different between mop vs mopping

English

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 ???? (mapá, “a map; a cloth”) (shortened from menaphah a fluttering banner, streaming cloth). More at map.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m?p/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /m?p/
• Rhymes: -?p

Noun

mop (plural mops)

1. 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.
2. A wash with a mop; the act of mopping.

3. (humorous) A dense head of hair.

4. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) A fair where servants are hired.
5. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) The young of any animal.
6. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) A young girl; a moppet.
7. A made-up face; a grimace.

   • What mops and mowes it makes! --

   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 4 scene 1

     Before you can say 'Come' and 'Go,'

     And breathe twice; and cry 'so, so,'

     Each one, tripping on his toe,

     Will be here with mop and mow.

8. (African-American Vernacular, MLE, slang) A firearm particularly if it has a large magazine (compare broom, but still can be related to MP)

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:firearm

Derived terms

• mophead
• mop squeezer
• mop water

Descendants

• German: Mopp

Translations

Verb

mop (third-person singular simple present mops, present participle mopping, simple past and past participle mopped)

1. (transitive) To rub, scrub, clean or wipe with a mop, or as if with a mop.

2. (intransitive) To make a wry expression with the mouth.
3. (US, slang) To shoplift.
   • 2013, Martha Gever, ?Pratibha Parmar, ?John Greyson, Queer Looks (page 111)

     By “mopping” (stealing) the clothes and accessories necessary to effect their look, or by buying breasts, reconstructed noses, lifted chins, and female genitals, the children turn traditional ideas of labor around: […]

Translations

References

• (fair where servants are hired): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

• MPO, OPM, PMO, POM, Pom, pom

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?p/
• Hyphenation: mop
• Rhymes: -?p

Etymology 1

The now-obsolete sense brick, attested from the 17th century, appears to be the oldest, with the sense cookie following in the 18th century. The exact relationship between the various later senses is unclear. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

mop m (plural moppen, diminutive mopje n)

1. a joke, jest
2. a tune, melody
3. a type of cookie
4. (endearing, often in the diminutive) a woman or girl
5. (obsolete) a brick

Usage notes

• The use as an affectionate term of address is often as a diminutive, and specifically in the non-standard form moppie. The standard diminutive mopje is never used for this sense.

Synonyms

• grap

Derived terms

• Belgenmop
• kloostermop
• moppenboek
• moppentrommel
• Nederlandermop

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English mop.

Noun

mop m (plural mops, diminutive mopje n)

1. a mop (an implement for washing floors, etc.)

   Synonym: zwabber, dekzwabber

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

mop

1. first-person singular present indicative of moppen
2. imperative of moppen

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?p??

Verb

mopping

1. present participle of mop

Noun

mopping (plural moppings)

1. The process of cleaning with a mop.
   • 2013, Evelyn I. Funda, Weeds: A Farm Daughter's Lament (page 32)

     Even as it buckled over the years and the nail heads at the edges popped up and rusted from repeated moppings, that floor symbolized her unyielding independence.

2. An application of molten asphalt to a roof etc.

See also

• hot-mop

Anagrams

• pomping