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mop

Pronunciation: /mɒp/

The English word “mop” has 16 meanings listed here.

noun

  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.
  2. A wash with a mop; the act of mopping.
  3. A dense head of hair.
  4. An annual fair where servants were historically hired.
  5. A tassel worn in a buttonhole to indicate ones occupation in such a fair.
  6. A firearm particularly if it has a large magazine (compare broom, but still can be related to MP)
  7. Fellatio.
  8. A squeezable high-flow paint marker with an extra-wide felt or foam tip.
  9. A row of ropes dragged along the seabed for catching starfish.
  10. A drunkard.
  11. The young of any animal.
  12. A young girl; a moppet.
  13. A made-up face; a grimace.

verb

  1. To rub, scrub, clean or wipe with a mop, or as if with a mop.
  2. To shoplift.
  3. To make a wry expression with the mouth.

Etymology

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.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.