks mops and brooms from what's inside 'em. |
¶ c. (See quot.) ? nonce-use.
Halliwell 1847 gives ‘Mop, a napkin (Glo.)’.
| 1683 Snape Anat. Horse i. viii. (1686) 13 [The Caul is] called mappa ventris, the Map or Dish-clout of the Belly. |
d. Mrs. Mop(p: see 2 c.
2. transf. a. Applied to various small instruments resembling a mop, e.g. a circular pad of cloth, used in polishing silver with rouge; a brush used by gilders; a surgical instrument with a sponge or other absorbent substance at the end of a handle, for applying medicated fluids or for removing purulent matter, etc.
| 1869 Eng. Mechanic 26 Nov. 254/1 Trees..are painted in..with a tool called a gilder's mop. 1875 H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 100 It should be applied by means of a little mop, scrupulous care being exercised to prevent any of the acid from coming in contact with parts not protected. 1898 T. B. Wigley Art Goldsm. & Jeweller xv. 136 A ‘calico mop’ charged with a little rouge moistened with water. 1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 17 Dec. 1647 A Uterine Mop. |
b. nonce-use. An aspergillum.
| 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. i. xvii. II. 231 The mop, or hyssop, with which the Roman Catholic missionaries were wont to scatter the holy drops. Ibid. ii. vi. II. 513. |
3. A thick mass (of hair, occasionally of foliage).
| 1847 Halliwell, Mop, a tuft of grass. West. 1874 Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece (1898) I. xiv. 307 She had..a tempestuously frizzled mop of powdered hair. 1886 F. H. Burnett Lit. Ld. Fauntleroy vii, A little boy..with a splendid mop of bright waving hair. 1887 O. W. Holmes Hundred Days in Europe i. 32 Trees..feathered all the way up their long slender trunks with a lop-sided mop of leaves at the top, like a wig which has slipped awry. |
4. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attrib., as mop-cloth, † mop staff; mop-haired, mop-headed, mop-topped adjs.; b. objective, as mop-maker; c. special comb., as mop-board orig. U.S. (see quot. 1859); mop brush, a round paint-brush with a short thick head; mop-head, (a) the head of a mop; (b) a thick head of hair resembling a mop; also, a person having a ‘mop’ of hair; (c) a clamp for a mop-rag on the end of a handle (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); mop-nail (see quot. 1875); mop-squeezer slang, a housemaid.
| 1854 *Mop-board [see baseboard (base n.1 20)]. 1859 Bartlett Dict. Americanisms, Mop-board, the wash-board which extends around the floor at the base of the walls in the interior of a house, is so called in New England. |
| 1904 Westm. Gaz. 10 Sept. 14/2 Take a *mop brush and coat the paper quickly and evenly. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v. Mop-head, The *mop-cloth is clamped between toothed jaws. |
| 1924 L. Eckenstein Tutankh-aten v. 46 The..*mop-haired Syrian almost daily presented himself at the gate. |
| 17.. Sheridan (Hoppe), The fops at your end of the town, with *mop-heads and empty skulls. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet ch. xxiv, Benjie thrust in his mop head. 1878 H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. II. xvi. 426 Many adopt the mop head. |
| a 1625 Fletcher, etc. Fair Maid Inn ii. ii, As long as we kept the *Mop-headed butter-boxes sober. 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 68 The long hair'd Moors..and the mopheaded Papuas. 1862 H. Marryat Year in Sweden II. 354 Mop-headed junipers with myriads of unripe berries. 1891 Syd. Soc. Lex., Mop-headed, a term applied to those races of men with crisp or woolly hair, which is long and bristly, and grows into a round mass on the top of the head, as in Kafirs. 1900 M. Thorn in W. D. Drury Bk. Gardening xi. 360 Trees that are ‘mop-headed’, or top-heavy, should be supported by stakes. 1926 S. T. Warner Lolly Willowes ii. 85 She looked at the large mop-headed blossoms [sc. chrysanthemums]. 1934 Times Educ. Suppl. 3 Feb. p. iv/4 The autumn-flowering, mop-headed group of P[rimula] capitata. 1966 Gloss. Landscape Work (B.S.I.) iv. 15 Mop-headed, having naturally or induced a compact, rounded head, small in relation to the height of stem. 1972 Guardian 26 Jan. 9/6 Straight Jane Ltd..are now offering a Twist-n-Wring mop..with a head of the traditional type that gave mop-headed hair-dos their name. 1974 Sunday Express 21 Apr. 6/8 His mop-headed adventures are told in an oddly convoluted style and some will find them decidedly gooey. |
| 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6172/8 John Elston,..*Mopmaker. 1851 in Illustr. Lond. News 5 Aug. (1854) 119/2 Mop-maker. |
| 1841 S. Bamford Passages in Life of Radical I. xxxvii. 216 Some had been grinding scythes, others..screw-drivers, rusty swords, pikels, and *mop-nails. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Mop-nail, a flat-headed nail, used in securing a bunch of junk or rope-ends to a handle in making a mop such as sailors use. 1876 Aitken Brit. Manuf. Industr., Guns, etc. 34 Gate, pipe, plate, scupper, mop nails and spikes. |
| 1771 Misc. Ess. in Ann. Reg. XIV. 197/2 She looks like a *mop⁓squeezer. |
| 1718 Free-thinker No. 21. 146 A Wife has been trained up to handle a Broomstick or a *Mopstaff. |
| 1887 W. Rye Norfolk Broads 77 With its trimly-kept lawn, and *mop-topped rose trees. |
▪ III. mop, n.3
(mɒp)
Also 7 mopp.
