| 释义 |
▪ I. mouse, n.|maʊs|
Pl. mice |maɪs|. Forms: sing. 1 mús, muus, 2, 5 mus, 4–5 mows, 4–7 mous, 5 mows(s)e, 6 mowss, mousse, 4– mouse. pl. 1 mýs, 4–5 mys, 4 myys, musz, myis, 4–5, (9 dial.) mees, muys, myes, 4–6 myse, 4–7 myce, 5 muyse, mysz, myesse, 6 myss, miese, mise, 7, (9 dial.) meece, 6– mice; also 4 musus, 8 (in sense 4 a) mouses.
[Com. Teut. and Indo-Germanic: OE. mús fem. = OFris., OS. mûs (Du. muis), OHG. mûs (MHG. mûs, mod.G. maus), ON. mús (Sw., Da. mus), L. mūs, Gr. µῦς, Skr. mūš:—Indo-Germanic *mūs- (cons.-stem).]
I.
1. a. An animal of any of the smaller species of the genus Mus of rodents.
Most commonly applied to the house mouse, M. musculus. Other species are the field or wood mouse, M. sylvaticus, the harvest mouse, M. minutus, and the Barbary mouse of North Africa, M. barbarus.
c888K. ælfred Boeth. xvi. §2 ᵹif ᵹe nu ᵹesawan hwelce mus þæt wære hlaford ofer oðre mys, & sette him domas..hu wunderlic wolde eow ðæt þincan. c1175Lamb. Hom. 53 Þurh þe sweote smel of þe chese he bicherreð monie mus to þe stoke. 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 5383 For þou ȝyuest myys [v.r. mys] to ȝete Þ at was ordeyned to mannys mete. c1374Chaucer Boeth. ii. Pr. vi. 41 (Camb. MS.) Now yif thow saye a mous amonges oother musus [v.r. myse] þat chalengede to hym self ward ryht and power ouer alle oother mysus [v.r. myse] how gret scorn woldisthow han of hit. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 297 While a myȝti man sat at þe feste muys [MS. β. muyse, Caxton myes] bysette hym sodenliche al aboute. c1450Merlin xxxiii. 665 He seide that he hadde nede ther-of in his house for rattes and mees. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) III. 388 Ouir Albione aboundit so the myss, Ouir all the feild in mony hoill and dyke, And in the houssis..That [etc.]. 1562Turner Herbal ii. 160 It [Hellebore] kylleth miese knodden wyth mele and honye. 1605Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 18 The Fishermen, that walk'd vpon the beach Appeare like Mice. 1822Shelley tr. Goethe's Faust i. 84 For I am like a cat—I like to play A little with the mouse before I eat it. 1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 853 The thin weasel there Follows the mouse, and all is open field. 1894Spectator 30 June 901 There are those who have tried the bat, and found it taste like a house-mouse, only mousier.
fig.c1374Chaucer Troylus iii. 687 (736) Quod Pandarus thow wrecched mouses herte. Art þow a-garst so þat she wole þe byte. 1633Costlie Whore i. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, Oh wherefore should we fawne upon such curres, The mice of mankind, and the scorne of earth?
b. Popularly applied to animals of other genera having some resemblance to mice, esp. the shrews (Sorex) and the voles (Arvicola). Also in booknames (chiefly translations from mod.Latin) of various exotic animals, e.g. † Alpine mouse, † mouse of the mountain, the Marmot; † Indian mouse, † Pharaoh's mouse, the ichneumon; † Pontic mouse, an animal described by Pliny, commonly identified with the ermine.
a700Epinal Gloss. 977 Sorix (-ex), id. est: mus. a1593J. Hester tr. Paracelsus' 114 Exper. (1596) 12 Anointing the outward parts with the oyle of the mouse of the mountaine. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 448 Marcellus and Solinus, doe make question of this beast (Ichneumon) to be a kind of Otter... There be some that call it an Indian Mouse. Ibid. 532 The Movse Pontiqve. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 151 An Indian Mouse. 1864Chamb. Encycl. VI. 597/2 The name Mouse is often popularly given to animals considerably different from the true mice, as the Voles. 1868Gray in Proc. Zool. Soc. 199 The species of Saccomyinæ, or Pouched Mice. 1889[see pouched a. 1].
