To MOULDER. v. a. [from mould.] To turn to dust; to crumble. The natural histories of Switzerland talk of the fall of those rocks when their foundations have been mouldered with age, or rent by an earthquake. Addison on Italy. With nodding arches, broken temples spread, The very tombs now vanish'd like their dead; Some felt the silent stroke of mould'ring age, Some, hostile fury. Pope. MOULDINESS. n. s. [from mouldy ] The state of being mouldy. Flesh, fish, and plants, after a mouldiness, rottenness, or corrupting, will fall to breed worms. Bacon. MOULDING. n. s. [from mould.] Ornamental cavities in wood or stone. Hollow mouldings are required in the work. Moxon. MOʻULDWARP. n. 5. [mold and peoppan, Saxon. This is I believe the proper and original name of the talpa: a mouldwarp is a creature that turns mould. The word is still retained, though sometimes pronounced mouldy-warp.] A mole; a small animal that throws up the earth. Above the reach of loathful sinful lust, Whose base effect through cowardly distrust Of his own wings, dare not to heaven flie, But like a mouldwarp in the earth doth lie. Spenser. While they play the mouldwarps, unsavory damps distemper their heads with annoyance only for the present. Carew. With gins we betray the vermin of the earth, namely, the fichat and the mouldwarp. Walton. Mo'ULDY. adj. [from mould.] Overgrown with concretions. -"Tis the more time thou wert us'd. -Ha, ha, ha; most excellent. Things that are mouldy lack use. Well said, sir John. Shaksp. The marble looks white, as being exposed to the winds and salt sea-vapours, that by continually fretting it preserve it from that mouldy colour which others contract. Addison. To MOULT. v. n. [muyten, Dutch.] To shed or change the feathers; to lose feathers. Some birds upon moulting turn colour, as Robin-red-breasts, after their moulting, grow to be red again by degrees. Time shall moult away his wings, E'er he shall discover In the whole wide world again Such a constant lover. Bacon. Suckling. 'The widow'd turtle hangs her moulting wings, And to the woods in mournful murmur sings. Garth. To MOUNCH. v. a. [mouch, to eat much. TO MAUNCH.) Ainsworth. This word is retained in Scotland, and denotes the obtunded action of toothless gums on a hard crust, or any thing eatable: it, scens to be a corruption of the French word manger. Macbean.] A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht. Shaksp. MOUND. a. s. [mundian, Saxon, to defend] Any thing raised to fortify or defend: usually a bank of earth or stone. His broad branches laden with rich fee, Did stretch themselves without the utmost bound Of this great garden, compass'd with a mound. Fairy Queen. The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The mounds into salt tears. Shaksp. God hath thrown That mountain as his garden mound, high rais'd. Milton. Such as broke through all mounds of law, such as laughed at the sword of vengeance which divine justice brandished in their faces. South. Nor cold shall hinder me with horns and hounds To thrid the thickets, or to leap the mounds. Dryden. The state of Milan is like a vast garden surrounded by a noble mound-work of rocks and mountains. Addison. To MOUND. V. a. [from the noun.] To MOUNT. n. s. [mont, Fr. mons, Lat.] fortify with a mound. 1. A mountain; a hill. Jacob offered a sacrifice upon the mount. Gen. Behold yon mountain's hoary height, Made higher with new mounts of snow. Dryd. 2. An artificial hill raised in a garden, or other place. He might see what mounts they had in short time cast, and what a number there was of war. like soldiers. Knolles. 3. A publick treasure; a bank. Obsolete. These examples confirmed me in a resolution to spend my time wholly in writing; and to put forth that poor talent God hath given me, not to particular exchanges, but to banks or mounts of perpetuity, which will not break. Bacon. To MOUNT. v. n. [monter, French.] 1. To rise on high. 2. Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? I'll strive, with troubled thoughts, to take a nap; Lest leaden slumber poize me down to-morrow, When I should mount with wings of victory. Shakspeare. A base ignoble mind, That mounts no higher than a bird can soar. Shakspeare. The fire of trees and houses mounts on high, And meets half-way new fires that show'r from sky. Cowley. If the liturgy should be offered to them, it would kindle jealousy, and as the first range of that ladder, which should serve to mount over all their customs. Clarenden. Ambitious meteors set themselves upon the wing, taking every occasion of drawing upward to the sun; not considering, that they have no more time allowed them in their mounting than the single revolution of a day; and that when the light goes from them, they