M
M, abbreviation for Master as a conventional title. Phr. to have (or carry) an M under one’s girdle, to use a respectful prefix (Mr. or Mrs.) when addressing or mentioning a person; ‘You might carry an M under your girdle to Mr. Deputy’s worship’, B. Jonson, &c., Eastward Ho, iv. 1 (Constable); ‘Have you nere an M under your girdle’, Great Britons Honycombe (Nares); ‘You might have an M under your Girdle, Miss’, Swift, Polite Conversation; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 133. [‘Ye might hae had an M under your belt for Mistress Wilson of Milnwood’, Scott, Old Mortality, xxix.]
mace-proof, proof against fear of bailiffs or mace-carrying serjeants. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (Bonamico); Gamester, iii. 1 (Lord F.).
mackrel gale, a fresh gale, when mackerel are more easily caught. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 456.
maculate, to stain, defile. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 26, § 8; maculated, spotted, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. v, c. 29, § 9. L. maculare, to spot; from macula, a spot.
mad(de, a maggot or grub, esp. the larva which causes a disease in sheep. Tusser, Husbandry, § 50; Best, Farming Books (Surtees Soc., 6); Worlidge, Syst. Agric. 273; an earthworm, ‘Mooles take mads’, Warner, Alb. England, ii. 9, st. 52; Holland, Pliny, ii. 361. See [mathe].
maddle-coddle, foolish. Three Lords and Three Ladies, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 391. See EDD. (s.v. Maddle).
Madrill, Madrid. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 1 (Pedro); ii. 1 (Alvarez); Marvell, Appleton House. Cp. Span. Madrileño, a native or inhabitant of Madrid.
†magar, some kind of ship. Only in Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 86; p. 90, col. 2.
mage, a magician. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 14. L. magus, pl. magi, ‘the Wise Men’ (Vulgate, Matt. ii. 1).
maggot-pate, a light-headed whimsical person. Beaumont and Fl., Span. Curate, iv. 5 (Milanes).
maggot-pye, a magpie. Macbeth, iii. 4. 125; ‘Gazzotto, a maggot-a-pie’, Florio. ‘Magot’ was a pet name for Margaret, see Bardsley, English Surnames, 76. F. Margot, ‘diminutif très familier de Marguerite, nom vulgaire de la pie’ (Littré). ‘Maggotty-pie’ is in prov. use in Wilts., Somerset, and Cornwall for the magpie, see EDD. (s.v. Maggot, sb.2).
magisterium, lit. mastery; a name for the ‘philosopher’s stone’. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). See Ducange.
magnificate, to magnify; ‘A church reformed state, The which the female tongues magnificate’, Marston, Sat. ii. 42; ridiculed by Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca); p. 130.
magnificence, liberality of expenditure combined with good taste. Massinger, Renegado, ii. 4 (Vitelli); Duke of Milan, iii. 1 (Charles). Cp. Chaucer, C. T. I. 736.
magnificent, munificent, liberal. Massinger, Emp. of the East, ii. 1 (Theodosius); Parl. of Love, iv. 1 (Dinant).
maid, a name given to the thornback and skate, when young. A Woman never vexed, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 112; Drayton, Pol. xxv. 104; Gay, Trivia, ii. 292. In prov. use in Ireland and various parts of England, see EDD.
mail, in hawking, to tie or wrap up a hawk with a girdle or kerchief, to secure her. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain); Fletcher and Rowley, Maid in the Mill, iii. 3 (Gerasto). See NED. (s.v. Mail, vb.3 2).
main, in the game of hazard, a number (from five to nine inclusive) called by the caster before the dice are thrown; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 47; mains, throws at dice; Marston, What you Will, iv. 1 (Quadratus). See NED. (s.v. Main, sb.3 1).
mainprize, suretyship, acceptance of suretyship. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 60; Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iv. 1 (Reignald); ‘Mainprise, the receiving a man into friendly custody, that otherwise is or might be committed to prison, upon security given for his forthcoming at a day assigned’, Cowell, Interpreter (ed. 1637). Anglo-F. maynprys (Rough List).
maiordomo, ‘major-domo’, the chief officer or servant of a princely or wealthy household. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 4 (ed. Arber, 158). Span. mayordomo, a steward (Stevens).
maistry, a competitive feat of strength or skill. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 17, § 4; masteries, Bacon, Essay 19, § 3.
make, a companion, husband, wife. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 7; iii. 11. 2. Hence makeless, widowed, Shak., Sonnet 9. ME. make, a mate, equal, match; a wedded companion, husband or wife (Chaucer). Still in use in these senses in Scotland, also in England in many parts from the north to Glouc. OE. gemaca.
makeless, matchless, incomparable, Mirror for Mag, Buckingham, st. 13.
make-bate, a mischief-maker, promoter of quarrels. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 573 (ed. Arber, 62); Bible, 2 Tim. iii. 3 (margin); Titus ii. 3 (margin); ‘Satan the author and sower of discord stirred up his instruments, certain Frenchmen, tittivillers and makebaits about the King’, Foxe, Bk. Martyrs (ed. Cattley, ii. 648); Heywood, A Woman Killed, iii. 2 (Nicholas). In prov. use in Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Make, vb.1 3).
making, a match-making, matching. Middleton, A Trick to catch, iii. 3 (Witgood).
malakatoon, a quince, a peach grafted on a quince. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Romelio); malicatoon, Rowley, All’s Lost, i. 3. 15. See [melocotone].
malander, mallander, a dry scabby eruption behind the knee in horses. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 94; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Knockem). F. malandre; Late L. malandria, pl. pustules on the neck, esp. in horses (Vegetius).
male, a bag, wallet, pack. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 142. 2; ‘Male or wallet, to putte geare in’, Palsgrave; Tusser, Husbandry, § 102. 4. ME. male (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3115). See Dict. (s.v. Mail, 2).
male-ease, indisposition, illness. Morte Arthur, leaf 169, back, 2; bk. viii, c. 41. F. malaise.
malefice, an evil deed. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 1154. L. maleficium, evil deed.
malengin, malengine, evil contrivance, ill intent, deceit. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 53; v. 9. 5. ME. malengin: ‘The florin Was moder ferst of malengin’ (Gower, C. A. v. 345). Anglo-F. malengin, evil device (Gower, Mirour, 6544); cp. engin, device, trickery, id., 2102.
maleur, misfortune. Spelt maleheure, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 169. 1; maleure, id., lf. 244, back, 22. OF. maleur; L. malum augurium, evil destiny.
maleurous, unlucky. Spelt malewreus, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 82. 26. OF. maleuros (F. malheureux).
maleurtee, misfortune. Spelt maleheurte, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 338. 15. See NED.
male-uryd, ill-omened, unlucky. Skelton, Against the Scottes, 111. See [ure] (destiny).
malgrado, ‘maugre’, in despite of, to the loss of; ‘Malgrado of his honour’, Greene, Orl. Fur. v. 2 (Orlando); Marlowe, Edw. II, ii. 5. 5. Ital. malgrado, ‘in despight of’ (Florio). Cp. [maugre].
malice, to regard with malice, seek to injure. Surrey. Complaint of a Lover that defied Love, 34 (in Tottell’s Misc., p. 8); North, tr. of Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 13 (in Shak. Plut., p. 23). See Nares.
malkin, an untidy female servant, a slut, slattern. Coriolanus, ii. 1. 227; Pericles, iv. 3. 34; used as a term of abuse, a lewd woman, spelt maukin, Beaumont and Fl., The Chances, iii. 1 (Landlady); Death of E. Huntington, ii. 1 (Hubert), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 258. ‘Malkin’ (‘Mawkin’) is in gen. prov. use in England and Scotland for a slattern, and as a term of abuse, see EDD. (s.v. Mawkin, 2). It is prop. a dimin. of the Christian name Maud (ME. Malde), a F. equivalent of Matilda.
mall, a club. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 51; an iron club, id., iv. 5. 42. As vb., to beat down, id., v. 11. 8.
malleation, the test of hammering. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face). From L. malleus, a hammer.
malleted, infixed as if by a ‘mallet’. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 649.
maltalent, ill-will. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 61. ME. maltalent, ill-will, ill-humour (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 273 and 330); Anglo-F. maltalant, ill-humour (Ch. Rol. 271).
mammer, to waver, to be undecided. Othello, iii. 3. 70; Drant, tr. Horace, 2 Sat. 3. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. mamere, ‘mutulare’ (Voc. 668. 26). See Nares.
mammet, a puppet, an odd figure, freq. used as a term of abuse. Romeo, iii. 5. 186; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 3. 95; spelt maumet, Machin, The Dumb Knight, iii. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mommet). ME. maumet, an idol, a false god (Chaucer, C. T. I. 860); OF. mahumet, an idol, orig. Mahomet, who was supposed to be one of the false gods of the Saracens (Ch. Rol. 2590).
