1887. Walford, Antiquarian, April, 250. Mop up means ‘Stop your
talk,’ and is another form of ‘dry up.’
To mop (or wipe) the floor (ground, or earth) with one, verb. phr.
(common).—To knock one down.
1887. Henley & Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, I. iii. 1. Muck that’s my
opinion of him ... I’ll mop the floor up with him any day.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug. ‘I told him that I could mop the
earth with him, but had been careful not to use provoking
language!’
To be mopped (or wiped) out, verb. phr. (common).—To be ruined; floored
(q.v.); or killed.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, 53. They say he’s mopped out; I
dunnow.
Mops and brooms, adj. phr. (common).—Drunk. For synonyms see Drinks and
Screwed.
1828. Egan, Finish to Tom and Jerry, 135. Jerry declared himself to
be quite mops and brooms.
1840. H. Cockton, Valentine Ven, xviii. He did mix, but scarcely
took the rawness off the brandy.... ‘The governor’s getting mops
and brooms,’ whispered Horace to his amiable spouse.
1858. Shirley Brooks, The Gordian Knot, p. 173. If I had married a
wife, I don’t think I should go home to her in a state of mops and
brooms, after offering to fight a fishmonger in the Haymarket
because he had arranged his lobsters and prawns in a way
displeasing to my bewildered eye.
In the mops, adv. phr. (common).—Sulky.
Mope, subs. (colloquial).—1. A dullard. For synonyms see Buffle and
Cabbage-head.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., 149. ‘They will be scoffing, insulting
over their inferiours, till they have made by their humoring or
gulling, ex stulto insanum: a mope, or a noddy.’
1726. Pope, Dunciad, ii. No meagre, Muse-rid mope, adust and thin,
In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin.
1861. Dickens, Tom Tiddler’s Ground [Mr. Mopes, a hermit].