1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 51

MOUSE. To speak like a mouse in a cheese; i.e. faintly or indistinctly.

MOUSETRAP. The parson's mousetrap; the state of matrimony.

MOUTH. A noisy fellow. Mouth half c.o.c.ked; one gaping and staring at every thing he sees. To make any one laugh on the wrong, or t'other side of his mouth; to make him cry or grieve.

MOUTH. A silly fellow. A dupe. To stand mouth; i.e.

to be duped.

To MOW. A Scotch word for the act of copulation.

MOW HEATER. A drover: from their frequent sleeping on hay mows. CANT.

MOWER. A cow.

MUCK. Money; also dung.

MUCKWORM. A miser.

MUCKINDER. A child's handkerchief tied to the side.

MUD. A fool, or thick-sculled fellow; also, among printers the same as dung among journeymen taylors. See DUNG.

MUD LARK. A fellow who goes about by the water side picking up coals, nails, or other articles in the mud. Also a duck.

m.u.f.f. The private parts of a woman. To the well wearing of your m.u.f.f, mort; to the happy consummation of your marriage, girl; a health.

m.u.f.fLING CHEAT. A napkin.

MUGGLETONIANS. The sect or disciples of Lodowick Muggleton.

MULLIGRUBS. Sick of the mulligrubs with eating chopped hay: low-spirited, having an imaginary sickness.

MUM. An interjection directing silence. Mum for that; I shall be silent as to that. As mute as Mumchance, who was hanged for saying nothing; a friendly reproach to any one who seems low-spirited and silent.

MUMCHANCE. An ancient game like hazard, played with dice: probably so named from the silence observed in playing at it.

MUM GLa.s.s. The monument erected on Fish-street Hill, London, in memory of the great fire in 1666.

MUMBLE A SPARROW. A cruel sport practised at wakes and fairs, in the following manner: A c.o.c.k sparrow whose wings are clipped, is put into the crown of a hat; a man having his arms tied behind him, attempts to bite off the sparrow's head, but is generally obliged to desist, by the many pecks and pinches he receives from the enraged bird.

MUMMER. The mouth.

MUMPERS. Originally beggars of the genteel kind, but since used for beggars in general.

MUMPERS HALL. An alehouse where beggars are harboured.

MUNDUNGUS. Bad or rank tobacco: from mondongo, a Spanish word signifying tripes, or the uncleaned entrails of a beast, full of filth.

MUNG. To beg.

MUNS. The face, or rather the mouth: from the German word MUND, the mouth. Toute his muns; look at his face.

MUNSTER PLUMS. Potatoes. IRISH.

MUNSTER HEIFER. An Irish woman. A woman with thick legs is said to be like a Munster heifer; i.e. beef to the heels.

MURDER. He looked like G.o.d's revenge against murder; he looked angrily.

MURPHIES. Potatoes.

MUSHROOM. A person or family suddenly raised to riches and eminence: an allusion to that fungus, which starts up in a night.

MUSIC. The watch-word among highwaymen, signifying the person is a friend, and must pa.s.s unmolested. Music is also an Irish term, in tossing up, to express the harp side, or reverse, of a farthing or halfpenny, opposed to the head.

MUTE. An undertaker's servant, who stands at the door of a person lying in state: so named from being supposed mute with grief.

MUTTON-HEADED. Stupid.

MUTTON MONGER. A man addicted to wenching.

MUTTON. In her mutton, i.e. having carnal knowledge of a woman.

MUZZLE. A beard.

MUZZLER. A violent blow on the mouth. The milling cove tipped the cull a muzzler; the boxer gave the fellow a blow on the mouth.

MYNT. See MINT.

MYRMIDONS. The constable's a.s.sistants, watchmen, &c.

NAB, or NAB CHEAT. A hat. Penthouse nab; a large hat.

To NAB. To seize, or catch unawares. To nab the teaze; to be privately whipped. To nab the stoop; to stand in the pillory. To nab the rust; a jockey term for a horse that becomes restive. To nab the snow: to steal linen left out to bleach or dry. CANT.

To NAB GIRDER, or n.o.b GIRDER. A bridle.

NACK. To have a nack; to be ready at any thing, to have a turn-for it.

NACKY. Ingenious.

NAILED. Secured, fixed. He offered me a decus, and I nailed him; he offered me a crown, and I struck or fixed him.

NANNY HOUSE. A brothel.

TO NAP. To cheat at dice by securing one chance. Also to catch the venereal disease. You've napt it; you are infected.

NAPPING. To take any one napping; i.e. to come upon him unexpectedly, to find him asleep: as, He caught him napping, as Morse caught his mare.

NAPPER. The head; also a cheat or thief.