to mope around
20
5.8
- phrasal verb
- /moʊp əˈraʊnd/
- Informal
:
vaguear
- After losing his job, he spent the whole week moping around the house instead of looking for another one.
- mope around the house
- moped around all day
- mope around the room
There's a lot of people who mope around and say how life sucks so much.
- There's a lot of people who mope around and say how life sucks so much.
- And then the the older gentleman gives him advice saying like basically criticizes Louis for saying why are you moping around?
- If she's can sense that you're moping around feeling sorry for yourself, believe me when I tell you that this will not attract her back.
- And Calypso loves him and they get it on and, and he's moping around.
- You want to get those emotions out and stop holding them in and home and staying in bed and me being and and and just moping around.
Examples
-
The way you've been moping around for the past couple of months.
-
It's no good for you to mope around the house.
Fiction book (1996) -
How long are you going to keep moping around for?
-
I bet you been mopin' around as much as she has.
-
Now, stop this moping around
-
So stop moping around this place, man!
-
I see you moping around here.
-
After I spent some serious time moping around, it hit me.
Fiction book (2002) -
I'm not having you moping around here all day.
-
I've seen you moping around.
Synonyms
379
1.3
Move around without a fixed direction, often slowly and in curves
350
1.1
To spend time sitting and doing very little without a clear purpose
214
1.7
To go on foot in a place without a clear purpose, often for pleasure
111
4.1
To spend time doing playful or unplanned activities
52
4.6
To feel sad and move slowly with little energy
43
3.7
To spend time doing nothing useful
26
5.4
To stand or wait in a place without a clear reason
11
7.7
To walk slowly in a relaxed way, often without a fixed destination
9
3.7
Move around slowly in a place without any clear purpose, often in a group
8
7.6
To walk around without a clear plan, often slowly and without much energy
7
4.3
To spend time relaxing and doing very little
7
5.3
To move around a place without a clear reason, often in a group
5
6.5
To spend time doing small, not important tasks slowly without a clear plan
5
3.8
To relax and do very little
4
6.9
To walk around without a clear purpose
4
7.3
Waste time by acting silly instead of working
3
5.9
To spend time somewhere doing nothing special
3
7.9
Spend time doing very little or nothing
3
4.4
To stay in a place without a clear reason
3
8.4
To spend time doing not important things in a relaxed way
2
8.6
To spend time doing very little and moving around without plans
2
9.5
To waste time instead of doing the work you need
1
8.7
To spend time doing things that are not important
1
9.2
To spend time doing small unimportant things instead of working
1
8.7
To waste time doing small unimportant things
1
3.4
To spend time lazily doing little or nothing
1
4.4
To spend time doing very little and relaxing
1
6.5
To move around slowly doing small jobs in no hurry
1
6.5
To spend time doing nothing in a lazy way
Walk around slowly without a plan
To walk slowly without a clear purpose
To travel slowly without a clear plan
To move slowly around a place without any clear purpose
To waste time instead of doing something useful
To spend time doing small unimportant things with no real plan
Spend time or money on unimportant things
To waste time on small unimportant things
Antonyms
How Aimless
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from 'mope' (to show sadness or lack of energy) combined with 'around' (moving about aimlessly), yielding the idea of moving about slowly because one is unhappy. This verb + particle composition is compositional and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Mope around gives a simple image: to mope is to feel sad and do very little, and around shows moving slowly from place to place. So it means 'to move around slowly and aimlessly, often because you are unhappy or bored'.