mop
/mɑp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.39 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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
noun
A tassel worn in a buttonhole to indicate ones occupation in such a fair.
British usage; Countable; Obsolete; Uncountable
noun
A firearm particularly if it has a large magazine (compare broom, but still can be related to MP)
Countable; Slang; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "He gave the floor a quick mop to soak up the spilt juice."
- "He ran a comb through his mop and hurried out the door."
- "The hair is very peculiar, being harsh, dry, and frizzly, growing in little tufts or curls, which in youth are very short and compact, but afterwards grow out to a considerable length, forming the compact frizzled mop which is the Papuans' pride and glory."
- "I means to goo to th' mop, 'er sez, fur I waants a chahinge.[…]'T wuz to w:Muckley mop 'er went."
- "The Mop Fairs attracted the attention of moralists. The hiring system was seen as a means to acquire girls for prostitution; although there is no evidence that this occurred in Stratford, where girls plying for hire were generally accompanied by their formidable mothers."
- "Mop Fairs: Today's annual events are the modern version of the old hiring fairs, where people attended seeking employment or to change it. They are named after the practice of hopefully skilled employees carrying tassels, known as mops, in their buttonholes indicating their occupation. Those who had no trade carried a mop head. At the end of the following week, they could change employers or employees, at what was called the Runaway Mop."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /mɑp/
- British English: /mɒp/
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Humorous
- British usage
- Obsolete
- Slang
- Transitive verb
- American usage