mope
Americanverb (used without object)
-
mopes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
moped,
past participle, past
-
moping
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
mopes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
moped,
past participle, past
-
moping
present participle
noun
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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
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have mopedperfect
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has mopedperfect
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am mopingprogressive
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are mopingprogressive
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is mopingprogressive
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have been mopingperfect progressive
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has been mopingperfect progressive
Past
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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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"The Jacket"
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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:
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
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
According to the director, Roberts proceeded to mope through the casting process, which included readings with the likes of Russell Crowe, Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
But with its relentlessly recriminatory tone, it's often more mope opera than soap opera.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2023
For the rest of the afternoon, I mope around the house, until Mami sends me over to help Chucha move in.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
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
While David mopes around, wallowing in his angst, Georgia is a model of multitasking, caring for the kids, finishing a novel and, at one point, helping a friend give birth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2020
Rather than drive back home, Drew mopes around the property.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2020
Dad has started going to work again, but Mom mopes around the house.
From "Because of Mr. Terupt" by Rob Buyea
Simson's moped division puttered on after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall but eventually went bust in 2002.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
A ballroom dancer who coddles his pet rats—Fred and Ginger—Declan rides a moped that his colleague, Sara Xiu, describes as “that pitiful hair-dryer on wheels.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
“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
He said pursuits had to be considered carefully, giving an example of one moped rider spotted snatching multiple phones on Oxford Street.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2026
He moped around the Boston PIH office for a while, then went on a lecture tour, hitting small towns in Maine, Texas, Kansas, and Iowa, explaining the situation in Haiti to anyone who would listen.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Wainwright's wife, Cat Thompson, 53, said she liked that her husband was "just doing something rather than moping around the house all day".
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2026
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
The first morning after Westley’s departure, Buttercup thought she was entitled to do nothing more than sit around moping and feeling sorry for herself.
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
