mount cent, mount saint, a game at cards resembling piquet; probably the same as [cent] (q.v.), Machin, Dumb Knight, iv (Queen). Prob. from mount, i.e. amount, and cent, one hundred. See NED.
mountenance, amount of space, distance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 18; iii. 11. 20; v. 6. 36. ME. mowntenawnce (Prompt.); montenance, amount (Cursor M. 29166).
mournival, a set of four aces, kings, queens, or knaves in one hand. Cotton Gamester, 68; hence, a set of four (things or persons), B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Mirth); murnival, Greene’s Tu Quoque, in Ancient Eng. Drama, ii. 551. See [mornifle].
mouse, a term of endearment. Hamlet, iii. 4. 183; Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Openwork).
mouse-hunt, a woman hunter. Romeo iv. 4. 11. This is prob. a fig. use of mouse-hunt, a weasel, ‘The Ferrets and Moushunts of an Index’, Milton (Wks., ed. 1851, iii. 81); spelt musehont, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 79). ‘Mouse-hunt’ (‘Mouse-hound’) is in prov. use in E. Anglia for the smallest animal of the weasel tribe. See EDD. (s.v. Mouse, 1, (7) and (8)). M. Du. muyshont, or muushont, a weasel, lit. ‘a mouse-hound’.
mowe, to be able; ‘They shalle not mowe helpe, they shall not be able to help’, Morte Arthur, leaf 61, back, 26; bk. iv, c. 3. ME. mow(e)n, ‘posse’ (Prompt. EETS. 302); see Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii. 1594). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Mæi).
mowe, to make grimaces; ‘I mow with the mouth, I mock one, Je fays la moue’, Palsgrave; ‘Apes that moe and chatter’, Tempest, ii. 2. 9; mowing, making grimaces, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 54).
mowes, grimaces, ‘Making mowes at me’, Bible (1539), Ps. xxxv. 15; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 49; Cymbeline, i. 6. 41. ME. mow, or scorne, ‘valgia’ (Prompt. EETS. 294). F. moue, a moe, ‘an ill-favoured extension or thrusting out of the lips’ (Cotgr.).
mowles, broken chilblains in the heels. Dunbar, Poems (ed. Small, ii. 128). See EDD. (s.v. Mool), and Jamieson (s.v. Mules). ME. mowle, ‘pernio’ (Cath. Angl.); mowle, sore, ‘pustula, pernio’ (Prompt. EETS. 295, see note, no. 1439). F. mule, ‘a kibe; aller sur mule: Il va sur mule aussi bien que le Pape (an equivocation, applicable to one that hath kibed heels)’; see Cotgrave. Cp. Du. muyle, a kibe (Hexham).
moy, an imaginary name of coin, evolved by Pistol out of his prisoner’s speech; ‘Ayez pitié de moi! Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys’, &c., Hen. V, iv. 4. 14.