2. Phrases.
a. In various similes: drunk as a mouse, earlier † drunk as a dreynt (= drowned) mouse; mum, mute, quiet, still, etc., as a mouse († in a cheese). Also, † (to speak) like a mouse in a cheese, i.e. with a muffled voice, inaudibly; like a drowned mouse, i.e. in a miserable plight.
a1310in Wright Lyric P. xxxix. 111 When that he is dronke ase a dreynt mous, thenne we shule borewe the wed ate bayly. c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 246 Thou comest hoom as dronken as a Mous. 1536in Lett. Suppress. Monast. (Camden) 133 Monckes drynk an bowll after collacyon tell ten or xii. of the clock, and cum to mattens as dronck as myss. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. ii. 12 Or pitteous they will looke, like drowned Mice. 1599Porter Angry Wom. Abingt. (1841) 71 Mum, mouse in cheese, cat is neare. 1686E. Verney 24 June in Verney Mem. (1899) IV. x. 381 Child,—I pray when you speak in the Theatre [Oxf.] doe not speak like a mouse in a chees.., but speak out your words boldly and distinctly. 1736Ainsworth Lat. Dict. s.v., He speaketh like a mouse in a cheese, mussat, mussitat; occulte & depressa voce loquitur. 1856C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain ii. xxv. 636 If I only begin to say ‘Miss May told me—’ they are all like mice. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede v, She looks as quiet as a mouse. There's something rather striking about her, though. 1883Stevenson Treasure Isl. xiv, I squatted there, hearkening, as silent as a mouse.
b. In alliterative association with man. (a) See man n.1 7; (b) neither man nor mouse, not a creature; mouse and man, every living thing.
1627W. Hawkins Apollo Shroving i. v. 14 Looke Præco, canst thou see no audience? Præco. Nor man, nor mouse. 1785R. Burns To a Mouse in Poems & Songs (1968) I. 128 The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley. 1845Carlyle Cromwell v. lxxix. I. 483 Poor Prince Maurice, sea-roving..sank, in the West Indies, mouse and man. 1937J. Steinbeck (title) Of mice and men. 1938Time 30 May 48/3 Are we mice or men? 1961Times 24 Nov. 15/1 There is a particularly good comic performance by Mr. Denys Graham as the mouse who for one glorious moment believes he is a man. 1975L. Deighton Yesterday's Spy xxii. 169 She gave a mocking laugh. ‘What are you?.. A man or a mouse?’
c. As a type of something small or insignificant. Chiefly after Horace (see quot. a 1637).
1584Lyly Campaspe Prol. at Bl. Fryers, So we hope, if the shower of our swelling mountaine seeme to bring foorth some Eliphant, perfourme but a mouse, you will gently say, this is a beast. 1596Lodge Wits Miserie 4 At euery word he speaketh, hee makes a mouse of an elephant, he telleth them of wonders done in Spaine by his ancestors. 1598F. Rous Thule B j, Nor let your harts great hils bring foorth a mouse. a1637B. Jonson tr. Horace, Art P. 199 The mountains travail'd, and brought forth A scorned mouse! 1887Times (weekly ed.) 14 Oct. 14/4 It is curious that such a grave contingency should spring from such a trivial cause. This time it is the mouse that brings forth the mountain.
d. Proverbs, and proverbial sayings.
c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 572, I holde a Mouses herte nat worth a leek, That hath but oon hole for to sterte to And if þat faille, thanne is al ydo. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 167 An hardy mowse, that is bold to breede In cattis eeris. c1530R. Hilles Common-Pl. Bk. (1858) 140 It ys a sotyll mouse that slepyth in the cattys ear. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew s.v. Mouse-trap, A sorry Mouse, that has but one Hole, or a poor Creature that has but one Shift. Ibid., A Mouse in the Pot is better than no Flesh, or something has some savour.