[f. mop v.1]
A grimace, esp. one made by a monkey. Chiefly in phrase mops and mows.
| 1581 G. Pettie tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 32 b, The Ape..giueth himself to make vs laugh with his mops and mowes. 1621 Fletcher Wild Goose Chase iii. i, Heartily I hate these Travellers, These Gim-cracks, made of Mops and Motions. 1668 R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 29 Others they call'd Apes (and we Mimicks), these were perpetually making of Mopps and Mowes. 1710 Banbury Apes (ed. 4) 8 Truly, says the Mayor, there's sufficient witness that saw him make Mops and Mows at her. 1820 Marmaiden of Clyde in Whitelaw Sc. Ball. (1857) 92/2 Wi' mop an' mowr, an' glare an' glowr, Grim faces grin ower the waves. 1893 Stevenson Catriona iii, The mops and mows of the old witch. |
▪ IV. † mop, n.4 Obs.
Also 6 moppe, 7–8 mopp.
[Of obscure origin: cf. mop n.1, sense 2.]
In the combinations whiting-mop, gurnard-mop, a young whiting or gurnard. Hence (perh. with allusion to mop n.1) used as a playful appellation for a girl.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.) 229 In our triumphals calling familiarly vpon our Muse, I called her Moppe... Vnderstanding by this word (Moppe) a litle prety Lady, or tender young thing. For so we call litle fishes, that be not come to their full growth (moppes,) as whiting moppes, gurnard moppes. 1597 Lyly Wom. in Moon v. i, Pandora..louest thou Gunophilus? Pan. I, if he be a fish, for fish is fine; Sweete Stesias helpe me to a whiting moppe. 1607 Dekker & Webster Westw. Hoe D.'s Wks. 1873 II. 302 Do you hear, the whiting mop has nibled. 1624 Heywood Captives ii. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, Wheres my sweete? Not heare? no where? why, hoe, my whytinge mopp Late scapt from feeding haddocks. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Jacke-a-Lent Wks. i. 117/1 The Whiting, Rotchet,..and the Mop. 1758 Descr. Thames 222 The young Fish of this Sort are called by the Londoners Whiting-Mopps. |
▪ V. mop, n.5 dial.
(mɒp)
Also 8 mapp.
[Perh. short for mop-fair, f. mop n.2; for the reason for the name see quot. c 1830.]
The name in some districts for the annual fair or gathering at which servants are hired; a ‘statute fair’.
| 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 203 In the Northern part of Oxfordshire,..it has always been the custom at set times of year, for young people to meet to be hired as servants; which meeting, at Banbury they call the Mop; at Bloxham the Statute. 1743 in Noake Rambler in Worcs., A mapp will be held at the same time for the hiring of servants. 1797 Eden State of Poor I. 33 note, In Gloucestershire..servants continue to attend the mopp or statute, as it is called (i.e. Michaelmas fair), in order to be hired. c 1830 Mrs. Sherwood in Houlston Tracts III. No. 62. 3 It is an ancient custom..for servants out of place to assemble, once a year, in or near some great town, for the purpose of being hired. I have heard my mother say, that formerly each person carried a mop, or a broom, or a flail,..or some other badge denoting the office in which they desired to engage; but this was done away with before my time. In this assemblage, which is called a mop, persons in want of servants generally make their choice. 1859 All Year Round No. 29. 52 The provincial policeman had said that it was the Mop, or, as the officer pronounced it, the Mope-day. 1870 3rd Rep. Comm. Employm. Children, etc. Agric. 62 As many as 500 young men and women come to the great mop fair at Monmouth which takes place in May. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 13 Oct. 5/3 Stratford-on-Avon ‘mop’, said to be the largest statute fair in England, was held yesterday. |
▪ VI. † mop, n.6 Obs.—0
[Cf. maupe; R. Holme perh. mistook the application.]
