mopheadn.
/ˈmɒphɛd/, U.S. /ˈmɑpˌ(h)ɛd/ 1. The head of a mop. Also: a clamp for attaching this to a mop handle.
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1735 S.-Carolina Gaz. 18 Oct. 2/2 Just imported per Capt. Bishop & Shoebrick, and to be sold by John Watsons at his Store over against Elliot's Bridge, blue & strip'd Duffels..flag brooms, moppheads, counterpains, [etc.].
1864 Sci. Amer. 23 Jan. 58/3 This invention relates to a new and improved mop head, of that class in which springs are employed and applied to the movable or sliding jaw, to cause the cloth or mop to be secured between the sliding and the stationary jaw.
a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. II. 1474/2 Mop-head, a clamp for a mop-rag on the end of a handle.
1984 Sports Illustr. 22 Oct. 122/3 There was room for..dwyle flunking, a bizarre ritual in which a circle of dancers are flogged with wet mopheads.
1991 D. M. Greenwood Clerical Errors 67 There were a couple of old pails and a rotting mophead.
2. A thick head of hair; a person having such hair. Cf. mop n.4 2.
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the world > life > the body > hair > types of hair > [noun] > bushy or thick
bush1509
hair-bush1580
bush-heada1603
shag1607
fella1616
mop1616
bush-hair1692
hassock1754
mopheada1816
shock-head1817
shock1819
flock-hair1878
tousle1880
a1816 R. B. Sheridan in A. Hoppe Eng.-Deutsch. Suppl. Lex. (1871) (at cited word) The fops at your end of the town, with mop-heads and empty skulls.
1824 W. Scott Redgauntlet III. x. 304 Benjie thrust in his mop-head.
1852 M. G. L. Duncan Amer. as I found It 76 Every mop-head unconscious of a comb, and many a shirtless neck..proves that they are uncared for.
1878 H. M. Stanley Through Dark Continent II. xvi. 426 Many adopt the mop head.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xiii. [Nausicaa] 354 The dark one [sc. girl] with the mop head and the nigger mouth.
1991 Clothes Show (BNC) Mar. As a teenager, I longed to have a curtain of hair like Paul McCartney's or John Lennon's. What joy to be referred to as a mophead!
3. Horticulture.
a. A tree which grows or has been trained or clipped so as to have a branched head which is relatively small in comparison with the trunk (also mophead tree); a compact formation of branches resembling the head of a mop.
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the world > plants > by growth or development > defined by habit > tree or woody plant > characterized by habit > [noun] > other types of tree (characterized by habit)
umbrella-tree1791
mophead1876
platform tree1925
1876 Harper's Mag. Nov. 894/2 Long-drawn chords of light strike against the stems of the poplar-trees, and then their quaint mop heads seem on fire.
1900 W. Robinson Eng. Flower Garden (ed. 8) 788/2 A Willow..with a mop head, like the ‘American’ Weeping Willow.
1948 W. Arnold-Forster Shrubs for Milder Counties iii. 64 Limes can be used as mop-head trees, drastically pruned.
1993 Your Garden May 82/1 Chaemaecyparis pisifera ‘Sungold’–a mophead form of the Sawara cypress.
b. A plant having compact rounded flower heads; spec. any of several varieties of hydrangea, esp. Hydrangea macrophylla (‘ Hortensia’ group); a hortensia (more fully mophead hydrangea). Cf. lacecap n. at lace n. and adj. Compounds 2.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > cultivated or ornamental trees and shrubs > [noun] > hydrangeas
hydrangea1753
hortensia1799
orange blossom1882
lacecap1950
mophead1963
1963 Oxf. Bk. Garden Flowers 144/2 Many of the ‘Lace Caps’ and ‘Mop Heads’ are not hardy in very cold districts.
1989 Best 14 Apr. 39/4 Mopheads have big balls of flowers; lacecaps have a ring of large flowers surrounding a lacy centre.
1999 Sun 27 Mar. i. 39/2 Plant..mophead hydrangeas and camellias against south and west facing walls and fences.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1735