mammock, a scrap, shred. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 654; to tear into shreds, Coriolanus, i. 3. 71. ‘Mammock’, a broken piece, scrap, slice of food; to cut into pieces—in prov. use (EDD.).
mammothrept, a spoiled child, weakling. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 1 (Amorphus). Gk. μαμμόθρεπτος, brought up by one’s grandmother.
man, to ‘squire’, or accompany a lady, to escort. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 291); Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 7 (Amaranta).
manable, used of a girl of marriageable age. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 4 (Gudgeon); ‘She’s manable’, Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, ii. 1 (Otrante).
manage, management, control. Richard II, iii. 3. 179; Edw. III, iii. 3. 224.
manchet, a small loaf of white bread. Drayton, Pol., Song, xvi. 229; Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Roger). In prov. use in Yorks., Lanc., and in the west country (EDD.). Norm. F. manchette, ‘pain à croûte dure, inégale, fait en forme de couronne’ (Moisy). Prob. the same word as F. manchette, a cuff (Hatzfeld).
manderer; see [maunder].
mandilion, a soldier’s cloak. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, x. 120; Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 3 (Lazarillo). See Nares. Ital. mandiglione, a jacket (Florio), deriv. of Med. L. mantile, cp. Span. mantilla. See Dozy, Glossaire, 299.
mandragora, mandrake. Othello, iii. 3. 330; Ant. and Cl. i. 5. 4. Gk. μανδραγόρας.
mandrake, the plant Atropa mandragora; of a strong narcotic quality. Its root was thought to resemble the human figure, and to cause madness by its shriek or groan when torn from the ground. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 310; Romeo, iv. 3. 47; a term of abuse, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 16; iii. 2. 342.
mandritta, mandrita, in fencing, a cut from right to left. Nabbes, Microcosmos, i. 2 (Choler); Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 56. Ital. mandritto, manritto, ‘a right handed blow’ (Florio).
maner, manner: in phr. to be taken with the maner, to be taken in the act. Bible, Num. v. 13 (ed. 1611); also, in the Geneva Bible (1562); 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 350; Winter’s Tale, iv. 3 (or 4), 755. ‘If the Defendant were taken with the mainour (or manour)’, Cowell, Interpreter (s.v. Mainour); ‘He is taken with the maynure’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii. c. 7, § 6. Compare the Anglo-F. legal phrase pris ov mainoure, and the L. cum manuopere captus, i.e. taken with the thing stolen in one’s possession (Ducange, s.v. Manopera); mainoure, lit. hand-work, acquired the legal sense of ‘thing stolen’. Later, to be taken in the (i’th) manner, Fletcher, Rule a Wife, v. 4. 8. See Dict. (s.v. Mainour).
mangonize, to sell men or boys for slaves. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Tucca). L. mangonizare, to trim up an article for sale (Pliny); mango, a dealer in slaves and wares.
manicon, the name of a narcotic, obtained from a kind of night-shade, so called from its supposed power of causing madness; ‘(Who) Bewitch hermetic men to run Stark staring mad with manicon’, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 324. See Alphita, 176 (under Strignus manicon, and Solatrum mortale). Cp. Gk. στρύχνος μανικός (Dioscorides).
maniple, a handful, bundle. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Dia.); a band of men, Milton, Areopagitica (ed. Hales, 48). See Dict.
manner; see [maner].
manred, the men whom the lord could call upon in time of war; hence, a supply of fighting men; ‘Manred and retinew’, Holland, Camden’s Brit., Scot. ii. 17 (NED.); Phaer, Aeneid vii, 644 and 710 (L. orig. ‘cohors’). OE. mannrǣden, homage, service due from tenants.
manticore, a fabulous animal, compounded of a lion, porcupine, and scorpion, with a human head. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 118 and 124; ‘Mantichoras, monstrous beasts’, Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, v (Butler). Gk. μαντιχώρας, a corrupt reading for μαρτιχόρας in Aristotle; from a Persian word meaning ‘man-eater’. See NED.
manto, a cloak. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 700. Ital. manto.
mantoon, a mantle. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Romelio). Ital. mantone, manto, a cloak (Florio).
manurage, cultivation of land. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iii, c. 14, st. 1.
map, a mop. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Soto); ‘Map’ is a Yorks. pronunc. of ‘mop’ (EDD.).
maquerelle, a bawd, a procuress. Westward Ho, v. 3; Shirley, Triumph of Peace (Second Antimasque). F. maquerelle, ‘a (woman) bawd, the solicitrix of Lechery’ (Cotgr.).
marablane, an Oriental aromatic. Ford, Sun’s Darling, ii. 1 (Spaniard). See [myrobalane].
marasmus, a wasting away of the body. Milton, P. L. xi. 487. Gk. μαρασμός.
marchesite; ‘marcasite’; a kind of iron pyrites. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Ital. marchesita, marcasita, ‘a marquesit, or fire-stone, good to make mill-stones’ (Florio).
marcussotte, to cut the beard in a particular way; ‘And with a sythe doth marcussotte his bristled berd’, Golding, Metam. xiii. 766; fol. 163 (1603). F. Barbe faicte à la marquisotte, ‘Cut after the Turkish fashion; all being shaven away but the mustachoes’ (Cotgr.).
mare, the nightmare. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 83. ME. mare or nyȝhte mare, ‘epialtes’ (Prompt.). OE. mare, Icel. mara.
mare: in phr. to ride the wild mare, to play at see-saw. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 268; the two-legged mare, the gallows, Like Will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 335, 345.
mare; ‘the blues’, melancholy; ‘Away the mare’, Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 110; ‘Let pass away the mare’, Calisto and Melibæa, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 57.
mare, a term in wrestling; a particular kind of grip. Drayton, Pol. i. 244. Also called the flying mare; see NED.
mareyse, a marsh. Morte Arthur, leaf 113. 5; bk. vi, c. 14; lf. 217. 17; bk. x, c. 1. OF. mareis; Med. L. mariscus (Ducange).
margaret, margarite, a pearl. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 76; p. 90, col. 1; A Looking-Glasse, i. 1. 100 (Rasni). F. Marguerite, ‘Margaret (a woman’s name); also a (Margarite) pearl’ (Cotgr.). L margarita, Gk. μαργαρίτης, a pearl.
marge, margin, brink, border. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 6. Drayton, Pol. ii. 25. F. marge.
margery-prater, a hen (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 83. Prater = cackler.
marginal finger, an index-hand in the margin of a book (☞); used to direct attention to a striking passage. Massinger, Fatal Dowry (Romont; towards the end).
mark, a coin worth 13s. 4d., or 2/3 of the £ sterling. Measure for M. iv. 3. 7; King John, ii. 530.
mark-white, white mark, centre. Phr. at the marke white, at the white mark in the centre of a target, Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 35; cp. the white, Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 186. And see [rove].
marle, to marvel, wonder. Eastward Ho, iii. 2 (Gertrude); B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, Induct. (Carlo); a marvel, B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iii. 1 (Mrs. Otter). A Devon and Somerset pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Marl, vb.3).
marlian, a merlin, small hawk. Song in Tottel’s Misc., p. 132, l. 1. A Cornish pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Marlin).
marling, a ‘marline’, a small tarred cord used for binding ropes. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 148. See Dict. (s.v. Marline).
marmaritin, a plant. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 3 (Hecate). L. marmaritis; Gk. μαρμαρῖτις, a plant that grows in marble quarries (Pliny).
marmoll, an enflamed sore, esp. on the leg. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1932. See [mortmal].
marrow, a companion, partner, mate. Tusser, Husbandry, § 57, st. 40; Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii, 195. In common prov. use in the north to Cheshire and Derbyshire, see EDD. (s.v. Marrow, sb.2 1). ME. marwe, ‘socius, sodalis, compar’ (Prompt.).
marry gip (an exclamation); ‘Marry gip, thought I, with a wanion!’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Waspe); cp. the oath, By Mary Gipcy (i.e. by S. Mary of Egypt), Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1455.
marry gup (an exclamation); marie gup!, Lyly, Midas, v. 2 (Licio) See NED. (s.v. Marry, int., c).
marry muff, some kind of cheap textile fabric; ‘A sute of Marrymuffe’, Meeting of Gallants (NED.). Used as a derisive exclamation, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront).
Mars, an alchemist’s name for iron. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face).
mart: phr. letters of mart, letters of marque, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, i. 3 (Goswin); Wife for a Month, ii. 1 (Tony). See Dict. (s.v. Marque).
martagan, martagon, Turk’s-cap lily; Lilium martagon. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (Aiken). F. ‘martagon de Constantinople, the Byzantine Lilly’ (Cotgr.); Ital. martagone; Turk. martagān, a kind of turban, a martagon-lily.
martel, to hammer. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 42. OF. marteler, deriv. of OF. martel, a hammer.
martern, the ‘marten’, an animal of the weasel kind. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert); Harrison, Descript. England, ii. 19 (ed. Furnivall, 310). See Dict. (s.v. Marten).
martialist, a military man. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2. 17.