= coalmouse.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 122/2 Crows, Pies,..Titmouses, Mopps, &c. do much hurt in Orchards. Ibid. 243/1 This..we in our Countrey call Tittimous, or Mop. |
▪ VII. mop, n.7 and int. U.S. slang.
(mɒp)
[Echoic; cf. bop n.2]
(See quots.)
| 1944 in R. S. Gold Jazz Lexicon (1964) 208 (tune-title) Mop mop. 1945 L. Shelly Jive Talk Dict. 15 Mop, the finale. 1947 Britannica Bk. of Year 840/2 Mop, slang, a word connoting surprise, anguish; a mild sort of ‘hubba, hubba, hubba’ (1944). 1952 B. Ulanov Hist. Jazz in Amer. (1958) xxv. 349 Such words as ‘mop!’ an exclamation of wide currency in the early forties which accurately described a musical device (the final beat in a cadence of triplets, usually bringing the release of a jazz composition to an end). 1959 Village Voice (N.Y.) 28 Oct. 13, I wait a while, eyes closed, and I look, mop! I'm in the bathtub, all alone. 1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 82 Mop, the last beat at the end of a jazz number with a cadence of triplets. |
▪ VIII. mop, v.1
(mɒp)
Also 6 moppe.
[Perh. imitative of movements of the lips: cf. Du. moppen to pout.]
intr. To make a grimace. Chiefly in phrase to mop and mow (cf. the older mock and mow).
| 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. xiv. 174 b, Too moppe and mowe, but not too speake. 1570 Levins Manip. 169/17 To moppe, maw, mouere labia. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. xxiii. 138 Whensoeuer a Crucifix stands mopping & mowing in the Church [etc.]. 1606 Rich Faults & nothing but F. 7 Marke but his countenance, see how hee mops, and how he mowes. 1655 tr. Com. Hist. Francion iv. 17 Fremond, drawing her mouth an inch and a half wider than ordinary, and mopping at him [etc.]. 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables x. 9 An Asse was so Hardy once, as to fall a Mopping and Braying at a Lyon. 1823 Byron Island iv. vii, Fantastic faces mop'd and mow'd on high. 1858 Merivale Rom. Emp. 1. (1865) VI. 206 He mops and mows, and shakes his palsied head. |
▪ IX. mop, v.2
(mɒp)
[f. mop n.2]
1. a. trans. To rub with a mop; to wipe or clean with or as with a mop. Also with out.
| 1755 in Johnson. 1812 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr., Baby's Debut vii, I wiped the dust from off the top, While Molly mopp'd it with a mop, And brushed it with a broom. 1898 Henley Lond. Types, Barmaid, And having mopped the zinc for certain years, And faced the gas, she fades and disappears. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Diseases xxiii. 375 The whole breadth of the abscess cavity, which he [i.e. Zancarol] mops out and stuffs with iodoform gauze. 1927 Motor Cycling 7 Dec. 104/2 With a successful chromium plate the finished surface is so hard that it cannot be buffed or mopped. |
b. slang. to mop the floor with: said of a combatant in whose hands his opponent is helpless.
| 1887 Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie i. iii. 1 Newcastle Jemmy! Muck: that's my opinion of him... I'll mop the floor up with him any day. 1897 Daily News 2 Oct. 6/2 James I. of England, was more Popish than Protestant; and the King of Spain mopped his floor with him. |
2. a. To wipe perspiration, tears, etc., from (the face, brow, etc.). Also rarely with up.
| 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1869) 67 Gambouge mopped his eyes with his handkerchief. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xi, The good-natured old body..who had pulled out a great yellow silk pocket-handkerchief, and was mopping up his face with great energy. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 4 As we mopped our brows at each other. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. xii, A boy pumped the cold water over him. This done, he..mopped his poll with his silk handkerchief. |
b. To wipe (perspiration, tears, etc.) from the face or brow.
| 1872 R. W. Buchanan Saint Abe & his Seven Wives i. 4 And mopping from his brow the sweat, The boy glanced round with teeth still set. 1907 Smart Set Apr. 18/2 She..mopped the hot tears from her face. |
3. mop up. To absorb, wipe up (water, etc.) with or as with a mop. Also fig. Various slang uses: To drink greedily; also with it; also, to eat greedily; to absorb, appropriate, get hold of (profits, etc.); to make an end of, slaughter; also Mil., to complete the occupation of (a district, etc.) by capturing or killing enemy troops left there (cf. quot. 1901); also absol. and transf.
