mawley
A hand. Tip us your mawley; shake hands. with me. Fam the mawley; shake hands.
English · UK & Ireland 17968
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
mawworm
A hypocrite of the most unpleasant kind. From Bickerstaff’s play of The Hypocrite. Originally a MAWWORM was a worm in the stomach, the thread worm.
max
Gin; MAX upon tick, gin obtained upon credit.
may bees
May bees don't fly all the year long; an answer to any one who prefaces a proposition with, It may be.
mayhew’s
(Henry) London Labour and the London Poor, 4 vols. 1851-61.
mazarine
The platform beneath the stage in large theatres. Probably corruption of Italian, MEZZANINO.
mealy-mouthed
Over-modest or backward in speech.
mealy-mouthed
Soft-spoken, plausible, deceitful. A specious liar is said to be MEALY-MOUTHED.
mean white
A term of contempt among negroes, in the old slavery days, for white men without landed property. A white man in the Southern States had no locus standi unless he possessed property, and the blackest of niggers would have felt insulted at any "poor white trash" claiming to be "a man and brother."
measley
Mean, miserable-looking, "seedy;" "what a MEASLEY-looking man!" i.e., what a wretched, unhappy fellow.
medical greek
The slang used by medical students at the hospitals. At the London University they have a way of disguising English, described by Albert Smith as the Gower Street Dialect, which consists in transposing the initials of words, e.g., "poke a smipe"—smoke a pipe; "flutter-by"—butterfly, &c. This disagreeable nonsense, which has not even the recommendation of a little ability in its composition, is often termed Marrowskying. See GREEK, ST.
medlar
A fruit, vulgarly called an open a-se; of which it is more truly than delicately said, that it is never ripe till it is as rotten as a t--d, and then it is not worth a f--t.
meisensang
A missionary, Chinese pronunciation of the English word.—Anglo-Chinese.
melting moments
A fat man and woman in the amorous congress.
men of kent
Men born east of the river Medway, who are said to have met the Conqueror in a body, each carrying a green bough in his hand, the whole appearing like a moving wood; and thereby obtaining a confirmation of their ancient privileges. The inhabitants of Kent are divided into Kentish men and men of Kent. Also a society held at the Fountain Tavern, Bartholomew Lane, A.D. 1743.
men of straw
Hired bail, so called from having straw stuck in their shoes to distinguish them.
menagerie
The orchestra of a theatre.—Theatrical.
menavelings
Odd money remaining after the daily accounts are made up at a railway booking-office,—usually divided among the clerks. See OVERS and SHORTS.
merkin
Counterfeit hair for women's privy parts. See BAILEY'S DICT.
merkin
A term usually applied to a woman’s privities. Originally false hair for those parts.
merry dun of dover
A large ship figuring in sailors’ yarns. She was so large that when passing through the Straits of Dover her flying jib-boom knocked down Calais steeple; while, at the same time, the fly of her ensign swept a flock of sheep off Dover cliffs. She was so lofty that a boy who attempted to go to her mast-head found himself a grey old man when he reached the deck again. This yarn is founded on a story in the Scandinavian mythology.
mesopotamia
A name given to Eaton Square and neighbourhood when first built. This part was also called Cubitopolis.—Fashionable slang.
mess
To interfere unduly. Costermongers refer to police supervision as MESSING. Among sailors, a dead man is said to have lost the number of his MESS.
mess john
A Scotch presbyterian teacher or parson.
messmate
One who eats at the same mess, companion or comrade.
metallician
A racing bookmaker. Bookmakers use metallic books and pencils.
mettle
The semen. To fetch mettle; the act of self pollution. Mettle is also figuratively used for courage.
michael
Hip, Michael, your head's on fire. See HYP.
middleton
(Thomas) and ~Decker’s~ (Thomas) Roaring Girl; or Moll Cut Purse, 4to. 1611.
middy
Abbreviation of midshipman.—Naval.
midshipman's watch and chain
A sheep's heart and pluck.
mike
An Irish hodman, or general labourer.
mild
Second-rate, inferior. See DRAW IT MILD. Also feeble, inefficient, as "a MILD attempt." Weak young men who keep bulldogs, and dress in a "loud" stable style, from a belief that it is very becoming, are sometimes called "MILD bloaters."
milk
A term used in connexion with racing; when a horse is entered in a race for which his owner does not intend him to run, or at all events in which he does not intend him to win, and bets against him, the animal is said to "be MILKED." MILKING, is keeping a horse a favourite, at short odds, for a race in which he has no chance whatever, or in which he will not be allowed to try, for the purpose of laying against him.
milk and water
Both ends of the busk.
mill
A fight, or set to. Ancient Cant, MYLL, to rob. Probably from the special opportunities afforded to pickpockets when the ring was a "national institution."
mill lay
To force open the doors of houses in order to rob them.
miller
To drown the MILLER is to put too much water in anything. The phrase was originally "to drown the MILLER’S thumb," or go over the specified mark, i.e., the thumb-mark, in adding water to ardent spirits.
milling cove
A boxer. How the milling cove served the cull out; how the boxer beat the fellow.
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.
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