Martlemas, Martinmas. St. Martin’s day, Nov. 11. Meat was often killed at this time to be salted for use at Christmas, Greene, George-a-Greene (ll. 439, 1001), ed. Dyce, p. 260, col. 1; p. 266, col. 1; Martilmas, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 134. 21; Tusser, § 12. 3. An E. Anglian form of Martinmas (EDD.).
mary, maree, marrow. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 66; maree, Golding, tr. of Met. ix. 172. ME. mary (Chaucer, C. T. C. 542); mary-bones, marrow-bones (id., C. T. A. 380).
maryhinchco, maryhinchcho, a disease to which horses are subject; ‘She has had a string-halt, the maryhinchco’, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iii. 1 (Knockem). Markham explains it thus: ‘The string-halt, of some called the mary-hinchcho, is a sodaine twitching up of the horses hinder legges’ (NED.).
mash, to become enmeshed or entangled. Warner, Albion’s England, vi. 29, st. 27. See NED. (s.v. Mesh, vb.).
maship, a shorter form of mastership, as a term of respect. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 2 (Merygreek).
mask, the ‘mesh’ of a net. Brewer, Lingua, ii. 6 (Mendacio). A Cheshire pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Maske). ME. maske, ‘macula’ (Prompt.); OE. max, cp. Dan. maske. See NED. (s.v. Mask, sb.1).
masticot, masticote, ‘massicot’, yellow protoxide of lead, used as a pigment. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 13; pp. 130, 132. F. massicot, ‘oaker [ochre] made of Ceruse, or white lead’ (Cotgr.).
mastlin, mixed corn, esp. a mixture of wheat and rye. Tusser, Husbandry, § 63. 23; ‘Metail, Messling or Masslin, Wheat and Rie mingled, sowed and used together’, Cotgrave. ME. mestlyon or mongorne, ‘mixtilio’ (Prompt. EETS. 286). ‘Meslin’ is in gen. prov. use in England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Maslin, sb.1).
mastlin, maslin, a kind of brass. Brewer, Lingua, iv. 1 (Heuresis). In prov. use as an attrib.: maslin kettles, pans, pots, spoons, see EDD. (s.v. Maslin, sb.2). ME. maslin, also, mestling (NED.); OE. mæs(t)ling (B. T.).
masty, a mastiff. Middleton, A Trick to catch, i. 4 (Witgood); used fig. of a cannon (from its noise). Shirley, Maid’s Revenge, iv. 1 (near the end). In prov. use in the north (EDD.). F. mastin, a mastive (Cotgr.); with change of suffix, cp. haughty (F. hautain).
matachin, a kind of sword-dancer in a fantastic costume; ‘They looked upon one another as if they had been Matachines’, Luna’s Pursuit (NED.); see Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, ii. 435, quotation in Nares. Also, the dance performed by ‘matachins’, Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 48; Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, v. 1 (Miramont); spelt mattacina, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 38). Span. matachin, ‘a sword-dancer; as dança de matachines, a dance with swords, in which they fence and strike at one another, as if they were in earnest; receiving the blows on their bucklers, and keeping time’ (Stevens). Of Arab. origin, see Dozy, 309.
matador, the slayer of the bull in a Spanish bull-fight. Dryden, Span. Friar, i. 2 (Elvira). Also, in the card-games of ombre and quadrille, a ‘killing’ or principal card, Pope, Rape of the Lock, 321, 335; Etherege, Man of Mode, ii. 1 (Medley). Span. matador, a killer; ‘At the game of Hombre on the cards, there are four Matadores; that is, four murdering cards; so called because they win all others’ (Stevens).
matchecold, machicolated; i.e. furnished with machicolations, which are openings between the corbels that support a projecting parapet of a tower; Morte Arthur, leaf 113, back; bk. vii, c. 10 (beginning). F. maschecoulis, ‘the stones over a gate resembling a grate through which offensive things are thrown upon Pioneers and other assailants’ (Cotgr.).
matchless, of things that are not a match, or pair. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 1. 28.
mathe, a maggot. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 18. 8, § 45; Caxton, Reynard, xxviii (ed. Arber, 69). OE. maða (Voc. 205. 8). See [mad(de].
matted, dulled, deprived of lustre or gloss; ‘Oile colours matted’, Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 12a (Appendix D. 116). See NED. (s.v. Mat, vb. 2).
maugre, to act in spite of, to defy. Webster, Appius, ii. 3 (App. Claudius). F. maugréer, ‘to curse, ban, blaspheme, revile extreamly’ (Cotgr.). See [malgrado].
maukin; see [malkin].
maule, a heavy hammer. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 70. See [mall].
maumet; see [mammet].
maund, to beg (Cant). ‘One that maunds Upon the pad’ [highway], B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy Canter); ‘Maunde, aske . . . hygh pad, hygh waye’, Harman, Caveat, p. 86; ‘Maund on your own pads’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). Hence, maunder, a beggar, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). See EDD. (s.v. Maund, vb.). OF. mandier (F. mendier), to beg (Bartsch), L. mendicare.
maunder, to beg. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, v. 1 (De Vitry); hence maunderer: ‘a maunderer upon the pad’, a beggar on the road, Dekker and Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Teareat).
maunder, to grumble, Fletcher, Rule a Wife, iii. 1 (Margarite). In gen. prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.).
maundie, a maundy-dole; hence, almsgiving. Herrick, Noble Numbers (The Widow’s Teares), st. 3. ME. maundee, ‘maundy’, the washing of the disciples’ feet (P. Plowman, B. xvi. 140, see note, p. 239); OF. mandé,’ lavement des pieds’ (Didot); Eccles. L. mandatum, commandment (Vulgate, John xiii. 34); ‘ablutio pedum’ (Ducange).
mauther, a young girl. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 4 (Kastril). Spelt moether, Tusser, Husbandry, § 17, st. 13. An E. Anglian word (EDD.).
maw, a game at cards. Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 1. 16; Chapman, Mayday, Act v (Lodovico). See Nares.
may, a maiden. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 39; Greene, Description of the Shepherd, l. 57; ed. Dyce, p. 305. Of frequent occurrence in Scottish Ballads, see EDD. (s.v. May, sb.2). ME. mai (Cursor M. 3238); OE. mǣg, a kinswoman, a maiden.
May-game, a mirthful spectacle (metaphorically). Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, i. 2. 10. ‘May games’ were the dancings and merry-makings round the May-pole, after the gathering of the May. See Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, pp. 149, 305); Herrick’s Hesperides (Corinna’s going a-Maying), &c.
May-lord, a young man chosen to preside over May-day festivities. Beaumont and Fl., Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Soto); Knight of the B. Pestle, iv. 5.
mayneal; see [menial].
maynure; see [maner].
mazard, mazzard, the head. Hamlet, v. 1. 97; Othello, ii. 3. 155. Spelt mazer, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iv. 2 (Fustigo). A fig. use of mazer, a bowl. See Dict., and Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 183.
mazard, to knock on the head, kill; ‘If I had not been a spirit, I had been mazarded’, B. Jonson, Love Restored (Robin Goodfellow).
meach; see [mich].
meacock, an effeminate person, a coward; ‘A meacock wretch’, Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 315; spelt mecocke, ‘As stout as a stockefish, as meeke as a mecocke’, Appius and Virginia (NED.).
mean, in music, the tenor or middle part, Two Gent. i. 2. 95. In use in Warwicksh. as late as 1850, see EDD. (s.v. Mean, sb.1 1). Cp. It. mezzano, ‘a mean or countertenor in musick’, Florio. ME. mene, of songe, ‘Introcentus’ (Prompt. EETS.), also, ‘A Meyne, intercentus’ (Cath. Angl.).
mean, to lament, ‘moan’. Mids. Night’s D. v. 1. 331. A north-country word for uttering a moaning sound, see EDD. (s.v. Mean, vb.2 1). ME. mene, to bemoan (Cursor M. 18255). OE. mǣnan, to lament.
meane, mien, look. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 11. Probably an aphetic form of demean, see NED. (s.v. Mien).
mease, a mess, portion of food. Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 2 (570); p. 124, col. 2; a group of four, ‘A mease of men, quatuor’, Levins, Manip. Mease is a Yorks. form of mess, see EDD. (s.v. Mess, sb.1). ME. mese, ‘ferculum’ (Cath. Angl.); mees of mete, ‘ferculum’ (Prompt. EETS. 286). F. més, ‘a messe or service of meat’ (Cotgr.). See [mess].
meath, ‘mead’; a sweet drink made with honey. Drayton, Pol. iv. 112; B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 1 (Sat.); Milton, P. L. v. 345. ‘Meath’, a drink made with honey, is in prov. use in Cheshire, Pembroke, Somerset, and Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Mead, sb.2).
meaze, the ‘form’ of a hare. Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (Amoretto). See [muse].
mechal, adulterous. Only in Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (O. Ger.); Rape of Lucrece, iv. 3 (Sextus). Gk. μοιχός, an adulterer.
mecocke; see [meacock].
meddle, medle, to mingle, mix. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 61; Shep. Kal., April, 68. OF. medler, mesler (F. mêler), to mix.
meech; see [mich].
