mope

[mohp]

verb (used without object)

moped, moping 

1. to be sunk in dejection or listless apathy; sulk; brood.

verb (used with object)

moped, moping 

1. to make dejected, listless, or apathetic.

noun

1. a person who mopes or is given to moping.

2. mopes, depressed spirits; blues.

mope

/ məʊp /

verb

1. to be gloomy or apathetic

   there's no time to mope

2. to move or act in an aimless way

   he moped around the flat

noun

1. a gloomy person

Other Word Forms

• moper noun
• mopingly adverb
• mopy adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of mope¹

First recorded in 1560–70; variant of mop ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of mope¹

C16: perhaps from obsolete mope fool and related to _mop ²

Example Sentences

For now, there was a fresh basket of superb bread every morning, no Gogolev moping about, and countless baby presents to knit.

Read more on Literature

Penelope sat up extra straight in her chair, much the way Miss Mortimer did when she was reminding the girls at Swanburne not to mope and complain.

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A Swanburne girl does not mope, as Penelope had been taught countless times, and so she tried her best to put the whole subject out of her mind and think of other, happier things.

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“Good girl; think of what we shall write to Nutsawoo. Surely he would be disappointed if we came all the way to London and did nothing but mope about the house.”

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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.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• brood 
• sulk