mop n.1
1. the hair of the head.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Life in London (1869) 378: Massa Piebald, as they termed him, on account of his black mug and white mop. | |
| Idler upon Town 112: I never see such a mop. | |
| Two Years Ago II 53: Her husband snatches it off, puts it on his own mop. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Coburg Leader (Vic.) 19 Oct. 4/2: [H]e combs his mop 6 times a day. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Girl Proposition 110: The artist with the crinkly Mop leaned over the Gee Side of the Key-Board and began to tear off the Quarter-Notes. | |
 | ‘I’m Proud of My Old Bald Head’ [monologue] I used to have a lovely mop / Now I’ve got none on the top. | |
| Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 101: His hair was nearly as red as my wretched mop. | |
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 7: Jackson when I finish with the mop everything will be much reet. | |
| ‘The Winds of Change’ in Clarke Harlem, USA (1971) 319: The only way you’ll ever get your mop to grow natural again [...] is to have your head shaved! | |
| After Hours 9: No more bushy mop. | |
| Somebody Down Here Likes Me, Too 21: I even go to see my barber [...] and get ’im to fix my mop. | |
| Powder 70: She reckoned Keva was a honey with his long lashes, staring eyes and that wild mop. | |
| Indep. Rev. 27 Mar. 8: Vidal Sassoon’s man had taken the floppy mop and sheared it to perfection. |
2. (US) pubic hair, of either sex.
| Roofs of Paris (1983) 66: Her mop looks more like the fur of some animal than like an ordinary bush. [Ibid.] 151: Her tongue is like a very small snake scurrying down my belly to hide in my mop. |
3. (US black) a beard.
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 26: While, from his double-bumper, a long, white mop grew. |
4. (US teen) a bad dancer; their feet merely slide along the floor.
| Ligonier Echo (PA) 3 May 8/2: Mop — Bad dancer, because his (or her) feet never leave the floor. |
5. (US black) hair that has been straightened.
| Black Jargon in White America 73: mop n. the processed hair of a black person. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
1. a maidservant; thus mop-squeezing, pertaining to maidservants.
| Epistle of a Reformed Rake 23: Servant Maids – who despising their Station [...] deserted their Calling, and from Mop-squeezers, were promoted to Whores. | |
| Covent Gdn Mag. Oct. 382/1: The comic Miss M—. This lady was formerly a mop-squeezer, and shs says debauch’d by a gentleman of the guards . | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Life in Paris 385: To Dick, whose eye of universal love looked upon a mop-squeezer or a duchess as equally chartered, by virtue of her sex, to receive the homage of his. | |
| Doings in London 181: Every mop-squeezer in London is up to the most knowing go. | |
| Satirist (London) 23 Dec. 413/3: The housemaids [...] consider it a very scrubby affair [...] they will sooner be empailed than submit to any such mop-squeezing regulations. |
2. (US) a queen in poker [joc. use of sense 1 above].
| , | | DAS. |
1. (also mop handle) a thin, scrawny person.
| Sam Sly 21 Apr. 2/3: We advise James W—ll—am—on [...] not to frequent the Sedan Chair so much [...] Sam has got an eye on you, Mr. Mopstick. | |
| My Secret Life (1966) V 915: We used to call her lanky, mopsticks, and scraggs. | |
| Rock 46: He ain’t nothing but a mop handle. | |
| Venetian Blonde (2006) 147: Where did you sack out last night, mophead? | |
| Lush Life 236: His equally bug-eyed mopstick skeeve of a wife . |
2. a fool.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dundee Courier (Scot.) 22 Aug. 7/4: Diaoul a mopstick! I wish the jabbering fools would leave us in peace. | |
| Londinismen (2nd edn). | |
| Who’s Been Sleeping in my Bed 111: ‘Who’re you callin’ Sonny Jim?’ Mad Dog said. ‘I’ll wipe the floor with you, mophead, if y’call me that again.’. |
3. one who loafs around a cheap saloon and cleans up the place in return for drinks.
| Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/3: Mopstick — One who loafs around a cheap saloon or barrelhouse and cleans up the place for drinks. | |
| (ref. to c.1930s) Knights of the Road 203: Mop stick. Barfly in cheap saloon. |