†meered; ‘He being the meered question’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 10. Formation and sense doubtful; Schmidt explains: he being the only cause and subject of the war.
meet, to be even with; ‘I have heard of your tricks . . . I may live To meet thee’, Fletcher, Hon. Man’s Fortune, iii. 3 (Montague); id., Rule a Wife, v. 3 (Leon). Also, to meet with; ‘I’ll meet with you anon for interrupting me so’, Marlowe, Faust, x; ‘I shall find time to meet with them’, Englishmen for any Money, iii. 2 (Pisaro), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 513. See Nares.
meg, a guinea. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Hackum). See NED.
meg-holly, by the, a mild oath. Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. i, p. 40.
meint, meynt, mingled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 81; ment, F. Q. v. 5. 12; vi. 6. 25. ‘Ment’ is obsolescent in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Ment, pp.). ME. meynt, pp. of mengen (Lydgate, Storie of Thebes, 1260). OE. mengan, to mix. See Dict. M. and S.
meiny, meinie, a body of retainers. King Lear, ii. 4. 35; the common herd, Coriolanus, iii. 1. 65. Of freq. occurrence in north-country ballad literature for a company of followers, also, a crowd, throng, multitude, see EDD. (s.v. Menyie). ME. meynè, a household, family (Wyclif, Acts iii. 25). OF. maisnée, ‘famille’ (La Curne), see Ducange (s.v. Maisnada). A deriv. of L. mansio (an abode). See [menial].
mell, to meddle, to have to do with. All’s Well, iv. 3. 257; Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 1; v. 12. 35. In common prov. use in Scotland, also in Yorks. and Lanc., see EDD. (s.v. Mell, vb.2 1. to mingle, 2. to meddle). ME. melle, to mix (Hampole, Ps. ix. 9). OF. meller, mesler (F. mêler).
mell, honey. Gascoigne, Works, i. 102; Herrick, Hesperides, Pray and Prosper, 4. L. mel.
melocotone, a peach grafted on a quince. Bacon, Essay 46; melicotton, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Winwife). Span. melocoton, Med. L. melum cotoneum, Gk. μῆλον Κυδώνιον, ‘Cydonian apple’ (NED.). See [malakatoon].
melotte, a garment of skins, worn by monks. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 866. L. melota (Vulgate); Gk. μηλωτή, a sheepskin; also, a skin of any animal (Heb. xi. 37). See Prompt. EETS. 191 (and Latin Glossary, p. 819).
menial, a servant of the household; ‘The great Housekeeper of the World . . . will never leave any of his menials without the bread of sufficiency’, Bp. Hall, Balm Gilead, xii. § 4; mayneal, Morte Arthur, leaf 215, back, 35; bk. x, c. 11. See [meiny].
ment; see [meint].
merce, to ‘amerce’, to fine. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, i (Sir Wil. Scarborow; l. 12 from end).
merchant, a fellow, a chap. 1 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 57; Romeo, ii. 4. 153; Latimer, Serm., 115 (Nares). Phr. to play the merchant with, to get the better of, to cheat, Rowley, Woman never Vext, iv. 1. 51.
mercify, to pity. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 32.
mercurial finger, the little finger. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). In chiromancy the little finger was assigned to Mercury.
merds, fæces, excrement. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). L. merda.
mere, mear, a boundary, limit; spelt meare. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 46; Drayton, Pol. xix. 405. Hence, meer-stone, Bacon, Essay 56, § 1. In gen. prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mear). ME. mere (Prompt, EETS. 286). OE. ge)mǣre, boundary.
mere, mear, to mark out by means of ‘meres’; ‘The Latine name Which mear’d her rule with Africa’, Spenser, Ruines Rome, xxii; to mear on, to abut upon, border upon, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iii. 520.
mere, absolute, complete, unqualified, Merry Wives, iv. 5. 64; wholly, completely, All’s Well, iii. 5. 58; Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii. 4. 9; merely, absolutely, entirely, Temp. i. 1. 21; Hamlet, i. 2. 137.
meridian, a period of repose at noon; ‘Ye, a meridian to lul him by daylight’, Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 30. Monastic L. meridiana, ‘somnus meridianus’ (Ducange). Cp. Ital. meriggiána, ‘midday; a pleasant shady place to feed, to rest, or sleep, and recreate in at noon, or in the heat of the day’ (Florio).
mermaid, a cant term for a courtesan. Massinger, Old Law, iv. 1 (Agatha).
merrygall, merrygald, a gall or sore produced by chafing; ‘Heales a merrygald’, Turbervile, Hunting, p. 139; ‘Merry-gals and raw places’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxi, c. 18; vol. ii. 101.
mesel, a foul person; used as a term of abuse; spelt messel, London Prodigal, ii. 4. 74; iv. 1. 78. In Devon and Somerset, meazle is used as a term of abuse, meaning a filthy creature. ME. mesel, a leper (Wyclif, Matt. x. 8). OF. mesel ‘lépreux’ (Didot); O. Prov. mezel, ‘lépreux’, mezelia, ‘lèpre’ (Levy).
mesprise, contempt, scorn. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 39. F. mespris, ‘contempt, neglect’ (Cotgr.), deriv. of mespriser, to fail to appreciate. F. mépris.
mesprize, mistake. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 19. Anglo-F. mesprise, error, offence (Gower, Mirour, 1548). F. méprise, cp. mesprendre, to mistake (Cotgr.).
mess, a group of four persons or things; ‘Where are your mess of sons to back you now?’, 3 Hen. VI, i. 4. 73; L. L. L. iv. 3. 207; ‘There lacks a fourth thing to make up the mess’, Latimer, Serm. v; ‘A mess of most eminent men, Nicolaus Lyra . . . Hieronymus de Sanctâ Fide . . . Ludovicus Carettus . . . Emmanuel Tremellius’, Fuller, A Pisgah Sight, Pt. ii, bk. 5; Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, 393); Heywood, Witches of Lanc. i. 1 (Shakstone), in Wks. iv. 173. A ‘mess’ at the Inns of Court still consists of four. See Trench, Select Glossary. See EDD. (s.v. Mess, sb.1 4). F. més, ‘a messe or service of meat’ (Cotgr ). Med. L. missus (Ducange). See [mease].
messe: phr. by the messe, by the mass, used in oaths and asseverations. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2201; ‘By the Mes’, Hen. V, iii. 2. 122; also, mess by itself, ‘Mess! I’d rather kiss these Gentlewomen’, Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 3 (Ben). This asseveration is still in prov. use in various forms in the north country: By th’ mass (Lanc.); By th’ mess (Westm.); Amess, Mess (Cumb.), see EDD. (s.v. Mass, sb.1 3). F. messe, the mass, the Eucharist.
messling; see [mastlin].
met, measure. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 333. A north-country word for a measure, gen. a bushel, see EDD. (s.v. Mete). ME. mette, ‘mensura’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. ge)met, ‘mensura, modius, satum’ (B. T.).
mete, to measure; met, pt. t., Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iii. 327; mete, pp. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii. 1. ME. meten (Wyclif, Matt. vii. 2). OE. metan.
metely, moderately; ‘Metely good’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 16. OE. ge)met ice.
metereza, mistress. Middleton, More Dissemblers, v. 1 (Sinquapace); metreza, Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole). Neither French nor Italian, but a mixture of the two (Nares). An alteration of F. maîtresse, with an Italian termination.
metoposcopy, divination by observing the forehead. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). Gk. μέτωπο-ν, forehead; σκοπεῖν, to observe.
meuse; see [muse].
meve, to move; ‘I meve or styrre from a place, je meuve’, Palsgrave; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 7; meeve, Damon and Pithias (Nares); mieve, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 12. 26. ‘Meve’ is an E. Anglian form (EDD.). ME. mevyn, ‘amoveo’ (Prompt.). OF. moev- (meuv-), stressed stem of movoir, to move.
mew, to moult. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, ii. 2 (Martell); Wildgoose Chase, i. 1 (La Castre). F. muer; L. mutare, to change.
mew, a coop for hawks; ‘Mewe for haukes, meue’, Palsgrave; a place of confinement, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 20; ii. 5. 27 and 7. 19. F. mue, a hawk’s mue or coop; mue, a change, the mewing of a hawk (Cotgr.), fr. muer, ‘to change, to mew’ (ib.); L. mutare. Our word ‘mews’, for a range of stabling, is derived from the Mews by Charing Cross, the name of the place for the King’s horses, orig. the place for the king’s falcons and the royal falconer. See Stow’s Survey of London (ed. Thoms, 167).
mew: in phr. knights of the mew, knights of the cat-call; the least select among an audience at a theatre. Marston, What you Will, Induction (Doricus).
mich, to skulk, to lurk stealthily. Heywood, A Woman Killed (ed. 1874, ii. 113), spelt meach, Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 2. 11; hence micher, a truant, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 450; a skulker, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Yo. Loveless); spelt meecher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius). ‘Mitch’ and ‘meech’ are in common prov. use (EDD.). ME. mychyn, or stelyn prively smale thyngys, ‘surripio, furtulo’ (Prompt. EETS. 301). Of Ger. origin, see Schade, Altdeutsches Wörterbuch (s.v. mûhhan). See NED. (s.v. Miche).
