subs. (colloquial).—1.  A dullard. For synonyms, see BUFFLE and CABBAGE-HEAD.

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  1621.  BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 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.’

2

  1726.  POPE, The Dunciad, ii. 37.

        No meagre, muse-rid MOPE, adust and thin,
In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin.

3

  1881.  DICKENS, Tom Tiddler’s Ground [Mr. MOPES, a hermit].

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  2.  In pl. (colloquial).—Low spirits; THE HUMP (q.v.); THE BLUES (q.v.).

5

  Verb. (colloquial).—To despond.

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  1596.  SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, iii. 4. 81.

        Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so MOPE.

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  1635.  QUARLES, Emblems, i. 8. One’s MOP’D, the other’s mad.

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  1667.  MILTON, Paradise Lost, xi. 485. MOPING melancholy and moonstruck madness.

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  1749.  GRAY, Elegy. The MOPING owl doth to the moon complain.

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  d. 1792.  HORNE, Works, v. 23. It directs him not to shut himself up in a cloister, alone, there to MOPE and moan away his life.

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  1888.  BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, li. You’d better think over your situation and don’t MOPE.

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