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.