†miching malicho (meaning quite uncertain), Hamlet, iii. 2. 148. Textual variants are: myching Mallico, munching Mallico, miching mallecho.
migniard, tender, delicate. B. Jonson. Devil an Ass, i. 2 (Fitz.). F. mignard, ‘migniard, pretty, quaint; dainty, delicate’ (Cotgr.).
migniardise, delicate attention. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Picklock). F. mignardise, ‘quaintnesse . . . smooth or fair speech, kind usage’ (Cotgr.).
mill, to steal or rob (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); see Harman, Caveat, p. 67.
mime, a mimic, jester, pantomimist. B. Jonson, Epigrams, bk. i, cxxix; Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, i. 4 (Satire). Gk. μῖμος.
mince, to walk affectedly or primly. Merry Wives, v. 1. 9; mincing, Bible, Isa. iii. 16; minsen, pres. pl., Drayton, Pastorals, vii. 14. Also, to perform mincingly, to parade, King Lear, iv. 6. 122. F. mincer, to mince, to cut into small pieces (Cotgr.).
minchen, a nun. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 18, § 3. ‘Mincheon lane, so called of . . . the Minchuns, or nuns of St. Helen’s’, Stow, Survey of London (ed. Thoms, p. 50). OE. mynecenu, f. of munuc, a monk.
mind, to mean, intend. Mids. Night’s D. v. 113; 3 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 8, 64, 106, 140; Evelyn, Diary (May 21, 1645). In common prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mind, vb. 7).
ming, to mingle, mix. Surrey, Description of Spring, 11; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 4. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ming, vb.2). ME. mynge, to mix (Wyclif, Rev. xviii. 6); OE. mengan.
minge, to mention. Hall. Satires, IV. ii. 80 (Davies). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ming, vb.1). ME. mynge (Pearl, 855); OE. myn(e)gian.
minikin, a playful or endearing term for a female. Glapthorne, Hollander, ii (NED.). A Shropshire word for a delicate affected girl, see EDD. (sv. Minikin, 3). Du. minneken (Hexham).
minikin, small, delicate; ‘One blast of thy minikin mouth’, King Lear, iii. 6. 45. Cp. the Somerset phr. ‘Her was a poor little minnikin thing’ (EDD.).
minikin string, the thin string of gut used for the treble of the lute or viol, Ascham, Tox. 28. Hence, phr. to tickle the minikin, to play on the treble string, Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Gerardine); a minikin-tickler, a fiddler, Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Albano).
minim, a note, a part of a song or lay. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 28.
miniments, ‘muniments’, valuable belongings. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 6.
minion, a darling, a favourite, esp. in a contemptuous sense, a mistress, a paramour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 37; ‘A minion wyfe’, a neat, pretty wife, Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 86); the name of a small kind of ordnance, Whitelocke, Memorials (ed. 1853, i. 273); Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iii. 3. 6. F. mignon, ‘a minion, favourite, wanton, darling; also, minion, dainty, neat’ (Cotgr.).
minth, the plant called mint. Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1 (Flora). Gk. μίνθα.
mint-man, one skilled in coinage. Bacon, Essay 20, § 7.
minx, a pert girl, hussy. Congreve, Love for L., ii. 1; a wanton woman, Dryden, Limberham, i. 1; ‘Magalda, a trull or minxe’, Florio; Mistress Minx, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, ii. 2 (Faustus).
minx, a pet dog. Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 140.
mirador, gallery to gaze from, balcony. Dryden, Conquest of Granada, I. i. 1 (Abdelmelech). Span. mirador, a balcony (Stevens). See Stanford.
mischief, misfortune, disaster. Merry Wives, iv. 2. 76; Much Ado, i. 3. 13.
misconster, to misconstrue. Shirley, Love in a Maze, ii. 1. 8. See [conster].
miscreaunce, misbelief, false belief. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 51; Shep. Kal., May, 91. F. mescreance (Cotgr.).
misdeem, to judge amiss of, to think evil of. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 49; iii. 10. 29; Milton, P. R. i. 424; to judge amiss, id., P. L. ix. 301.
misken, a ‘mixen’, a manure-heap. Fletcher, Nightwalker, iii. 1 (Toby). A west-midland pronunc. of mixen (EDD.).
miskin, a little bagpipe. Drayton, Pastorals, ii. 5. A dimin. (through Dutch?) of OF. muse, a bagpipe, cp. F. musette, a little bagpipe (Cotgr.).
misprise, to mistake; ‘Misprise me not’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, iii. 3 (Maximilian). See [mesprize].
mister: in phr. what mister wight, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 23; iii. 7. 14, i.e. a man of what ‘mister’ (occupation), or, a man of what class, what kind of a man. The idiom occurs as an archaism in Spenser, borrowed from Chaucer, ‘But telleth me what mister men ye been’ (C. T. A. 1710). So we find, what mister thing, what kind of thing, Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, ii. 3. 19; such myster saying, such a kind of saying, Shep. Kal., Sept., 103. Mister (or mester) is very common in ME. in the sense of office, employment, business. OF. mestier (F. métier); Med. L. misterium, for ministerium (Ducange).
mister, to be necessary or needful; ‘As for my name, it mistreth not to tell’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 51. From mister, need, necessity, want; cp. Scottish proverb, ‘Mister maks man o’ craft’, Ray’s Proverbs (ed. Bohn, 250); Ferguson, Proverbs (ed. 1641, p. 24). See EDD. (s.v. Mister, vb. 1 and 3). ME. mistere, need (Cursor M. 3247); OF. (Norman) mestier, ‘besoin, nécessité’ (Moisy). The same word as [mister], above.
mistery, occupation, profession. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 221. ME. misterye (Chaucer, C. T. I. 890); Med. L. misterium, ‘officium’ (Ducange). See [mister].
mistress, the small bowl, or jack, in the game of bowls. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 3 (Mis. Low.); cp. ‘His bias was towards my mistress’, Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 2 (Brains); cp. A Woman never vext, iv. 1 (Lambskin).
misured, ill-omened, fatal; ‘O foule mysuryd ground, Whereon he gat his finall dedely wounde’, Skelton, Dethe of Erle of Northumberland, 118. Cp. OF. meseur, ‘malheur’ (Godefroy); meseurus, ‘malheureux’ (Chron. des ducs de Normandie, in Didot). See [eure].
mite, a small coin of very small value; used in negative phrases for a thing of little worth; ‘The price falleth not one mite’, More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, 42). Hence miting: ‘Nat worthe a mytyng’, not worth a mite, Skelton, Poems against Garnesche, iii. 115. ME. myte: ‘Noght worth a myte’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1558). See Dict.
mithridate, a compound regarded as an antidote against all poisons. Fletcher, Valentinian, v. 2 (Val.); Massinger, Maid of Honour, iv. 4 (Adorni). Named from Mithridates, king of Pontus, who was said to have been proof against poison owing to his constant use of antidotes. See Stanford.
miting, a diminutive creature; freq. used as a term of endearment or contempt, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 224. ME. mytyng (Towneley Myst. xii. 477).
mixt, to mix; ‘I myxte, or myngell’, Palsgrave; pres. pt., mixting, Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 13, § 4. Hence mixt, a mixture; ‘A mixt of both’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, ch. 9 (ed. Arber, 97). From the L. pp. mixtus.
mo, moe, orig. used as adv.; ‘Gent’lest fair, mourne, mourne no moe’ (mourn no more), Fletcher, Q. Corinth, iii. 2 (Song); the moe, the majority, the greater part, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, i. 15 (ed. Arber, 48); mo, more in number, ‘mo tymes’, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 7); ‘Infinite moe . . . He there beheld’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 63. ME. mo, adj., more in number, adv., any longer (Chaucer); OE. mā; Goth. mais, more (adv.). See Wright’s OE. Gram. § 252.
mobble, moble, to muffle up one’s head or face; also, with up; ‘Mobled queen’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 524; mobble up, Shirley, Gent. of Venice, v. 3 (Florelli). A Warw. and Shropsh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Moble).
mobile, mob; ‘The mobile’, Dryden, Pref. to Don Sebastian, § 2; id., i. 1 (near the end); iv. 2 (end). Common from ab. 1676 to 1700; shortened to mobb, c. 1688. It represents the L. mobile vulgus, the inconstant crowd. See Dict. (s.v. Mob), and Stanford.