are of necessity to fall. Dryden. To tower; to be built up to great elevation. Though his excellency mount up to the hea vens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish. Job. 3. To get on horseback. He cry'd, oh! and mounted. Shaksp To attain in value. Bring then these blessings to a strict account, Make fair deductions, see to what they mount! Pope. T MOUNT. v. a. 1. To raise aloft; to lift on high. The fire that mounts the liquor till it runs o'er, Seeming to augment, wastes it. Shaksp. What power is it which mounts my love so high, That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye? Shakspeare. The air is so thin, that a bird has therein no feeling of her wings, or any resistance of air to mount herself by. Raleigh. 2. To ascend; to climb. Shall we mount again the rural throne, And rule the country kingdoms, once our own? Dryden. 3. To place on horseback; to furnish with horses. Three hundred horses, in high stables fed, Of these he chose the fairest and the best, To mount the Trojan troop. Dryden. Clear reason, acting in conjunction with a well-disciplined, but strong and vigorous fancy, seldom fail to attain their end: fancy without reason, is like a horse without a rider; and reason without fancy is not well mounted. Grew. 4. To embellish with ornaments. 5. To MOUNT guard. To do duty and watch at any particular post. 6. To MOUNT à cannon. To set a piece on its wooden frame for the more easy carriage and management in firing it. MOUNTAIN. n. s. [montaigne, French.] 1. A large hill; a vast protuberance of the earth. I had been drowned; a death that I abhor; for the water swells a man, and what should have been when I had been swelled? I should have been a mountain of mummy. Shaksp. She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe, To make an envious mountain on my back, Where sits deformity to mock my body. Shak. MOUNTAIN. adj. [montanus, Ĺat.] Found on the mountains; pertaining to the mountains; growing on the mountains. Now for our mountain sport, up to yond hill, Your legs are young. Shaksp. Cymbeline. You may as well forbid the mountain pines To wag their high tops, and to make no noise, When they are fretted with the gusts of heav'n. Shakspeare. MOUNTAINEER. n. s. [from mountain.] 1. An inhabitant of the mountains. A few mountaineers may escape, to continue human race; and yet illiterate rusticks, as mountaineers always are. Bentley Amiternian troops, of mighty fame, And mountaineers, that from Severus came. Dry. 2. A savage; a free booter; a rustick. Yield, rustick mountaineer. Shaksp. No savage, fierce bandit, or mountaineer, Will dare to soil her virgin purity, Milton. MOUNTAINET. n. s. [from mountain.] A hillock; a small mount. Elegant, but not in use. Her breasts sweetly rose up like two fair mountaincts in the pleasant vale of Tempe. Sidn MOUNTAINOUS. adj. [from mountain.] 1. Hilly; full of mountains. The ascent of the land from the sea to the foot of the mountains, and the height of the mountains from the bottom to the top, are to be computed, when you measure the height of a mountain, or of a mountainous land, in respect of the sea. Burnet. 2. Large as mountains; huge; bulky. What custom wills in all thing, should we do't, Mountainous error wou'd be too highly heapt For truth to o'erpeer. Shaksp. On earth, in air, amidst the seas and skies, Mountainous heaps of wonders rise; Whose tow'ring strength will ne'er submit To reason's batteries, or the mines of wit. Prior. 3. Inhabiting mountains. In destructions by deluge and earthquake, the remnant which hap to be reserved are ignorant and mountainous people, that can give no account of the time past. Bacon's Essays. MOUNTAINOUSNESS. n. s. [from mountainous.] State of being full of mountains. Armenia is so called from the mountainousness of it. Brerewood. MOUNTAIN-PARSLEY. n. s. [oreosolinum, Lat.] A plant. MOUNTAIN-ROSE. n. s. [chamærhododendron, Lat.] A plant. Mo'UNTANT. adj. [montant, Fr.] Rising on high. Hold up, you sluts, Your aprons mountant; you're not oathable, Although, I know, you'll swear. Shaksp. MOUNTEBANK. n. s. [montare in banco, Italian.] 1. A doctor that mounts a bench in the market, and boasts his infallible remedies and cures. 