milling cove
A boxer. How the milling cove served the cull out; how the boxer beat the fellow.
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Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
mine a-se on a bandbox
An answer to the offer of any thing inadequate to the purpose for which it is wanted, just as a bandbox would be if used for a seat.
mine uncle's
A pawnbroker's shop; also a necessary house. Carried to my uncle's; pawned. New-married men are also said to go to their uncle's, when they leave their wives soon after the honey moon.
minikin
A little man or woman: also the smallest sort of pin.
minor clergy
Young chimney sweepers.
mint
Gold. A mint of money; common phrase for a large sum.
mischief
A man loaded with mischief, i.e. a man with his wife on his back.
mish
A shirt, smock, or sheet. CANT.
mish
A shirt, or chemise. From COMMISSION, the ancient cant for a shirt, afterwards shortened to K’MISH or SMISH, and then to MISH. French, CHEMISE; Italian, CAMICIA.
mish topper
A coat, or petticoat.
miss
A miss or kept mistress; a harlot.
mite
A nick name for a cheesemonger: from the small insect of that name found in cheese.
mitten
"To get the MITTEN" is, in Canadian slang, to be jilted.
mizzle
A frequentative form of MIST in both senses; as applied to weather, it is used by John Gadbury in his Ephemeris in 1695—MISTY and MIZZLING—to come down as mist; while the other sense may be expressed as to fade away like a mist.
mizzler
Or RUM-MIZZLER, a person who is clever at effecting an escape, or getting out of a difficulty.
moab
A name applied to the turban-shaped hat which was some few years back fashionable among ladies, and ladylike swells of the other sex. From the Scripture phrase, "MOAB is my washpot" (Ps. lx. 8), which latter article the hat in question was supposed to resemble.—University.
moabites
Bailiffs, or Philistines.
mob
Swift informs us, in his Art of Polite Conversation, that MOB was, in his time, the slang abbreviation of "mobility," just as NOB is of "nobility," at the present day. See SCHOOL.
mobility
The mob: a sort of opposite to nobility.
mobility
The populace; or, according to Burke, the "great unwashed." Johnson calls it a cant term, although Swift notices it as a proper expression.
mockered
Holey, marked unpleasantly. A ragged handkerchief and a blotched or pitted face are both said to be MOCKERED.
modest quencher
A glass of spirits and water. Dick Swiveller was fond of a MODEST QUENCHER.
moey
The mouth.—Gipsy and Hindoo. Shakspeare has MOE, to make mouths.
mofussilite
An inhabitant of an up-country district.—Anglo-Indian.
mohair
A man in the civil line, a townsman, or tradesman: a military term, from the mohair buttons worn by persons of those descriptions, or any others not in the army, the buttons of military men being always of metal: this is generally used as a term of contempt, meaning a bourgeois, tradesman, or mechanic.
moiety
Half, but vulgarly used to signify a share or portion: as, He will come in for a small moiety.
moisten your chaffer
A slang phrase equivalent to "take something to drink." Also "moisten your clay," originally applied to smokers, now general, and supposed to have reference to the human clay.
moke
A donkey.—Gipsy, but now general to all the lower orders. A "coster" and his "moke" are almost inseparable terms. Probably derived originally from the Arabic al mocreve, a carrier.
moko
A name given by sportsmen to pheasants killed by mistake during September, before the pheasant-shooting comes in. They pull out their tails, and roundly assert that they are no pheasants at all, but MOKOS.
moll
A girl; nickname for Mary.—Old Cant.
moll thompson's mark
M. T. i.e. empty: as, Take away this bottle, it has Moll Thompson's mark upon it.
moll thomson’s mark
That is, M. T.—empty; as, "Take away this bottle, it has MOLL THOMSON’S MARK on it." See M. T.
moll-tooler
A female pickpocket.
molled
Followed, or accompanied by a woman. When a costermonger sees a friend walking with a woman he does not know, he says on the first opportunity afterwards, "I see yer the other night when yer was MOLLED up and too proud to speak."
mollisher
A low girl or woman; generally a female cohabiting with a man who gets his living by thieving.
mollsack
A reticule, or market basket.
molly
A Miss Molly; an effeminate fellow, a sodomite.
mollycoddle
An effeminate man; one who "coddles" amongst the women, or does their work.
mollygrubs
Or MULLIGRUBS, stomach ache, or sorrow—which to the costermonger is much the same, as he believes, like the ancients, that the viscera is the seat of all feeling. Costermongers are not alone, even in the present day, in this belief.
molrowing
"out on the spree," in company with so-called "gay women." In allusion to the amatory serenadings of the London cats. Another form of this is, "out on the tiles."
moncrieff’s
Tom and Jerry, or Life in London, a Farce in Three Acts, 12mo. 1820.
monday
Saint Monday. See SAINT.
mondayish
Or Mondayfied, disinclined for work. "St. Monday" is a great institution among artizans and small tradesmen.
money
A girl's private parts, commonly applied to little children: as, Take care, Miss, or you will shew your money.
money droppers
Cheats who drop money, which they pretend to find just before some country lad; and by way of giving him a share of their good luck, entice him into a public house, where they and their confederates cheat or rob him of what money he has about him.
mongrel
A hanger on among cheats, a spunger; also a child whose father and mother are of different countries.
monk
A term of contempt; probably an abbreviation of MONKEY.
monkery
The country, or rural districts. Originally an old word for a quiet or monastic life.—Hall.
monkey
To suck the monkey; to suck or draw wine, or any other liquor, privately out of a cask, by means of a straw, or small tube. Monkey's allowance; more kicks than halfpence. Who put that monkey on horseback without tying his legs? vulgar wit on a bad horseman.
monkey
Spirit or ill temper; "to get one’s MONKEY up," to rouse his passion. A man is said to have his MONKEY up or the MONKEY on his back, when he is "riled," or out of temper; this is old, and was probably in allusion originally to the evil spirit which was supposed to be always present with a man; also under similar circumstances a man is said to have his back or hump up.
monkey-board
The place or step attached to an omnibus, on which the conductor stands.
monkey-boat
A peculiar, long, narrow, canal boat.
monkey’s allowance
To get blows instead of alms, more kicks than halfpence.
monks and friars
Terms used by printers: monks are sheets where the letters are blotted, or printed too black; friars, those letters where the ink has failed touching the type, which are therefore white or faint.
monniker
A person’s name or signature.
monosyllable
A woman's commodity.
month of Sundays
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
mooch
To sponge; to obtrude oneself upon friends just when they are about to sit down to dinner, or other lucky time—of course quite accidentally. Compare HULK. To slink away, and allow your friend to pay for the entertainment. In Wiltshire, TO MOOCH is to shuffle. See the following.
mooching
Or ON THE MOOCH, on the look-out for any articles or circumstances which may be turned to a profitable account; watching in the streets for odd jobs, horses to hold, &c.; also scraps of food, drinks, old clothes, &c.
moon
A month; generally used to express the length of time a person has been sentenced by the magistrate; thus "one MOON" is one month of four weeks. A calendar month is known as a "callingder" or long MOON. A "lunar MOON," ridiculous as the phrase may seem, is of constant use among those who affect slang of this description.