mockado, a kind of cloth much used for clothing; ‘Who would not thinke it a ridiculous thing to see a Lady in her milke-house with a velvet gowne, and at a bridall in her cassock of mockado’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, 290); Ford, Lady’s Trial, ii. 1 (Guzman); Lodge, Wit’s Miserie, 14. A quasi-Spanish form from F. moucade, ‘the stuffe moccadoe’ (Cotgr.). Of Arab. origin, see NED. (s.v. Mohair), and Thomas, Essais (s.v. Camoiard).
moder, modere, to moderate, restrain. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 6, back, 18; Sir T. More, Works, p. 882, col. 2. OF. moderer.
modern, ordinary, commonplace, common; in a depreciatory sense. As You Like It, ii. 7. 156; Macbeth, iv. 3. 170. The only Shakespearian sense; peculiarly Elizabethan.
moe; see [mo].
moil, moyle, a ‘mule’. Ford, Fancies, ii. 2; More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 51); Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 1 (Welford). Common in Devon and Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Moyle).
moil, moyle, a kind of slipper or shoe; ‘Moyles of velvet to save thy shooes of lether’, J. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (ed. 1867, 214); ‘Moiles, a kind of high-soled shoes, worn in ancient times by Kings and great Persons’, Phillips; spelt mule, ‘He had ane pair of mules on his feit’, Spalding, Troubles of Charles I (NED.). F. mules, ‘moyles, pantofles, high slippers’ (Cotgr.). Cp. Du. muylen, pantoffles (Hexham). Med. L. mula, ‘crepida’ (Ducange).
moil, moyle, to wet; to soil, make dirty. Turbervile, Hunting, 33; to defile, Spenser, Hymn Heavenly Love, 220; to toil, work hard, drudge, Bacon, Essay, Plantations; to weary, fatigue, harass, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i (ed. Arber, 27). In common prov. use in many senses, to plaster with mud, to soil, defile, to work hard, to worry, see EDD. (s.v. Moil, vb.). F. mouiller (Cotgr.).
mold, a ‘mole’, spot, blemish. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 7. See [mould].
mollipuff; see [mullipuff].
mome, a blockhead. Com. Errors, iii. 1. 32; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 49; Levins, Manipulus; Drayton, Skeltoniad, p. 1373; Mirror for Mag. 466; Dekker, Gull’s Horne-bk. 5; Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, i. 2. 5. Dialect of Geneva mome, ‘sot, nigaud’; cp. F. (argot) mome, ‘garçon’ (Sainéan, p. 206).
†Momtanish (?); ‘And this your momtanish inhumanytye’, Sir T. More, ii. 4. 162. Dr. H. Bradley conjectures Moritanish (i.e. Moorish).
moniment, memorial, anything by which a thing may be remembered. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 38; ii. 10. 56; used of dints on a shield, F. Q. ii. 12. 80; of an inscription stamped on coin, F. Q. ii. 7. 5. L. monimentum, deriv. of monere, to remind.
Monmouth cap, a flat round cap formerly worn by soldiers and sailors, Hen. V, iv. 7. 104; Eastward Ho, iv. 1 (or 2) (Touchstone). Also, monmouth, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 5 (last Song).
monomachy, single combat. Heywood, Golden Age, A. iii (Enceladus); vol. iii, p. 50. Gk. μονομαχία; deriv. of μονομάχος, fighting alone.
monster, a prodigy, wonder, divine omen. Phaer, Aeneid ii, 680 (L. mirabile monstrum); id., iii. 26.
montant (a fencing term), an upright blow or thrust. Merry Wives, ii. 3. 27; montanto, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 7 (Bobadil). F. montant (Cotgr.).
month: phr. to have a month’s mind, to have an inclination, a fancy, a liking. Lyly, Euphues (Arber, 464); ‘Tu es bien engrand de trotter, Thou hast a moneths mind to be gone’, Cotgrave; Pepys, Diary, May 20, 1660. In prov. use in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Month, sb.1 3 (b)).
monthly, madly; after the manner of a lunatic. Only in Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 2 (Moll).
moodeles, modeless, unmeasured, vast, huge; Mirror for Mag., Morindus, st. 17. Frequent in Greene (NED.). From mode, measure, size, manner, &c.
moon, a fit of frenzy; ‘I know ’twas but some peevish Moone in him’, C. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii (Duke).
mooncalf, a false conception, imperfect foetus; hence, monstrosity. Tempest, ii. 2. 111; Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, iv. 1 (Bussy); Drayton, The Mooncalf. Cp. G. mondkalb, ‘ungestalte Missgeburt’ (Weigand).
moonling, a mooncalf, silly fellow. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Wit.).
mooting-night, a night at the Inns of Court, when imaginary cases at law are discussed by the students. Cartwright, The Ordinary, iii. 5 (Song, verse 2). See Dict. (s.v. Moot).
mooting-time, the moulting season. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 120. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mout). ME. mowtyn, as fowlys, ‘deplumeo’ (Prompt.); cp. Du. muyten, ‘to mue as hawkes doe’ (Hexham); Low G. muten (G. mausen), to moult (Berghaus); L. mutare.
mop, a grimace, Temp. iv. 1. 47; to make grimaces, King Lear, iv. 1. 64; ‘To moppe, maw, movere labia’, Levins, Manip.
moppe (see quot.); ‘I called her (the young lady) Moppe . . . Understanding by this word, a litle prety Lady, or tender young thing. For so we call litle fishes that be not come to full growth, as whiting moppes, gurnard moppes’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, 229). Cp. ME. moppe, ‘pupa’ (Prompt. EETS. 292).
moppet, a term of endearment applied to a child or a young girl, Massinger, Guardian, iv. 2 (end); The Spectator, no. 277. See above.
more, the root of a tree or plant; a plant. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 10. A west-country word from Worc. to Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. More). ME. more, root (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 25). OE. more, moru, an edible root, a carrot, parsnip (B. T.), cp. G. möhre, a carrot.
morelle, a dark-coloured horse. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 15, l. 11; i. 24, l. 17. ME. morel, hors (Prompt. EETS. 293). Norm. F. morel, cheval morel, ‘cheval noir’ (Moisy). F. morel, moreau, cheval moreau, a black horse (Cotgr.).
morfound, a disease in horses, sheep, &c., due to taking a chill. Spelt morfounde, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 100. Palsgrave has: ‘I morfonde, as a horse dothe that waxeth styffe by taking of a sodayne colde.’ F. se morfondre, to take cold (Cotgr.).
Morglay, the name of the sword belonging to Sir Bevis, Drayton, Polyolbion, ii. 332; used allusively for a sword, Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, i. 1 (Longueville); Stanyhurst, Aeneid, ii (Arber, 60); Cleaveland’s Poems (Nares). We may perhaps compare claymore (glaymore), see NED.
Morian, of the Moorish race, pertaining to the Moors; a Moor; the Moryans land, Great Bible, 1539, Ps. lxviii. 31 (rendering of ‘Aethiopia’ in Vulgate); the Morians londe, Coverdale (1535), ib.; cp. Luther’s rendering, Mohrenland, land of the Moors. See Bible Word-Book. OF. Morien (NED.). See [Murrian].
morigeration, deference, obsequiousness. Bacon, Adv. of Learning, i. 3. 10; Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. V, p. 29. L. morigeratio, compliance.
morisco, a morris-dance. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, v. 2. 7. Also, a morris-dancer, 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 365. Properly, a Moorish dance; see Stanford. Span. morisco, a man descended from Moors or converted from them (Stevens). See [morris-pike].
mornifle; ‘Mornyfle, a maner of play, mornifle’, Palsgrave. F. mornifle, a trick at cards (Cotgr.); ‘réunion de quatre cartes semblables’ (Hatzfeld). Mornifle also meant a cuff, a blow: ‘donner mornifle, c’est-à-dire un soufflet’ (Oudin, 1640); see Sainéan, L’Argot ancien, p. 206. See [mournival].
morphew, a disease of the skin; ‘Morféa, the morphew in some womens faces’, Florio; ‘Morfewe, a sickenesse’, Palsgrave. Hence, morphewed, afflicted with the disease, Webster, Duchess of Malfi, ii. 1 (Bosola). ME. morfu, ‘morphea’ (Prompt.). Med. L. morfea, ‘cutis foedacio maculosa’ (Sin. Bart.).
morpion, a kind of louse. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 437. F. morpion, a crab-louse (Cotgr.); cp. Rabelais, II. xxvii; deriv. of mordre + pion, ‘ce pou ayant infesté surtout les anciens corps d’infanterie’ (Hatzfeld).
morris-pike, a form of pike supposed to be of Moorish origin, Com. Errors, iv. 3. 28; morispike, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 67). See [morisco].
mort (a hunting term). The note sounded on a horn at the death of the deer, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 118; ‘He that bloweth the Mort before the fall of the Buck’, Greene, Card of Fancie (Nares).
mort (Cant), a girl or woman. B. Jonson, Gypsies Met. 65; a female vagabond, harlot, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). Later, written mott (mot), London slang for a woman of the town, see NED.
