mop up
To drink, or empty a glass.—Old Sea term.
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Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
moped
Stupid, melancholy for want of society.
mops and brooms
Intoxicated. Supposed by an imaginative person to be the appearance presented by the world to a very drunken man. Possibly the term was first used to express sea-sickness.
mopsey
A dowdy, or homely woman.
mopsqueezer
A maid servant, particularly a housemaid.
mopus
Money.
mopusses
Money; "MOPUSSES ran taper," money ran short.
moral
A forthcoming result which appears certain—originally MORAL certainty. This is racing slang, as, "The race is a MORAL for Cremorne." These MORALS are often, however, of very uncertain tenure.
moral bankruptcy
Complete lack of moral principles or values
moral evidence
That which accords with general experience.
moral high ground
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
moral liberty
Such freedom as is essential to render a person responsible for what he does, or what he omits to do.
moral low ground
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
moral of the story
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
morally bankrupt
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
Moran's Collar
In Irish folk-tale, the collar of Moran, the wise councillor of Feredach the Just, an early king of Ireland, before the Christian era, which strangled the wearer if he deviated from the strict rules of equity. Moratorium (mor A tor' i iim) (Lat. morari^ to daUy). A legal permission to defer for a Hated time the payment of a bond, debt, or other obligation.
mordor
Russia.
more and more
Increasing in amount or degree
more cry than wool
More noise or complaint than substance or profit
more equal
Having more power or privilege than others
more fire in the bed-straw
More mischief brewing. A relic of the times when straw was used for beds.
more haste, less speed
Acting too quickly can lead to mistakes and decreased efficiency
More haste, less speed. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1095)
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
more kicks than ha'pence
More abuse than profit. Called "monkey's allowance" in allusion to monkeys led about to collect ha'pence by exhibiting "their parts." The poor brutes get the kicks if they do their parts in an unsatisfactory manner, but the master gets the ha'pence collected.
More of More Hall
See WANTLEY, DRAGON OF. Morgan le Fay (mor' gan le fa). The fairy sister of King Arthur; one of the principal characters in Arthurian romance and in Celtic legend generally; also known as Mor- gaine and (especially in Orlando Furioso) as Morgana (see FATA MORGANA).
more often than not
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
more or less
Approximately or almost
more power to your elbow
A jocular toast implying that a stronger elbow will lift more glasses to the mouth.
more than meets the eye
There is more to something than initially appears
more than one bargained for
Experienced something unexpected and usually unpleasant
more than you can shake a stick at
More things than you can deal with
more's the pity
it's unfortunate or regrettable
more-ish
When there is scarcely enough of an eatable or drinkable, it is said to taste MORE-ISH; as, "This wine is very good, but it has a slight MORE-ISH flavour."
Morecambe and Wise
a famous British comedy duo
Morgan le Fay
It removed all infirmities, and restored the aged to youth again.
morglag
A brown bill, or kind of halbert, formerly carried by watchmen; corruption of MORE, great or broad, and GLAVE, blade.
Morgue la Faye
The form taken by the name Morgan le Fay (<?.v.) in Ogier the Dane. Morley, Mrs. The name under which Queen Anne corresponded with "Mrs. Freeman" (Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough).
Mork and Mindy
a famous American sitcom
morning drop
The gallows. He napped the king's pardon and escaped the morning drop; he was pardoned, and was not hanged.
morning person
Someone who is most energetic and alert in the morning
morocco men
Men who, about the end of the 18th century, used to visit public-houses touting for illegal lottery insurances. Their rendezvous was a tavern in Oxford Market, at the Oxford St. end of Great Portland Street.
morph
Morphine.
morris
Come, morris off; dance off, or get you gone. allusion to morris, i.e. MORISCO, or Moorish dancing.
morris
To decamp, be off. Probably from the ancient MORESCO, of MORRIS-DANCE. See Shakspeare.
Morris Dance
A dance, popular in England in the 15th century and later, in which the dancers usually represented characters from the Robin Hood stories (see MAID MARIAN). Other stock characters were Friar Tuck, Bavian the fool, hobby horse and foreigners, probably Moors or Moriscos. It was brought from Spain in the reign of Edward III, and was originally a military dance of the Moors, or Moriscos — hence its na"me.
mort
A woman or wench; also a yeoman's daughter. To be taken all-a mort; to be confounded, surprised, or motionless through fear.
mortalled
Very drunk.
mortar-board
A square college cap.
mortgage-deed
A pawnbroker’s duplicate.
mortise and tenon
a joint used to connect two pieces of wood
Morton's Fork
John Morton (c. 1420-1500), Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury, intro- duced a plan for increasing the royal revenues, in the tone of Henry VII, so arranged that nobody should escape.
moses
To stand Moses: a man is said to stand Moses when he has another man's bastard child fathered upon him, and he is obliged by the parish to maintain it.
Moses boat
U.S.A. A type of boat made at Salisbury, Mass., by a famous boat-builder, Moses Lowell, in the 18th century. Farther south (in the West Indies), it is said to have been a boat of sufficient capacity to take a hogshead of sugar from shore to ship in one trip.
moses' rod
The divining-rod (<?.v.) is sometimes so called, after the rod with which Moses worked wonders before Pharaoh (Ex. vii, 9), or the rod with which he smote the rock to bring forth water (Ex. xvii, 6).
moskeneer
To pawn with a view to obtaining more than the actual value of an article. There are, in various parts of the country, men who make MOSKENEERING a profession—that is, they buy jewellery which, though fairly good, is not so good as it seems, and pawn it as opportunity occurs.
moslem women
It consists of a white or a black veil, either covering the whole face or hanging from immediately below the eyes.
moss
A cant term for lead, because both are found on the tops of buildings.
mossy face
The mother of all saints.
most an end
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
Most Christian King
The style of the King of France since 1469, when it was conferred on
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