suck the mop
English
editVerb
editsuck the mop (third-person singular simple present sucks the mop, present participle sucking the mop, simple past and past participle sucked the mop)
- (slang, idiomatic) To be left in a disadvantageous position.
- 1987, John Barth, The Tidewater Tales, page 426:
- Kathy says Much obliged, but what I don't appreciate about this piece of moral news is the pairing of successful writer with sexy hotshot lit prof, which leaves us pregnant librarians and failed playwrights sucking the mop.
- (slang, idiomatic, UK, obsolete) Of a bus: to be deliberately boxed in by another so as to lose the opportunity to pick up passengers.
- 1867, Banter, number 1, page 81:
- "Now then, poppy-head:" — this to the conductor of a rival omnibus before us — "how long am I to go on sucking the mop?"
References
edit- (bus boxed in): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary