mop

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a cleaning tool with an absorbent head fixed to a long handle, used especially for washing floors

   She filled a bucket and ran the mop across the kitchen floor.

2. 2
   verb

   to clean or wipe a surface with a mop

   Please mop the hallway after the muddy visitors leave.

3. 3
   verb

   to wipe liquid, sweat, or tears from a surface

   He mopped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

4. 4
   noun

   a thick or untidy mass of hair

   A damp mop of curls fell across the child's eyes.

From Middle English mappe or mapple, probably denoting a cloth or bundle of yarn and perhaps related through Walloon mappe ('napkin') to Latin mappa ('cloth, napkin'). The hair sense compares an untidy head of hair to the strands of the cleaning tool.

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