mortar: in phr. to fly to Rome with a mortar on one’s head, app. a legendary achievement of some wizard; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Soto); Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, v. 2 (Clown); Kemp, Nine Daies Wonder, Ep. Ded. (NED.). F. mortier, ‘a morter to bray things in’ (Cotgr.).
mortmal, mormal, an inflamed sore, esp. on the leg; ‘The old mortmal on his shin’, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 (Maudlin); ‘Mormall, a sore, loup’, Palsgrave. ME. mormale, ‘malum mortuum’ (Prompt.). OF. mortmal; cp. Med. L. malum mortuum, ‘morbi genus pedum et tibiarum’ (Ducange). See [marmoll].
mort-pays, the taking of the King’s pay by a captain in service for men who were dead or discharged; ‘The severe punishing of mort-pays’, Bacon, Hist. Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 93). See [dead pay].
most an end, generally, usually; continually. Massinger, A Very Woman, iii. 1 (Merchant). Honest (addressing Greatheart): ‘Knew him! I was a great companion of his; I was with him most an end’; Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, Pt. II. In common prov. use from Yorks. to E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Most, 7, 2a).
mot, motte, a word, saying, motto, proverb. Rape of Lucrece, 830; ‘To gull him with a motte’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2 (E. Knowell). F. mot, a word.
mote, a note of a horn or bugle. Morte Arthur, leaf 112. 20 (bk. vii, ch. 8); ‘Mote, blaste of a horne’, Palsgrave; mot, Chevy Chace, 16; mott, Turbervile, Hunting, 86. ME. moote of an horne, blowyng (Prompt. EETS. 294, see note, no. 1431). F. mot, ‘the note winded by an huntsman on his horn’ (Cotgr.).
mote, a pleading in a law-court. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 14, § 7. OE. mōtian, to address a meeting, to discuss, ‘moot a question’ (B. T.). See Dict. (s.v. Moot).
mote, may, must; ‘I mote dye’, Morte Arthur, leaf 34. 9; bk. i, c. 20; ‘Now mote ye understand’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 46. ME. mot, moot, pres. (I or he) may, must; moten, mote, pl.; moste, pt. t. OE. mōt, (I, he) may; mōst, 2 sing.; mōton, pl.; mōste, pt. t.
mother, a young girl. Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, iii. 2 (Franio). See [mauther].
mother, the, hysteria. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront); King Lear, ii. 4. 56.
mothering, the custom of visiting one’s mother, and giving and receiving of presents of food, &c., on Mid-Lent Sunday; ‘Thou go’st a-mothering’, Herrick, To Dianeme, A Ceremonie in Gloucester. See EDD. (s.v. Mothering) for accounts of the customs connected with ‘Mothering Sunday’ (Mid-Lent Sunday) in various parts of England from Yorks. to Devon.
moting, mooting; i.e. discussion, debate. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 1075. ME. motyng, or pletynge, ‘placitatio’ (Prompt. EETS. 294). See [mote] (a pleading).
motion, a puppet-show. Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 103; a puppet, Two Gent. ii. 1. 100; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, v. 3. 3.
mott, measured; pt. t. of [mete] (q.v.). Spenser, Colin Clout, 365. See NED. (s.v. Mete, vb.1).
motte; see [mot].
mouch, to act by stealth; to idle and loaf about, Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Clown), ed. Dyce, p. 193. See Mooch in NED. and EDD. The word is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and in Australia.
mouchatoes, moustaches. Lady Alimony, ii. 5 (Juliffe). See [mutchado].
mought, a moth; ‘Mought that eates clothes, ver de drap’, Palsgrave. Hence moughte-eaten, ‘Olde and moughte-eaten lawes’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 53). ME. mouȝte (Wyclif, Matt. vi. 19); moghte, ‘tinea’ (Cath. Angl.); OE. mohða.
mought, pt. t. might. Bacon, Essays (very common, see Abbott’s ed., Index); Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 42. ME. maht, 2 pr. s.; mahte, pt. t. of mæi, (I, he) may; OE. meaht, 2 pr. s.; meahte, pt. t. of mæg, (I, he) may, can.
mould, a ‘mole’, a spot on the skin, birthmark. Gascoigne, Supposes, v. 5 (Cleander); mold, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 7. See Dict. (s.v. Mould, 3).
mouldwarp, the mole, ‘talpa’; moldwarp, 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 148; Spenser, Colin Clout, 763. In gen. prov. use in the north country, Midlands, and Suffolk, see EDD. (s.v. Mouldywarp). ME. moldewarpe, ‘talpa’ (Cath. Angl.); cp. Dan. muldvarp, Norw. dial. moldvarp (Aasen), G. maulwurf.
mount cent, mount saint, a game at cards resembling piquet; probably the same as [cent] (q.v.), Machin, Dumb Knight, iv (Queen). Prob. from mount, i.e. amount, and cent, one hundred. See NED.
mountenance, amount of space, distance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 18; iii. 11. 20; v. 6. 36. ME. mowntenawnce (Prompt.); montenance, amount (Cursor M. 29166).
mournival, a set of four aces, kings, queens, or knaves in one hand. Cotton Gamester, 68; hence, a set of four (things or persons), B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Mirth); murnival, Greene’s Tu Quoque, in Ancient Eng. Drama, ii. 551. See [mornifle].
mouse, a term of endearment. Hamlet, iii. 4. 183; Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Openwork).
mouse-hunt, a woman hunter. Romeo iv. 4. 11. This is prob. a fig. use of mouse-hunt, a weasel, ‘The Ferrets and Moushunts of an Index’, Milton (Wks., ed. 1851, iii. 81); spelt musehont, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 79). ‘Mouse-hunt’ (‘Mouse-hound’) is in prov. use in E. Anglia for the smallest animal of the weasel tribe. See EDD. (s.v. Mouse, 1, (7) and (8)). M. Du. muyshont, or muushont, a weasel, lit. ‘a mouse-hound’.
mowe, to be able; ‘They shalle not mowe helpe, they shall not be able to help’, Morte Arthur, leaf 61, back, 26; bk. iv, c. 3. ME. mow(e)n, ‘posse’ (Prompt. EETS. 302); see Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii. 1594). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Mæi).
mowe, to make grimaces; ‘I mow with the mouth, I mock one, Je fays la moue’, Palsgrave; ‘Apes that moe and chatter’, Tempest, ii. 2. 9; mowing, making grimaces, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 54).
mowes, grimaces, ‘Making mowes at me’, Bible (1539), Ps. xxxv. 15; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 49; Cymbeline, i. 6. 41. ME. mow, or scorne, ‘valgia’ (Prompt. EETS. 294). F. moue, a moe, ‘an ill-favoured extension or thrusting out of the lips’ (Cotgr.).
mowles, broken chilblains in the heels. Dunbar, Poems (ed. Small, ii. 128). See EDD. (s.v. Mool), and Jamieson (s.v. Mules). ME. mowle, ‘pernio’ (Cath. Angl.); mowle, sore, ‘pustula, pernio’ (Prompt. EETS. 295, see note, no. 1439). F. mule, ‘a kibe; aller sur mule: Il va sur mule aussi bien que le Pape (an equivocation, applicable to one that hath kibed heels)’; see Cotgrave. Cp. Du. muyle, a kibe (Hexham).
moy, an imaginary name of coin, evolved by Pistol out of his prisoner’s speech; ‘Ayez pitié de moi! Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys’, &c., Hen. V, iv. 4. 14.
moyle, a variety of apple; ‘Of Moyle, or Mum, or Treacle’s viscous juice’, J. Philips, Cider, bk. i. (Perhaps the word means a hybrid; cp. moyle, a mule.) See [genet-moyl].
moyle; see [moil].
muccinigo, a small coin formerly current in Venice, worth about 9d. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1; iv. 1; Shirley, Gent. Venice, i. 1 (Cornari). Ital. ‘mocenigo, a coyn in Venice; also the name of a considerable family there’ (Florio). The coin was named from Tommaso Mocenigo, doge of Venice, 1413-23. See NED. (s.v. Moccenigo).
much!, a contemptuous exclamation of denial. Much = much of that!, ironically; i.e. far from it, by no means. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 143; Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Celso), Much wench! i.e. no wench at all, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum., iv. 6 (Brain-worm).
muck; in Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1188. To run amuck, to run about in a frenzy, is a phrase due to the Malay āmuq, ‘rushing in a state of frenzy to the commission of indiscriminate murder’ (Marsden). Dryden took the a in amuck to be the E. indef. article; and reproduced the phrase in the curious form—runs an Indian muck. See Stanford (s.v. Amuck).
muckinder, a handkerchief. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Turfe); Fletcher, Captain, iii. 5 (Fabricio); ‘Mockendar for chyldre, mouchouer’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in many parts of England from the north country to Kent and Dorset in various forms; muckinder, muckender, muckinger, muckenger (EDD.). ME. mokedore, ‘sudarium’ (Voc. 614. 25), O. Prov. mocadour (mod. moucadour), a handkerchief, Span. mocador, F. mouchoir; deriv. of moucher, ‘débarrasser des mucosités que sécrète la muqueuse nasale’ (Hatzfeld).
