M O O 
MOOT, / Cafe to be difputed; point to be argued.—■ 
Orators have their declamations; lawyers have their moots. 
Bacon. 
MOOT-CA'SE, or Moot-Point, / A point or cafe 
unfettled and difputable, fuch as may properly afford a 
topic of difputation: 
In this moot-cafe your judgment to refufe, 
Is prefent death. Drydcn's Juvenal. 
Would you not think him crack’d, who would require 
another to make an argument on a moot-point, who un- 
derftands nothing of our law's 1 Locke on Education.—-Let 
us drop our pretences; for I believe it is a moot point, 
whether I am more likely to make a mailer Bull, or you 
a mailer Strutt. Aibutlinot's Hift. of John Bull. —A cafe 
fit for exerciling young lludents in law.—Such as, from 
their learning and Handing, were called by the benchers 
to argue moot-cafes, were fometimes called utter barrifters; 
the reft who, for w'ant of experience, &c. were not ad¬ 
mitted, were by fome called inner barrifters. Chambers. 
MOOT-HA'LL, or Moot-house, /. [motr-hup”, moB- 
heal, Sax.] Council-chamber; hall of judgment; town- 
hall. See Mote. Yet ufed in the north of England.— 
He commaundide him to be kept in the moot-halle of 
Eroude. Wicliffc, Adts xxiii.—A place for difputation.— 
The place where the moot-cafes were argued w'as an¬ 
ciently called a moot-hall. Chambers. 
MOOT-HILL'S, / Hills of meeting, on which our 
JBritilh anceftors held their great courts. Many of thefe 
ftill exiil not only in the Britilh dominions, but alfo in 
the Netherlands. They commonly conlill of a central 
eminence, on which fat the judge and lvis affiftants ; be¬ 
neath was an elevated platform for the parties, their 
friends, and “ compurgators,” who fometimes amounted 
to a hundred or more; and this platform was furrounded 
with a trench to fecure it from the accefs of the mere 
fpeftators. 
MOOT-MAN, f. One of thofe who ufed to argue the 
reader’s cafes, called moot-cales, in the inns of court.— 
In the inns of court there was a bailiff or furveyor of the 
moots, yearly chofen by the bench to appoint the moot- 
men for the inns of chancery, and to keep account of 
performance of exercifes, both there and in the houfe. 
Out of thefe moot-men were chofen readers for the inns 
of chancery; where, in term-time, and in vacations, 
they argued cafes in the prefence of attornies and clerks. 
Chambers. 
MOOTACHIL'LY, a town of Hindooftan, in the Car¬ 
natic : twenty-eight miles weft of Terriore. 
MOOTAGA'RA, a town of Hindooftan, in Golconda : 
forty-five miles fouth-eaft of Hydrabad. 
MOOTAGON'GA, a river of Hindooftan, which runs 
into the Gonga, or Baingonga, forty miles fouth of Bun- 
dowrah, in Berar. 
MOOTAGOO'D, a town of Hindooftan, in Golconda : 
five miles weft-north-weft: of Combamet. 
MOOTAL', a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of 
Cuddapas thirty-four miles north of Gandicotta. 
MOOTAN', a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of 
Hindia : ten miles fouth-weft of Huftingabad. 
MOOTAPAD'DY, a town of Hindooftan, in Madura: 
ten miles eaft of Nattam. 
MOOTAPIL'LY, or Medipil'li, a town of Hin¬ 
dooftan, in the circar of Guntoor, on the coaft of Coro¬ 
mandel, fituated at the mouth of a river which runs into 
the Bay of Bengal. It is feventy-five miles fouth-weft 
of Mafulipatam, and 150 north of Madras. Lat. 15. 35. N. 
Ion. 80.10. E. 
MOOTEAPOL'LAM. See Mutuapollam, 
MOO'TED, adj. Plucked up by the roots. Ainfworth. 
MOO'TER, f. A difputer of moot points. 
Mooter, in the dock-yards, the perfon who forms 
and fmooths the tree-nails for ufe. Chambers. 
