Definition of "mop-up" [mop-up]

• The act or an instance of mopping up; a concluding operation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "On days three, six, and nine, they used what they called a mop-up drug to make sure there were no more leukemia cells anywhere in my body."
• "The historian of the 11th Airborne describes what MacArthur cavalierly called a mop-up operation."
• "But, considering where we started, they are mop-up actions in the wake of a victorious battle."