mops up

Verb

mop up (third-person singular simple present mops up, present participle mopping up, simple past and past participle mopped up)

1. To clean up (liquid) with a mop, rag, sponge, or other cleaning device.
   • Please mop up the spilled milk.
2. (informal) To fix problems; to correct or repair.
   • After they argued, it fell to me to talk to her and try to mop up.
3. (transitive) To absorb the leftovers of a dish with bread etc., in order to eat them.
   • He mopped up the sauce with the bread and scarfed it down like he had been raised by wolves.2003, Jeff Call, Rolling With the Tide, page 112
4. To consume or get rid of an excess of something.
   • The function of the weak acid component of a buffer is to act as a source of H⁺ ions which can mop up any added OH⁻: HA + OH⁻ → A⁻ + H₂O2004, Janet Renshaw, Ted Lister, Essential A2 Chemistry for OCR, →ISBN, page 128
5. To clean up an area destroyed by a natural disaster or by violent activity.
   • Crew members or leaders of a 20-person organized inter-agency hotshot suppression crew build firelines, conduct burnout operations, and mop up after the fire using chainsaws and hand tools such as Pulaskis and shovels.2001, Fight Fire with Intelligence, Skill, and Courage
6. To finish something off; to apply a finishing touch
   • They patch up, mop up, neaten up the halfcooked and unsatisfactory ideas they find lying around in their head.1998, Peter Elbow, Writing without Teachers, →ISBN

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