MOO'TING, ft The chief exercife formerly performed 
3 >y lludents in the inns of court, being the argument of 
MOP 759 
cafes, which young utter barrifters praftifed at appointed 
times, the better to enable them to undertake the de¬ 
fence of their clients’ caules.—By that he hath heard one 
mooting, and feen two plays, he [an inns-of-court man] 
thinks as bafely of the univerfity as a young fophiller 
doth of the grammar-fchool. Overbury. 
Mooting, the making a tree-nail exadtly cylindrical 
to a given fize, called the moot. 
MOO'TINGY, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of 
Guntoor: eighteen miles eaft: of Guntoor. 
MOP, / [moppa, Welfh; mappa, Lat.] Pieces of cloth, 
or locks of wool, fixed to a long handle, with which 
floors are cleaned: 
Such is that fprinkling which fome carelefs quean 
Flirts on you from her mop, but not fo clean. 
You fly, invoke the gods ; then turning, flop 
To rail; flie finging ftill whirls on her mop. Swift. 
Mop, in fome counties in England, is the term for 
what is called th eftatute in other places ; being the time 
that young perfons, who intend themfelves for fervants, 
meet at fome certain place, in order to be hired into fer- 
vice. Chambers. 
To MOP, v. a. To rub with a mop. 
MOP, f. [perhaps corrupted from mock. Jo/mfon .— 
Mock and mop were certainly ufed indifferently. Spenfer 
has both mock and mow, and mop and mow. Nor is he 
Angular in the feeming variation. See the edit, of Spenfer a 
1805, vol. vii. p. 30. But the Su. Goth, mopa, illudere, 
deludere, may poflibly have given rife to our word. Todd .] 
A wry mouth or grin made in contempt: 
Each one tripping on his toe 
Will be here with mop and mow. ShakeJpeare's Tempeft . 
To MOP, v. 71. [from mock, or from the Su. Goth, mopa, 
illudere.] To make wry mouths, or grin, in contempt.-— 
Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lull, as 
Obbidicut; Hobbididen, prince of dumbnefs; Mahu, of 
Healing; Mohu, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of 
mopping and mowing, who fince pofl'effes chamber-maids. 
Shakefpeare. —Marke but his countenance; fee how he 
mops and how he mowes, and how he drains his looks. 
Hick's Faults and Nothing but Faults, 160 6 .— An al's fell 
a mopping and braying at a lion. L'EJlrange. 
MOTAR, a town of Hindooftan, in the Carnatic; 
forty miles fouth-fouth-well of Ongole. 
To MOPE, v. n. [of uncertain etymology.] To be ftu- 
pid ; to drowle ; to be in a conilant day-dream ; to be 
fpiritlefs, unaftive, and inattentive; to be ftupid and 
delirious.—What a wretched and peevifli fellow is this 
king of England, to mope with his fat-brain’d followers. 
Shakefpeare. 
Eyes without feeling, feeling without fight, 
Ears without hands or eyes, fmelling fans all, 
Or but a fickly part of one true fenl'e, 
Could not fo mope. Shakefpeare's Hamlet. 
To MOPE, v. a. To make fpiritlefs ; to deprive of na¬ 
tural powers.—It is doubtlefs a great difgrace to our re¬ 
ligion to imagine, as too many iuperftitious Chriftians 
do, that it is an enemy to mirth and cheerfulnefs, and a 
fevere exactor of peniive looks and folemn faces; that 
men are never ferious enough till the)'- are moped into 
ftatues, and cloiftered from all fociety but that of their 
own melancholy thoughts. Scott’s Chriftian Life. 
MOPE, / One who is moped; a fpiritlefs and inatten¬ 
tive perfon.—They have made, by their humouring or 
gulling, a mope or a noddy; and all to make themfelves 
merry. Bu7'to7i's Anatomy of Melancholy. 
MO'PE-EYED, adj. [pvu^, Gr.] Short-fighted ; pur¬ 
blind. See Myopy. —He pitieth his fimplicity, and re¬ 
turned! him for anfwer, that, if he be not 7 nop-eyed, he 
may find the proceflion of the divine perlons in his creed. 
Bp. Bramkall'$ ScJdJhi Guarded. 
MOPE'HA. See HowE’s Island, vol.x. p.436. 
MOPEN'DA, a province of the kingdom of Anziko. 
MO'PINGj 
