Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A household implement made of absorbent material attached to a typically long handle and used for washing, dusting, or drying floors.
  • noun A loosely tangled bunch or mass.
  • intransitive verb To wash or wipe with or as if with a mop.
  • intransitive verb To use a mop to wash or dry surfaces.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A napkin.
  • noun A bunch of thrums or coarse yarn, or a piece of cloth, fastened to a long handle and used for cleaning floors, windows, carriages, etc. A smaller utensil of the same sort is used for washing dishes, etc.
  • noun Anything having the shape or appearance of a mop.
  • noun A statute fair to which servants of all kinds come to be hired by farmers and others.
  • noun A tuft of grass.
  • noun A wry mouth; a pout; a grimace.
  • noun A pouting person, especially a pouting child; hence, a pet child; a child; a young girl; a moppet.
  • noun A young fish. See the quotation under def. 2.
  • noun 4. The haddock.
  • noun A fool.
  • To rub or wipe with or as with a mop; clean with a mop.
  • To muffle up.
  • To drink greedily.
  • To make a wry mouth.
  • To fidget about.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To make a wry mouth.
  • noun A made-up face; a grimace.
  • transitive verb To rub or wipe with a mop, or as with a mop
  • noun 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.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A fair where servants are hired.
  • noun Prov. Eng. The young of any animal; also, a young girl; a moppet.
  • noun [U.S.] A clamp for holding the thrums or rags of a mop.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun 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.
  • noun humorous A dense head of hair.
  • noun UK, dialect A fair where servants are hired.
  • noun UK, dialect The young of any animal; also, a young girl; a moppet.
  • noun A made-up face; a grimace.
  • verb transitive To rub, scrub, clean or wipe with a mop, or as if with a mop.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make a sad face and thrust out one's lower lip
  • verb to wash or wipe with or as if with a mop
  • noun cleaning implement consisting of absorbent material fastened to a handle; for cleaning floors

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Early Modern English map, mop, probably shortening of Middle English mappel, ultimately (perhaps via Medieval Latin mappula, table cloth) from Latin mappa, towel, cloth; see map.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • Jane Smiley on housecleaning.

    February 1, 2008

  • in phonological parlance, the Maximum Onset Principle; in an utterance with many contiguous syllables, coda consonants will move to the right into available onset positions. Thus, when we say "a dozen eggs and four oranges", the syllable form is actually "a do ze negg zand fo roranges".

    June 14, 2009

  • I've never said "a dozen eggs and four oranges".

    June 14, 2009

  • It's a nice change from kippers

    June 14, 2009

  • but you will now, just to catch the MOP in action

    June 14, 2009

  • Yes, moppet.

    June 14, 2009