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.