†3.
a. As a playful term of endearment, chiefly addressed to a woman. Obs.
c1520[see prim n.1]. 1567Triall Treas. E j, My dere lady. My mouse my nobs and cony swete. 1586Warner Alb. Eng. ii. x. (1592) 42 God blesse thee Mouse the Bridegroome sayd, and smakt her on the lips. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 19. 1602 ― Ham. iii. iv. 183. 1607 Dekker & Webster Westw. Hoe ii. i, Iud. [to her husband] I am so troubled with the rheume too: Mouse whats good fort? 1655Mennis & Smith Mus. Delic. (1656) 14 Mopsa, even Mopsa, prety Mouse. 1798J. Baillie Tryal iv. ii. Plays on Passions (1821) I. 263 Agnes. You are an idler! Harwood. You are a little mouse!
b. slang. (See quot.) Obs.
1781R. King Mod. Lond. Spy 38 The harlots or women taken up for assault or night-brawls were there [in Wood Street Compter] called Mice.
4. Technical uses. Applied to various things resembling a mouse in shape or appearance.
a. Naut. (See quots.)
1750T. R. Blanckley Naval Expos., Mouse is a large Knot artificially made by the Riggers on the Ship's Stays. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Mouse, a sort of knob, usually in the shape of a pear, wrought on the outside of a rope, by means of spun yarn, parceling, &c... It is used to confine some other [rope] securely to the former, and prevent it from sliding along its surface. These mouses are particularly used on the stays of the lower-mast, to prevent the eye from slipping up to the mast. 1833Marryat P. Simple vi, And then he asked the first lieutenant whether something should not be fitted with a mouse or only a turk's-head. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Mouse, a kind of ball or knob, wrought on the collars of stays by means of spun⁓yarn,..&c. The mouse prevents the running eye from slipping... Also, a mark made upon braces and other ropes, to show their squaring or tallying home. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Mouse,..b. a turn or two of spun-yarn uniting the point of a hook to the shank to prevent its unhooking.
b. A match used in firing a mine or a gun.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Mouse,..a match used in firing a mine. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Mouse,..2. (Blasting) A match used in firing guns or mines.
c. U.S. A small round cushion-shaped hair-pad.
1888[see rat n.1 5 a]. 1895in Funk's Stand. Dict.
d. (See quot.)
187.Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict., Mouse, a small weight to which a cord is attached, used by plumbers for clearing a stoppage in a closet pipe. The carpenters also use a similar weight for passing a sash line over the pulley.
e. (See quot.)
1905Jrnl. Franklin Inst. Mar. 185 A fine wire is sometimes drawn through a duct by a conical piece of wood with a thin leather washer filling the duct, and forced ahead by the air pressure at the rear... This piece of wood is termed the ‘mouse’.
f. Computing. A small hand-held device which is moved over a flat surface to produce a corresponding movement of a cursor or arrow on a VDU, and which usu. has fingertip controls for selecting a function or entering a command.
1965English & Engelhardt Computer Aided-Display Control 6 Within comfortable reach of the user's right hand is a device called the ‘mouse’ which we developed for evaluation..as a means for selecting those displayed text entities upon which the commands are to operate. 1977Sci. Amer. Sept. 234/2 The user makes his primary input through a typewriterlike keyboard and a pointing device called a mouse, which controls the position of an arrow on the screen as it is pushed about on the table beside the display. 1982N.Y. Times 26 Nov. d1 Instead of typing commands or code words to request information, users can point to words or symbols on the screen..through manipulation of a hand-held device known as a mouse. 1983Mini-Micro Systems Feb. 19/3 Using the mouse to point and select, a user can bring a ‘page’ to the top of the screen and shrink or expand the size of the window. 1984Phillips & Scellato Apple IIc User Guide xvi. 272 There are two main types of ‘mice’, mechanical and optical. 1986Which Computer? Oct. 42/2 The mouse used for controlling much of the new picture-based software to be offered for this machine plugs into the keyboard, not at the back of the machine.