2. I bought an unction of a mountebank So mortal, that but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood, no cataplasm so rare, Can save the thing from death. Shaksp. She, like a mountebank, did wound And stab herself with doubts profound, Only to shew with how small pain The sores of faith are cur'd again. Hudibras. But schylus, says Horace in some page, Was the first mountebank that trod the stage. Dryden. It looks like a mountebank to boast infallible Baker. cures. Any boastful and false pretender. As nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye, Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, And many such like libertines of sin. Shaksp. There are mountebanks, and smatterers in L'Estrange. state. Nothing so impossible in nature but mounte banks will undertake. Arbuthnot. To Mo ́UNTEBANK. V.a. [from the noun.] To cheat by false boasts or pretences. I'll mountebank their loves, Cog their hearts from them. Shaksp. Mo'UNTENANCE. n. s. Amount of a thing in space. Obsolete. Sidney. To MOURN. v. n. [munnan, Saxon.] My vineyard being desolate, mourneth unto me. Shall be engrav'd the sack of Orleans; 3. Sorrowful; feeling sorrow. 4. Oft as the rolling years return, Prior. Betokening sorrow; expressive of grief. No mournful bell shall ring her burial. Sbaksp. On your family's old monument Hang mour nful epitaphs. Shaksp. MOURNFULLY, adv. [from mournful.] Sorrowfully; with sorrow. Beat the drum, that it speak mournfully. Shakspeart. MOURNFULNESS. n. 5. [from mournful.] 1. Sorrow; grief. 2. Show of grief; appearance of sorrow. MOURNING. n. s. [from mourn.] I. Lamentation; sorrow. Wo is me, who will deliver me in those days? the beginning of sorrows and great mournings. 2 Esdras. 2. The dress of sorrow. They through the master-street the corps convey'd, The houses to their tops with black were spread, And ev'n the pavements were with mourning bid. Dryden. MOURNINGLY. adv. [from mourning.] With the appearance of sorrowing. The king spoke of him admiringly and mourn ingly. Shakspeare. MOUSE. plural mice. n. s. [mur, Saxon; mus, Lat.] The smallest of all beasts; a little animal haunting houses and corn-fields, destroyed by cats. The eagle England being in prey, To her unguarded nest the weazel Scot Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs; Playing the mouse in absence of the cat. Sbaksp. Where mice and rats devour'd poetick bread, And with heroick verse luxuriously were fed. Dryden This structure of hair I have observed in the hair of cats, rats, and mice. Derbam To MOUSE. v. n. [from the noun.] 1. To catch mice. A falcon tow'ring, in his pride of place Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. Shakspeart. 2. I suppose it means, in the following passage, sly; insidious, or predatory; rapacious; interested. A whole assembly of mousing saints, under 4 the mask of zeal and good nature, lay many kingdoms in blood. L'Estrange. MOUSE-EAR. 2. s: [myosotis, Latin.] A You have been a mouse-bunt in your time, He puts the prophets in a mouse-bole: the last man ever speaks the best reason. Dryd. and Lee. He can creep in at a mouse-bole, but he soon gros too big ever to get out again. Stilling fleet. MOUSER. Rs. [from mouse.] One that catches mice. Puss, a madam, will be a mouser still. L'Estr. When you have fowl in the larder, leave the. door open, in pity to the cat, if she be a good Swift. MOUSETAIL. n. s. [myosura.] A herb. MOUSE-TRAP. n. s. [mouse and trap.] A snare or gin in which mice are taken. Many an Jogical motions in animals, I have reason to conclude, in their principle, are not simply mechanical, although a mouse-trap, or Architas' dove, moved mechanically. Hale. Madam's own hand the mouse-trap baited. Prior. MOUTH. n. s. [muð, Saxon.] There can be no reason given, why a visage 2. The opening; that at which any thing enters; the entrance; the part of a vessel by which it is filled and emptied. He came and lay at the mouth of the haven, daring them to fight. Knolles. Set a candle lighted in the bottom of a bason of water, and turn the mouth of a glass over the candle, and it will make the water rise. Bacon. The mouth is low and narrow; but, after having entered pretty far in, the grotto opens itself in an oval figure. Addison. The navigation of the Arabick gulf being To be entangled with these mouth-made vows, Either our history shall with full math Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph. Shakep. L'Estrange Having frequently in our mouths the name eternity, we think we have a positive idea of it. Locke. There is a certain sentence got into every man's mouth, that God accepts the will for the deed. South A speaker; a rhetorician; the principat orator. In burlesque language. Every coffee-house has some particular statesman belonging to it, who is the mouth of the street where he lives. Addison, 5. Cry; voice. Coward dogs Most spend their mouths, what what they seem to threaten Runs far before them. The boar Shaksp Deals glancing wounds; the fearful dogs divide, Shakspeare. Why they should keep running asses at Coleshill, or how making mouths turns to account in Warwickshire more than any other parts of England, I cannot comprehend." Addison. 