Maw, the mouth; “hold your MAW,” cease talking.
Mawworm, a hypocrite of the most unpleasant kind. From Bickerstaff’s play of The Hypocrite. Originally a MAWWORM was a worm in the stomach, the thread worm.
Max, gin; MAX upon tick, gin obtained upon credit.
Mazarine, the platform beneath the stage in large theatres. Probably corruption of Italian, MEZZANINO.
M. B. coat, (i.e., Mark of the Beast,) a name given to the long surtout worn by some of the clergy,—a modern Puritan form of abuse, said to have been accidentally disclosed to a High Church customer by a tailor’s orders to his foreman.
Mealy-mouthed, soft-spoken, plausible, deceitful. A specious liar is said to be MEALY-MOUTHED.
Mean white, a term of contempt among negroes, in the old slavery days, for white men without landed property. A white man in the Southern States had no locus standi unless he possessed property, and the blackest of niggers would have felt insulted at any “poor white trash” claiming to be “a man and brother.”
Measley, mean, miserable-looking, “seedy;” “what a MEASLEY-looking man!” i.e., what a wretched, unhappy fellow.
Medical Greek, the slang used by medical students at the hospitals. At the London University they have a way of disguising English, described by Albert Smith as the Gower Street Dialect, which consists in transposing the initials of words, e.g., “poke a smipe”—smoke a pipe; “flutter-by”—butterfly, &c. This disagreeable nonsense, which has not even the recommendation of a little ability in its composition, is often termed Marrowskying. See [Greek], [St. Giles’s Greek], or the “Ægidiac” dialect, Language of [ZIPH], &c.