mud lark
A fellow who goes about by the water side picking up coals, nails, or other articles in the mud. Also a duck.
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
mud-crusher
A word of contempt, used by the cavalry in reference to the infantry.
mud-lark
A man or woman who, with clothes tucked above the knee, grovels through the mud on the banks of the Thames, when the tide is low, for silver or pewter spoons, old bottles, pieces of iron, coal, or any articles of the least value, deposited by the retiring tide, either from passing ships or the sewers. Occasionally applied to those men who cleanse the sewers, and who wear great boots and sou’-wester hats.
mud-student
A farming pupil. The name given to the students at the Agricultural College, Cirencester.
mudfog
"The British Association for the Advancement of Science." Term first used by Charles Dickens in Bentley’s Miscellany, about 1836.
muff
The private parts of a woman. To the well wearing of your muff, mort; to the happy consummation of your marriage, girl; a health.
muff
A silly or weak-minded person, a duffer; MUFF has been defined to be "a soft thing that holds a lady’s hand without squeezing it."
muffin baker
A Quaker (slang term for excrement).
muffin-cap
A cap similar to that worn by a charity-boy.
muffin-face
A white, soft, delicate, or whiskerless face.
muffin-worry
An old lady’s tea party.
mufti
The civilian dress of a naval or military officer when off duty.—Anglo-Indian. From an Eastern word signifying a clergyman or priest.
mug
The mouth, or face.—Old.
mug-up
To paint one’s face, or dress specially with a view to impersonation.—Theatrical. To "cram" for an examination.—Army.
mugging
A thrashing,—synonymous with "slogging," both terms of the "ring," and frequently used by fighting men.
muggletonians
The sect or disciples of Lodowick Muggleton.
muggy
Drunk. Also, as applied to weather, stifling, oppressive.
mull
"to make a MULL of it," to spoil anything, or make a fool of oneself.
mulligrubs
Sick of the mulligrubs with eating chopped hay: low-spirited, having an imaginary sickness.
multee kertever
Very bad.
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.
mum
"to keep MUM," to hold one’s peace. Hence "MUM’S the word,"—a phrase which implies to all hearers that the matter to which it refers must remain secret.
mum glass
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 cock 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.
mumchance
An ancient game like hazard, played with dice: probably so named from the silence observed in playing at it.
mummer
A performer at a travelling theatre.—Ancient. Rustic performers at Christmas in the West of England.
mump
To beg. In Lincolnshire, Boxing-day is known as MUMPING DAY.
mumper
A beggar. A collector of holiday tribute.
mumpers
Originally beggars of the genteel kind, but since used for beggars in general.
mumpers hall
An alehouse where beggars are harboured.
mumps
The miserables. To feel MUMPISH is to be heavy, dull, and stupid.
mundungus
Bad or rank tobacco: from mondongo, a Spanish word signifying tripes, or the uncleaned entrails of a beast, full of filth.
mundungus
Trashy, coarse tobacco. Sometimes used to represent the half-soddened, half-calcined residuum at the bottom of an all-but-smoked-out pipe, which, when knocked out, is vulgarly called the TOPPER, q.v. Spanish, MONDONGO, black pudding.
mungarly
Bread, food. MUNG is an old word for mixed food, but MUNGARLY is doubtless derived from the Lingua Franca, MANGIAR, to eat. See the following.
mungarly casa
A baker’s shop; evidently a corruption of a Lingua Franca phrase for an eating-house. The well-known "Nix Mangiare" stairs at Malta derive their name from the endless beggars who lie there and shout, "Nix mangiare," i.e., "Nothing to eat," to excite the compassion of the English who land there,—an expression which exhibits remarkably the mongrel composition of the Lingua Franca, MANGIARE being Italian, and Nix (German, NICHTS), an evident importation from Trieste, or other Austrian seaport.
munging
Or MOUNGING, whining, begging, muttering.—North.
muns
The face, or rather the mouth: from the German word MUND, the mouth. Toute his muns; look at his face.
muns
The mouth. German, MUND.—Old Cant.
munster heifer
An Irish woman. A woman with thick legs is said to be like a Munster heifer; i.e. beef to the heels.
mur
Rum. A "nettock o’ MUR" is a quartern of rum.
murder
He looked like God's revenge against murder; he looked angrily.
murerk
The mistress of the house. See BURERK.
murkarker
A monkey,—vulgar Cockney pronunciation of MACAUCO, a species of monkey. Jacko Macauco, or Maccacco, as he was mostly called, was the name of a famous fighting monkey, who used nearly fifty years ago to display his prowess at the Westminster pit, where, after having killed many dogs, he was at last "chawed up" by a bull terrier.
murphy
A potato. Probably from the Irish national liking for potatoes, MURPHY being a surname common amongst the Irish. MURPHIES (edible) are sometimes called DONOVANS.
mush
An umbrella. Contraction of MUSHROOM.
mushroom
A person or family suddenly raised to riches and eminence: an allusion to that fungus, which starts up in a night.
mushroom
A hat, shaped like the fungus from which it takes its name, often worn by demure ladies.
music
The watch-word among highwaymen, signifying the person is a friend, and must pass 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.
muslin
A woman or girl; "he picked up a bit of MUSLIN."
musta
Or MUSTER, a pattern, one of a sort. Anglo-Indian term used in describing the make or pattern of anything. A sample of any kind of merchandize. This word is very generally used in commercial transactions all over the world.
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
In her mutton, i.e. having carnal knowledge of a woman.
mutton chops
A sheep’s-head. A man who has dined off sheep’s-head dignifies his meal by calling it MUTTON CHOPS (chaps).
mutton monger
A man addicted to wenching.
mutton-fist
An uncomplimentary title for any one having a large and muscular, bony, or coarse hand.
mutton-walk
The saloon at Drury Lane Theatre. A vulgar appellation applied to this place early in the last century, still in use in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden, which was formerly the great resort for the gay and giddy of both sexes.
muzzle
To fight or thrash; to throttle or garrotte.
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.
muzzler
A blow in the mouth; a dram of spirits.
my aunt
AUNT JONES, or MRS. JONES, the closet of decency, or house of office.