7. Down in the MOUTH. Dejected; clouded in the countenance, But, upon bringing the net ashore, it proved to be only one great stone, and a few little fishes: upon this disappointment they were derun in the mouth. L'Estrange. To MOUTH. v. n. [from the noun.] To speak big; to speak in a strong and loud voice; to vociferate. Nay, an thou'lt mouth Shaksp. To MOUTH. V. A. Addison. 1. To utter with a voice affectedly big; to roll in the mouth with tumult. Speak the speech as I pronounce it, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, I had as lieve the town crier had spoke my lines. Shak Twitch'd by the sleeve he mouths it more and Mutlus and Lupus both by name he brought, He mouth'd them, and betwixt his grinders caught. Dryden. 4. To form by the mouth. In regard the cub comes forth involved in the chorion, a thick membrane obscuring the formation, and which the dam doth after tear asunder; the beholder at first sight imputes the ensuing form to the mouthing of the dam. Brown, MOUTHED. adj. [from mouth.] 1. Furnished with a mouth. One tragick sentence if I dare deride, Which Betterton's grave action dignify'd, Or well mouth'd Booth with emphasis proclaims. Pope. a. In composition, foul mouthed or contumelious; mealy mouthed or bashful; and a hard mouthed horse, or a horse not obedient to the bit. MOUTH-FRIEND. n.s. [mouth and friend.] One who professes friendship without intending it. May you a better feast never behold, MOUTHFUL. n. s. [mouth and full.] 1. What the mouth contains at once. a. Any proverbially small quantity. A goat going out for a mouthful of fresh grass, charged her kid not to open the door till she L'Estrange. came back. You to your own Aquinum shall repair, To take a mouthful of sweet country air. Dryd. MOUTH-HONOUR, n. s. [mouth and bonour.] Civility outwardly expressed without sincerity. Honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but in their stead, Curses not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath. Shakspeare. MOUTHLESS. adj. [from mouth.] Being without a mouth. Mow. n.s. [mope, Saxon, a heap.] A loft or chamber where hay or corn is laid up: hay in mow, is hay laid up in a house; hay in rick, is hay heaped together in a field. Learn skilfullie how Each grain for to laie by itself on a mow. Tusser. Where'er I gad, I Blouzelind shall view, Woods, dairy, barn, and mows our passion knew. Gay. Beans when moist give in the mow. Mortimer. To Mow. v. n. [from the noun.] To put 2. To cut down with speed and violence. He will mow down all before him, and leave his passage poll'd. To Shaksp. Shaksp What valiant foemen, like to autumn's corn, Have we mow'd down. Thou and 1, marching before our troops, May taste fate to 'em; mow 'em out a passage, Begin the noble harvest of the field. Dryden. Stands o'er the prostrate wretch, and as he lay, Vain tales inventing, and prepar'd to pray, Mows off his head. Dryden. Mow. v. n. To gather the harvest. Gold, though the heaviest metal, hither swims: Ours is the harvest where the Indians mow, We plough the deep, and reap what others sow. Waller. Mow. n. s. [probably corrupted from mouth; moue, Fr.] Wry mouth; distorted face. This word is now out of use, but retained in Scotland. The very abjects came together against me unawares, making mows at me. Psalms. Apes and monkeys, "Twixt two such she's, would chatter this way, To Mow. v. n. [from the noun.] To make mouths; to distort the face. Some Smithfield ruffian takes up some new moving with the mouth, some wrenching with the shoulder, some fresh, new oath, that will run round in the mouth. Aschem. For every trifle are they set upon me; Sometimes like apes that mow and chatter at me, And after bite me. Shaksp. To MO'WBURN. V. n. [mow and burn.] To ferment and heat in the mow for want of being dry. House it not green, lest f. mowburn. Mertim. Mo'wER. n. s. [from mow; sounded as mo-er.] One who cuts with a sithe. Set mowers a mowing, where meadow is grown. Tusser. The strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, Fall down before him like the mower's swath. Shakspeare. All else cut off As Tarquin did the poppy-heads, or movers A field of thistles. Ben Jonion. Mowers and reapers, who spend the most part of the hot summer days exposed to the sun, have the skin of their hands of a darker colour than before. Boyle. Mo'xA. n. s. An Indian moss, used in the cure of the gout, by burning it on the part aggrieved. Temple. MOYLE. n. s. A mule; an animal gene. rated between the horse and the ass. Carew Ordinary husbandmen should quit breeding of horses, and betake themselves to moyles; a beast which will fare hardly, live very long, draw indifferently well, carry great burthens, and hath also a pace swift and easy enough. 'Twould tempt a moyle to fury. MUCH. adj. [mycker, Swedish; mucko, Spanish.] May |