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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mop.

An implement for washing floors or similar, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/mɒp/Received-Pronunciation/mɑp/General-American
  1. An implement for washing floors or similar, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A wash with a mop; the act of mopping.

    countable · uncountable
    He gave the floor a quick mop to soak up the spilt juice.
  3. A dense head of hair.

    countable · humorous · uncountable
    He ran a comb through his mop and hurried out the door.
  4. An annual fair where servants were historically hired.

    UK · West-Midlands · countable · dialectal · uncountable
  5. A tassel worn in a buttonhole to indicate ones occupation in such a fair.

    UK · countable · obsolete · uncountable
  6. A firearm particularly if it has a large magazine (compare broom, but still can be related to MP)

    Multicultural-London-English · countable · slang · uncountable
  7. Fellatio.

    slang · uncountable
  8. A squeezable high-flow paint marker with an extra-wide felt or foam tip.

    countable · uncountable
  9. A row of ropes dragged along the seabed for catching starfish.

    countable · uncountable
  10. A drunkard.

    countable · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mappe (also as mappel), perhaps 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 מַפָּה (mapá, “a map; a cloth”) (shortened from מַנְפָּה (manpah, “fluttering banner, streaming cloth”)). Doublet of map, nape, and nappe.

verb/mɒp/Received-Pronunciation/mɑp/General-American
  1. To rub, scrub, clean or wipe with a mop, or as if with a mop.

    transitive
    to mop (or scrub) a floor
    to mop one's face with a handkerchief
  2. To shoplift.

    US · slang
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mappe (also as mappel), perhaps 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 מַפָּה (mapá, “a map; a cloth”) (shortened from מַנְפָּה (manpah, “fluttering banner, streaming cloth”)). Doublet of map, nape, and nappe.

noun/mɒp/Received-Pronunciation/mɑp/General-American
  1. The young of any animal.

    UK · dialectal · obsolete
  2. A young girl; a moppet.

    UK · dialectal · obsolete
  3. A made-up face; a grimace.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English moppe (“fool, simpleton; derisive gesture; child, baby, doll”), of obscure origin, but compare Proto-West Germanic *mauwu (“pout, protruding lip”). Compare Low German mop, mops (“simpleton; pugnosed dog”), Dutch mop, mops (“pugnosed dog”), and the verb mope.

verb/mɒp/Received-Pronunciation/mɑp/General-American
  1. To make a wry expression with the mouth.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English moppe (“fool, simpleton; derisive gesture; child, baby, doll”), of obscure origin, but compare Proto-West Germanic *mauwu (“pout, protruding lip”). Compare Low German mop, mops (“simpleton; pugnosed dog”), Dutch mop, mops (“pugnosed dog”), and the verb mope.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.