mop

Borrowed from Walloon mappe (“napkin”), from Latin mappa (“napkin, cloth”). Believed to be from a Semitic source, variously claimed as Phoenician or Punic (the latter by Quintilian). Compare Modern Hebrew מפה‎ (mapá, “a map; a cloth”) (shortened from menaphah a fluttering banner, streaming cloth). More at map.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɒp/
• Rhymes: -ɒp
• (General American) IPA^(key): /mɑp/
• Rhymes: -ɑp

• Audio (US)

  (file)

mop (plural mops)

1. An implement for washing floors, or the like, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle.
2. (humorous) A dense head of hair.

   He ran a comb through his mop and hurried out the door.

3. (Britain, dialectal) A fair where servants are hired.
4. (Britain, dialectal) The young of any animal; also, a young girl; a moppet.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

5. A made-up face; a grimace.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

     What mops and mowes it makes! --

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 4 scene 1

     Before you can say 'Come' and 'Go,'

     And breathe twice; and cry 'so, so,'

     Each one, tripping on his toe,

     Will be here with mop and mow.

• mophead
• mop squeezer
• mop water

• German: Mopp

mop (third-person singular simple present mops, present participle mopping, simple past and past participle mopped)

1. (transitive) To rub, scrub, clean or wipe with a mop, or as if with a mop.

   to mop (or scrub) a floor

   to mop one's face with a handkerchief

2. (intransitive) To make a wry expression with the mouth.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

• MPO, OPM, PMO, POM, Pom, pom

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• Rhymes: -ɔp

mop m (plural moppen, diminutive mopje n)

1. a joke, jest

• grap

• Belgenmop
• Nederlandermop

mop m (plural mops, diminutive mopje n)

1. a mop (an implement for washing floors, etc.)

   Synonym: zwabber, dekzwabber

mop

1. first-person singular present indicative of moppen
2. imperative of moppen