MOSES' LAW. The term among pirates for inflicting thirty-nine lashes on the bare back—forty save one.
MOSQUITO. A term applied to a gnat-like species of stinging insects, found chiefly in low marshy places and the neighbourhood of rivers.
MOSQUITO FLEET. An assemblage of small craft.
MOSQUITO NET. A light curtain spread over a cot or bed in warm climates, to protect the sleeper from mosquitoes.
MOSS-BONKER. The name given by American fishermen to the [hard-head] (which see).
MOTHER CARY'S CHICKEN. The stormy petrel, Procellaria pelagica.
MOTHER CARY'S GOOSE. The name given by Captain Cook's people to an oceanic brown bird, Procellaria gigantea, which Pernety calls Quebranta huesos (bone-breaker).
MOTHER-OF-PEARL. The iridescent nacreous inner layer of several species of shells, especially the "pearl-oyster" (Meleagrina margaritifera).
MOTHERY [probably from the Dutch mœder, mud]. Thick and mouldy; generally applied to decomposing liquors.
MOTION. Change of place; it is termed direct, in the sky, when it is in the direction of the earth's annual revolution; retrograde, when it proceeds contrary to these conditions; by sidereal is meant the motion of a body with respect to the fixed stars.—Tropical motion is the movement of a body in respect to the equinox or tropic, which has itself a slow motion among the stars, as shown under precession. (See [Proper Motion].)—Motion, in mechanics, is either simple or compound, as one or more powers are used. The momentum of a moving body, or quantity of motion, arises from its velocity multiplied into the quantity of matter it contains.