whiting-mop

whiting-mop (plural whiting-mops)

1. (UK, obsolete) A young whiting.
   • 1869 , John Taylor, Works of John Taylor the Water-Poet‎, The Spenser Society, "Taylors Travels to Prague in Bohemia", page 99:

     ...his silence must be, that though he beare and understand himselfe wronged, yet he must be as dumbe as a Gudgeon or a Whiting mop: and though his mouth be shut...

   • 1996 , Thomas Heywood, edited by Paul Merchant, Three Marriage Plays‎, Manchester University Press, The Wise Woman of Hogsdon, act I, scene II, page 48:

     Chartley. Fear not, girl. Though I revel abroad o' days, I'll be with thee to bring o' nights, my little whiting mop.

   • 1813 , John Fletcher, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher‎, volume Thirteen, Edinburgh: John Ballantyne and Co., Doig and Stirling, w:The Maid in the Mill, act II, scene I, page 199:

     Bustopha. The thund'ring seas whose wat'ry fire
     Washes the whiting-mops,
     The gentle whale, whose feet so fell
     Flies o'er the mountains' tops—

2. (UK, obsolete) A pretty girl; a young or innocent woman.
   • 1830 , Thomas Dekker, John Webster, The Works of John Webster‎, volume III, London: William Pickering, Westward Ho, act II, scene II, page 37:

     Mistress Birdlime. I see bashful lovers, and young bullocks, are knocked down at a blow. Come, come, drink this draught of cinnamon-water, and pluck up your spirits; up with 'em, up with 'em. Do you hear? the whiting mop has nibbled.

   • 1813 , Philip Massinger, edited by W. Gifford, The Plays‎, 2nd edition, volume IV, London: G. & W. Nicol et al., The Guardian, act IV, scene II, page 207:

     Camillo. If 'twere a fish-day, though you like it not, I could say I have a stomach, and would content myself With this pretty whiting-mop.

   • 1641, Thomas Jordan, Pictures of Passions, Fancies, & Affectations, Poetically Deciphered in variety of Characters.‎, London: Robert Wood, A Sea-man.:

     The mightiest Whales are but his Play-fellows: Sharks are bis best Familiars, but (the more His grief) his pretty Whiting Mop's on shore...

• “whiting-mop”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.