Morian, of the Moorish race, pertaining to the Moors; a Moor; the Moryans land, Great Bible, 1539, Ps. lxviii. 31 (rendering of ‘Aethiopia’ in Vulgate); the Morians londe, Coverdale (1535), ib.; cp. Luther’s rendering, Mohrenland, land of the Moors. See Bible Word-Book. OF. Morien (NED.). See [Murrian].
morigeration, deference, obsequiousness. Bacon, Adv. of Learning, i. 3. 10; Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. V, p. 29. L. morigeratio, compliance.
morisco, a morris-dance. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, v. 2. 7. Also, a morris-dancer, 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 365. Properly, a Moorish dance; see Stanford. Span. morisco, a man descended from Moors or converted from them (Stevens). See [morris-pike].
mornifle; ‘Mornyfle, a maner of play, mornifle’, Palsgrave. F. mornifle, a trick at cards (Cotgr.); ‘réunion de quatre cartes semblables’ (Hatzfeld). Mornifle also meant a cuff, a blow: ‘donner mornifle, c’est-à-dire un soufflet’ (Oudin, 1640); see Sainéan, L’Argot ancien, p. 206. See [mournival].
morphew, a disease of the skin; ‘Morféa, the morphew in some womens faces’, Florio; ‘Morfewe, a sickenesse’, Palsgrave. Hence, morphewed, afflicted with the disease, Webster, Duchess of Malfi, ii. 1 (Bosola). ME. morfu, ‘morphea’ (Prompt.). Med. L. morfea, ‘cutis foedacio maculosa’ (Sin. Bart.).
morpion, a kind of louse. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 437. F. morpion, a crab-louse (Cotgr.); cp. Rabelais, II. xxvii; deriv. of mordre + pion, ‘ce pou ayant infesté surtout les anciens corps d’infanterie’ (Hatzfeld).
morris-pike, a form of pike supposed to be of Moorish origin, Com. Errors, iv. 3. 28; morispike, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 67). See [morisco].
mort (a hunting term). The note sounded on a horn at the death of the deer, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 118; ‘He that bloweth the Mort before the fall of the Buck’, Greene, Card of Fancie (Nares).
mort (Cant), a girl or woman. B. Jonson, Gypsies Met. 65; a female vagabond, harlot, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). Later, written mott (mot), London slang for a woman of the town, see NED.
mortar: in phr. to fly to Rome with a mortar on one’s head, app. a legendary achievement of some wizard; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Soto); Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, v. 2 (Clown); Kemp, Nine Daies Wonder, Ep. Ded. (NED.). F. mortier, ‘a morter to bray things in’ (Cotgr.).