MRS. JONES, the house of office, a water-closet.
MRS. HARRIS and MRS. GAMP, nicknames of the Morning Herald and Standard newspapers, while united under the proprietorship of Mr. Baldwin. Mrs. Gamp, a monthly nurse, was a character in Mr. Charles Dickens’ popular novel of Martin Chuzzlewit, who continually quoted an imaginary Mrs. Harris in attestation of the superiority of her qualifications, and the infallibility of her opinions; and thus afforded a parallel to the two newspapers, who appealed to each other as independent authorities, being all the while the production of the same editorial staff.
MUCK, to beat, or excel; “it’s no use, luck’s set in him; he’d MUCK a thousand.”—Mayhew, vol. i, p. 18. To run a muck, or GO A MUCKER, to rush headlong into certain ruin. From a certain religious phrenzy, which is common among the Malays, causing one of them, kreese in hand, to dash into a crowd and devote every one to death he meets with, until he is himself killed, or falls from exhaustion—Malay, AMOK, slaughter.
MUCK OUT, to clean out,—often applied to one utterly ruining an adversary in gambling. From the Provincial MUCK, dirt.
MUCK-SNIPE, one who has been “MUCKED OUT,” or beggared, at gambling.
MUCKENDER, or MUCKENGER, a pocket handkerchief.—Old.
MUDFOG, “The British Association for the Promotion of Science.”—University.
MUD-LARKS, men and women who, with their clothes tucked above knee, grovel through the mud on the banks of the Thames, when the tide is low, for silver spoons, old bottles, pieces of iron, coal, or any articles of the least value, deposited by the retiring tide, either from passing ships or the sewers. Occasionally those men who cleanse the sewers, with great boots and sou’ wester hats.
MUFF, a silly, or weak-minded person; MUFF has been defined to be “a soft thing that holds a lady’s hand without squeezing it.”
MUFFIN-WORRY, an old ladies’ tea party.