mope

See also: море (Cyrillic)

English

Etymology

Of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish mopa (“to sulk”), Danish måbe. Compare also German muffen, French moue.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊp/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /moʊp/
• Rhymes: -əʊp

Verb

mope (third-person singular simple present mopes, present participle moping, simple past and past participle moped)

1. (intransitive) To carry oneself in a depressed, lackadaisical manner; to give oneself up to low spirits; to pout, sulk.
2. (transitive) To make spiritless and stupid.

Derived terms

• mope about
• mope around
• moper
• mopery
• mopey

 

Translations

be depressed

• Catalan: defallir (ca), desanimar-se (ca), marfondre's (ca)

  Mandarin: 懶散的／懒散的

• Chinese:
• Czech: být jako tělo bez duše impf, být sklíčený impf
• Hungarian: búslakodik (hu), szomorkodik (hu), búsul (hu)
• Italian: piangersi addosso
• Maori: wherū
• Slovak: zhrýzať sa
• Spanish: desanimarse (es)
• Swedish: deppa (sv) (informal)

Noun

mope (plural mopes)

1. The act of moping

   When she gets upset, she has a little mope, and then gets over it.

2. (archaic) A dull, spiritless person.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     putting gulleries on some or other till they have made by their humouring or gulling ex stulto insanum, a mope or a noddy

   Synonym: mopus

3. (pornography industry) A bottom feeder who "mopes" around a pornography studio hoping for his big break and often does bit parts in exchange for room and board and meager pay.
   • 2011: LA Weekly, documenting uses dating to the 1990s

     The porn industry is many things. Subtle is not one of them. So when Porn Inc. went searching for a job title for people like Stephen Hill, the choice was "mope." It's based on the off-camera life of these fringe actors, hangers-on who mope around the studios hoping for a bit role, which if they're lucky might bring them $50 plus food — and the chance to have sex with a real, live woman.[1]

See also

• mope-eyed

Anagrams

• poem, pome, poëm

Sranan Tongo

Etymology

From Kari'na mope.

Noun

mope

1. hog plum, Spondias mombin

Descendants

• → Dutch: mopé

Yola

Etymology

Cognate with English mope.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔːp/

Noun

mope

1. fool, astonished
   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 12, page 88:

     Licke a mope an a mile, he gazt ing a mize;

     Like a fool in a mill, he looked in amazement;

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 57