| 1709 [E. Ward] Rambling Fuddle-Caps 10 Come, mop up the Batter you've trampl'd and stood in. 1781 P. Beckford Hunting (1803) 36 If water should remain,..it should be carefully mopped up. 1811 Lex. Balatron., To Mop up, to drink up. To empty a glass or pot. 1851–61 Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 203 If I gets inside I'll mop up 1s. if it's good company. Ibid. 250, I have seen the youngest ‘mop up’ his half-quartern as well as I did. 1888 Rider Haggard Col. Quaritch III. i. 2 As he mopped up the streaming blood with a sponge. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right xv, It seems they have been mopping up some rich surfacing. 1898 T. Troubridge in W. A. Morgan ‘House’ on Sport 393 The birds..come over in one's and two's, and are ‘mopped up’. 1899 Rider Haggard Farmer's Yr. 387 Afterwards this reverend gentleman very nearly slew me also in mopping up a low pheasant. 1901 Westm. Gaz. 18 Dec. 7/2 It is not to be expected..that a force, however large, will be able to ‘mop up’..a far smaller body of Boers in a short time. 1902 Wodehouse Pothunters i. 17, I hope your first man mops you up. 1915 A. Huxley Let. Dec. (1969) 88 It is up to you..to roll in the Texan subscriptions, while our agents..are..to mop up other corners of the dark continent. 1917 P. Gibbs Battles of Somme 295 Reserve battalions..came up behind to ‘mop-up’ the captured ground. 1920 M. A. Mügge War Diary of Square Peg 221 The second wave going over the top; it ‘mops up’, ‘cleans up’ the enemy's dug-outs. 1921 Wodehouse Indiscretions of Archie vii. 64 ‘Seacliff always had a—a tendency—a—a weakness—it was a family failing—’ ‘Mopping it up, do you mean? Shifting it?’ 1936 ― Laughing Gas iii. 37, I find you here, mopping up the stuff like a vacuum cleaner. 1938 Sun (Baltimore) 31 Oct. 4/1 Three fires..were reported to be under control with the fire-fighters ‘mopping up’ today. 1940 Times (Weekly ed.) 10 Jan. 7/4 While mopping up the ground captured, the Zouaves took five machine-guns, 2,000 rounds of ammunition, and 12 prisoners. 1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 30 May 33 The enemy was still fighting behind us but they would be mopped up in time. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 239 Membrane and vibrating panel absorbers..readily remove sound energy from the air at their resonant frequency and this is then mopped up within the absorber by various forms of damping. 1970 Toronto Daily Star 24 Sept. 1/7 King's troops were pursuing the fleeing rebels, mopping up. 1971 E. Afr. Standard (Nairobi) 13 Apr. 1/1 Troops were reported to be mopping up remnants of the..insurgents. 1973 Times 30 July 18/2 He also had to mop up the ensuing threatening chaos when prices rose much further than had been predicted. 1973 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) 7 Aug. 16/8 A perfect crossfield ball to Hay allowed the inside left to dribble to the by⁓line and cut it back, but Watson was on hand to mop up the danger. 1973 Times 27 Dec. 11/1 The Bank of England ‘mopped up’ a large surplus by selling Treasury bills to both houses and banks. 1974 Times 5 Apr. 16/4 While mopping up a Knickerbocker Glory or two we devised a new form of the old game. |
Hence mop-up n., a state of being ‘mopped up’. Also, an act of ‘mopping-up’.
| 1900 Doyle Gt. Boer War xv. 263 Better six battalions safely down the hill than a mop up in the morning. 1902 19th Cent. June 910 He was in for a mop-up this time. 1917 P. Gibbs Battles of Somme 296 The honour of the new attack was given to the ‘mop-up’ battalions behind. 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 2 Oct. 1/5 Men..known among the strikers as ‘mop-up gangs’ have committed depredations, beaten up a few loyal employees, and threatened and intimidated other employees. 1944 Sun (Baltimore) 29 Apr. 2 (caption) Sergt. Charles H. Wolverton..prepares to throw a hand grenade into a Japanese dugout during the mop-up of the Empress Augusta Bay area after 18 days of bitter fighting. |
▪ X. mop, v.3
variant of map v.2, to bewilder.
| c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 18204 The knyghtes that were In that hors stopped, Thei were nother mased ne mopped. |