muffler, (1) a wrapper worn by women and covering the face; (2) a cloth for blindfolding a person. Merry Wives, iv. 2. 73; Fletcher, Night-walker, ii. 2 (near the end); 2 Hen. V, iii. 6. 32.
mugwet, the intestines of an animal; ‘The gatherbagge or Mugwet of a yong harte’, Turbervile, Hunting, 39. ‘Mugget’ is in prov. use in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall for sheep or calf’s intestines; see EDD. See NED. (s.v. Mugget).
mule: phr. to ride upon a mule, to be a great lawyer. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 1 (Carlo); to shoe one’s mule, to help oneself out of the funds trusted to one’s management, History of Francion (Nares).
mule; see [moil] (a slipper).
mullar, a ‘muller’, a stone with a flat base, held in the hand and used, in conjunction with a grinding-stone or slab, in grinding painters’ colours. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, p. 136. F. moulleur, a grinder (Cotgr.); deriv. of OF. moldre, L. molere, to grind.
mullet, the rowel of a spur; a mullet, in heraldry. Shirley, Love in a Maze, i. 1 (Simple). F. molette d’esperon, the rowel of a spur (Cotgr.).
mullets, pincers or tweezers. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). F. mollette, ‘a mullet, a nipper, a pincer’ (Cotgr.).
mullipuff, mollipuff, the puff-ball, or fuzz-ball. Shirley, St. Patrick, v. 1 (2 Soldier). See NED. (s.v. Mullipuff), and EDD. (s.v. Mully-puff). ‘Mully’ in Norfolk is used for mouldy, powdery, see EDD. (s.v. Mull, sb.1 1). Norw. dial. moll, mould (Aasen), Swed. mull (Widegren).
mullwine, mulled wine. Middleton, Phœnix, iv. 3. 9. See Dict. (s.v. Mulled).
mumbudget, a word used to insist upon silence; ‘I cry . . . mum; she cries budget’, Merry Wives, v. 2. 6; ‘Quoth she, Mum budget’, Butler, Hud. i. 3. 208; ‘Mumbudget, not a word!’, Look about You, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 420.
mumchance, the name of a game, both at dice and at cards. Westward Ho, ii. 2 (with allusion to bones, i.e. dice); B. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 2 (Subtle); Barth. Fair, iv. 1 (Cokes). Played in silence; whence the name.
mumchance, one who has nothing to say, a ‘dummy’. Plautus made English (Nares). In prov. use in many parts of England, esp. in the west country, for a stupid, silent, stolid person.
mummia, mummy, a preparation used in medicine, chiefly from the substance with which Egyptian mummies were preserved. Webster, White Devil (beginning, Gasparo), ed. Dyce, p. 5; id. (Isabella), p. 15; Beaumont and Fl., iii. 1 (Galoshio). See Dict. (s.v. Mummy), and Stanford (s.v. Mummia).
mump, to overreach, to cheat; ‘Mump your proud players’, Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 2 (Bayes); ‘Mump’d of his snip’ (i.e. cheated of his portion), Wycherley, Love in a Wood, i. 2 (Ranger); Gent. Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Mrs. Caution). In prov. use in the west country, see EDD. (s.v. Mump, vb.1 10). Du. mompen, ‘to mump, cheat’ (Sewel).
mump, to make grimaces, to screw up the mouth. Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 1 (Pierre); D’Urfey, Pills, vi. 198; a grimace, ‘Monnoye de singe, moes, mumps’, Cotgrave. ‘To mump’ is used in Northamptonsh. in the sense of drawing in the lips, screwing up the mouth with a smile: ‘She mumps up her mouth, she knows something’, see EDD. (s.v. Mump, vb.1 4).
mumpsimus. [In allusion to the story of an illiterate English priest, who when corrected for reading ‘quod in ore mumpsimus’ in the Mass, replied ‘I will not change my old mumpsimus for your new sumpsimus’ (NED.).] One who obstinately adheres to old ways in spite of the clearest evidence that they are wrong, an old fogey, Underhill in Narr. Reform. (Camden Soc., 141); Gascoigne, Supposes, i. 3 (Dulipo). See Nares.
mundungo, bad-smelling tobacco; ‘A mundungo monopolist’, Lady Alimony, ii. 2 (1 Boy); snuff-mundungus, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 1006. A jocular use of Span. mondongo, ‘hogs puddings’ (Stevens).
munify, to fortify. Drayton, Barons’ Wars, ii. 34; hence, munificence, defence, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 15 (ed. 1596).
munite, to fortify. Florio, tr. Montaigne, bk. i, c. 47; Bacon, Essay 3 (ed. Abbott, p. 10).
munpins, mouth-pegs, the teeth; a ludicrous form. Munpynnys, Skelton, The Douty Duke of Albany, 292. ‘Mun’ for mouth is in prov. use in the north, and in slang use generally, see EDD. (s.v. Mun, sb.1 1). Norw. dial. munn, the mouth (Aasen).
muraill, a wall; walls of a city. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 201, back, 14. F. muraille.
murderer, murdering-piece, a cannon or mortar, discharging stones or grape-shot. Hamlet, iv. 5. 95; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Jaques); Double Marriage, iv. 2. 6.
mure, a wall. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 119; Heywood, If you know not Me (Queen), vol. i, p. 338; to shut up, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 119; mured up, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 34. L. murus, a wall.
murleon, a merlin, a small hawk; ‘A cast [couple] of murleons’, Damon and Pithias, Ancient Brit. Drama, i. 88, col. 2. ME. merlioun, Chaucer (Parl. Foules, 339). F. esmerillon (Cotgr.).
murnival; see [mournival].
murr, a violent catarrh, a severe cold in the head. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, ii. 1 (Philip); murres, pl., Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, fol. 3, back; ‘Murre, gravedo’, Levins, Manipulus. See Nares.
Murrian, a Mauritanian, a Moor. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 315). See [Morian].
murrion, a ‘morion’, a steel cap. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). Also jocularly, a nightcap; spelt murrain, id., Scornful Lady, iv. 1 (Abigail). Span. morrion (Stevens). See Stanford (s.v. Morrion), and Dict. (s.v. Morion).
muscadine, a kind of wine with a musk-like perfume. Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1. 12. See Dict. (s.v. Muscadel).
Muscovy glass, a kind of talc. B. Jonson, Prol. to Devil is an Ass, 17; Marston (Malcontent), i. 3 (Passarello).
muse, to wonder, marvel. Coriolanus, iii. 2. 7; Macbeth, iii. 4. 85; hence, muses, musings, thoughts, cogitations, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 94); Englishman for my Money, iii. 2 (Harvey); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 509. OF. muser, ‘regarder comme un sot’ (Bartsch), cp. Ital. musare, ‘to muse, to gape, to hould ones muzle or snout in the aire’ (Florio); Prov. muzar, ‘regarder bouche béante’; mus, ‘figure, visage’ (Levy).
muse, a gap in a thicket or fence through which a hare or other beast of sport is wont to pass; ‘Take a hare without a muse, and a knave without an excuse’, Howell, Eng. Prov. 12; ‘The wild muse of a bore’ (boar), Chapman, tr. Iliad, xi. 368; Heywood, Witches of Lancs. i. 1 (Bantam). The word is in prov. use in many parts of England from the north country to Sussex, written muse, meuse, moose, muce, see EDD. (s.v. Meuse). F. dial. (Bas-Maine) mus, ‘muce, passage étroit à travers des broussailles pour les lièvres, les lapins, &c.’ (Dottin); see Littré (s.v. Musse). See [meaze].
muske-million, the musk-melon. Drayton, Pol. xx. 54; Tusser, Husbandry, § 40. 8.
musquet, a hawk of a very small size. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 119; ‘Musket, a lytell hauke, mouchet’, Palsgrave. Ital. mosquetto, ‘a musket-hawke’ (Florio).
muss, a scramble among boys, for trivial objects. Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 91; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, iv. 1 (Cokes). ‘Muss’ means a confusion, scramble, in Warwickshire, see EDD. (s.v. Muss, sb.1 1 and 2).
mutchado, a moustache; ‘On his upper lippe A mutchado’, Arden of Fev. ii. 1. 56; mutchato, Higgins, Induction to Mirror for Mag. (Nares); muschatoes, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4 (Ithamore). For numerous spellings of the word ‘moustache’ see NED. See [mouchatoes].
mutton, a strumpet. Middleton, Roaring Girl, iii. 2 (Mis. O.); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 8 (Bots). See [laced mutton].
myrobalane, a kind of dried Indian plum. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1 (Subtle). F. myrobalan, L. myrobalanum, Gk. μυροβάλανος, probably the ben-nut; μύpov, unguent, and βάλανος, acorn.