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mope

[mohp]
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verb (used without object), moped, mop·ing.
  1. to be sunk in dejection or listless apathy; sulk; brood.
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verb (used with object), moped, mop·ing.
  1. to make dejected, listless, or apathetic.
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noun
  1. a person who mopes or is given to moping.
  2. mopes, depressed spirits; blues.
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Origin of mope

First recorded in 1560–70; variant of mop2
Related formsmop·er, nounmop·ing·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for mope

Historical Examples

  • You have done nothing but mope about, and look as miserable as a boiled owl.

    Australia Revenged

    Boomerang

  • She must either submit to it or shut herself up and mope and not go out at all.

    Under Fire

    Charles King

  • The gardener said I was "off my feed," and his wife feared I should mope to death.

    Cat and Dog

    Julia Charlotte Maitland

  • Neglected and idle, he did not grumble; straitened and poor, he did not mope.

  • I should only mope here and fret, and come to no good, and give you no pride in me at all.

    Marjorie

    Justin Huntly McCarthy

British Dictionary definitions for mope

mope

verb (intr)
  1. to be gloomy or apatheticthere's no time to mope
  2. to move or act in an aimless wayhe moped around the flat
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noun
  1. a gloomy person
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See also mopes
Derived Formsmoper, nounmopy, adjective

Word Origin

C16: perhaps from obsolete mope fool and related to mop ²
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for mope

v.

1560s, "to move and act unconsciously;" 1580s, "to be listless and apathetic," the sound of the word perhaps somehow suggestive of low feelings (cf. Low German mopen "to sulk," Dutch moppen "to grumble, to grouse," Danish maabe, dialectal Swedish mopa "to mope"). Related: Moped; moping; mopey; mopish.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper