mope
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
-
a person who mopes or is given to moping.
-
mopes, depressed spirits; blues.
verb
-
to be gloomy or apathetic
there's no time to mope
-
to move or act in an aimless way
he moped around the flat
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mopesimple
-
mopessimple
-
have mopedperfect
-
has mopedperfect
-
am mopingprogressive
-
are mopingprogressive
-
is mopingprogressive
-
have been mopingperfect progressive
-
has been mopingperfect progressive
Past
-
mopedsimple
-
had mopedperfect
-
was mopingprogressive
-
were mopingprogressive
-
had been mopingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mope
First recorded in 1560–70; variant of mop 2
Explanation
When you're bummed out, I bet you sometimes mope. Moping is something people do when they're feeling gloomy and doomy and sad. Moping never solved a problem, but we all do it when things aren't going our way. A moping person is usually frowning, slouched over, quiet, and maybe even lying down. We mope when we're sad, but part of moping is directed at other people, because moping is at least a little public. When someone says you're "moping around," they can tell you're trying to let everyone know how sad you are. To mope is to say "Hey! Somebody cheer me up!"
Vocabulary lists containing mope
"The Mixer," Vocabulary from the short story
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"The Open Window"
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"Sisters" by Raina Telgemeier
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The alternative is to mope and boo and there's no future in that.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2026
He’s since apologized, saying, “I do town halls all around the world, and as you know, I mope sometimes.”
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2025
On its surface level, however, “I Saw the TV Glow” is just about a mope.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2024
Why is it called “Uncle Vanya”? All the man does is mope, mope harder, try to do something other than moping, fail miserably and mope some more.
From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
“You’ll look like an idiot either way. Matt, she’ll rip the sweetness out of you, right through your rib cage. You’ll never be able to squeeze it back in there. Look at him mope now.”
From "Adrift" by Paul Griffin
He usually follows me around the house, and he mopes when I’m gone.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2022
“Maddie doesn’t listen to me,” she complains, then mopes.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 16, 2021
It seems cruel to send her off to live her final years with my in-laws because she gets sad and mopes when we’re not around.
From Slate ● Jan. 24, 2020
Foy’s favorite episode focuses on John and Jackie Kennedy visiting Buckingham Palace in 1961, contrasting the youth of the Kennedys with the royals’ middle-aged mopes, one couple embodying a new hope, the other a stagnation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2017
He mopes around the house, resdess, pretending to be coming down with a cold.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
“To ride a motorcycle or moped, you need to have the appropriate driver’s license and comply with rules of the road.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2026
Pulling up his laptop, Dallas shows off the art for a single: On a majestic winding Italian road, ian perches pensively on a white moped, in an all-white yacht outfit, barefoot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2025
Housed in a former moped shop, the Virgil Village store offers a selection of novelty items and streetwear treasures, curated by both Kurata and Staunton.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2025
Video footage captured by a visitor at the park showed the motorcycle being ridden away, flanked by two moped scooters.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2025
He sped the moped after the runaway horse, fighting to keep his seat as the tires caught on the edge of the road through town.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
He doesn’t respond to his various wake-up calls with stubborn defiance but a curiosity that shifts his moping into something akin to a geeky, fun-loving second adolescence.
From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2026
Instead of moping over the setback, Ohtani has started eyeing his next boundary-pushing maneuver: To be a leadoff hitter and high-leverage reliever in the same game.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2025
As macho as the protagonist of a Lifetime movie, moping like an adolescent and watching too much TV, Mr. White’s Springsteen is clearly depressed, but Mr. Cooper’s script doesn’t provide much illumination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
"I had to try and fill my time with something instead of spending all my time moping."
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2023
Mrs. Baylor must have noticed me moping around the house over the next few days because she pulled me aside and said, “You didn't get that part you was counting on, did you?”
From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