5. A species of cowry.
1815S. Brookes Introd. Conch. 156 Mouse, Cypræa Mus.
6. slang. A lump or discoloured bruise, esp. one on or near the eye, caused by a blow; a black eye.
1854‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green ii. iv, That'll raise a tidy mouse on your ogle, my lad! 1886Sir F. Doyle Remin. & Opin. iv. 81 He acquired a severe black eye, of that peculiar kind known to professional pugilists as a ‘mouse’.
7. Short for mouse-moth (see 10 f).
1829J. F. Stephens Catal. Brit. Insects ii. 77 Pyrophila..Tragopogonis. Mouse. 1832Rennie Conspect. Butterfl. & M. 63 The Mouse..appears in June... First pair [of wings] mouse-brown. 1882W. F. Kirby Europ. Butterfl. & M. (1903) 192/1 When disturbed in the day time it falls down and shuffles about in such a manner that it has acquired the name of ‘the Mouse’.
II.
8. A muscle. Obs. in general sense (see 9).[Cf. the similar use of OHG. mûs, mod.G. maus, Du. muis, ON. mús; also Gr. µῦς.] c1000ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 158/6 Torus, uel musculus, uel lacertus, mus ðæs earmes. 1561Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 12 b, Binde the garlike vpon the wrest of the arme..so that it do not touche the mousse of the hande.
9. spec. Applied variously to certain muscular parts of meat (see quots.). Now only dial.
[1530: cf.mouse-piece.] 1584Lyly Sappho i. iii. 11 Criti...but come among vs, and you shall see vs once in a morning haue a mouse at a bay. Molus. A mouse? vnproperly spoken. Criti. Aptly vnderstoode, a mouse of beafe. Molus. I thinke indeed a peece of beafe as bigge as a mouse, serues a great companie of such cattes. 1808Jamieson, Mouse, the outermost fleshy part of a leg of mutton, when dressed; the bulb of flesh on the extremity of the shank, S. pron. moose. When roasted, it formerly used to be prepared with salt and pepper. 1854A. E. Baker Northamptonsh. Gloss. II. 36 Mouse, the strongest muscle in the shoulder of a pig; which, when drawn out quickly from the flitch, makes a squeaking noise; and children often say to the butcher, ‘Come, let's hear the mouse squeak.’ 1881Oxfordsh. Gloss. Suppl., Mouse, a small piece of meat under the spare-rib of a pig, about the size of a mouse.
III. 10. attrib. and Comb. (the pl. form mice- has occas. been used instead of mouse-). a. simple attributive, as mouse-birth, mouse-cage, mouse dung, mouse-skin, etc.; (in sense 4 f) mouse button.
1868Browning Ring & Bk. iii. 1322 Oh *mouse-birth of that mountain-like revenge!
1983Austral. Personal Computer Aug. 38/1 By selecting View from the menu while holding the *mouse button down, [etc.].
1855Dickens Dorrit i. xviii, Here Young John turned the great hat round and round upon his left-hand, like a slowly twirling *mouse-cage.
1538Elyot Dict., Muscerda, *mouse dunge. 1581W. Fulke in Confer. iii. (1584) X j, He should keepe the Pix diligently from mise dung.
1609Holland Amm. Marcell. 400 They are clad all over in garments made of linnen, or else patched up of wild *mice skinnes.
1483Cath. Angl. 245/1 A *Mowsse turde, musterda.
b. objective, and obj. genitive, as mouse-catcher, mouse-killer, mouse-killing (adj.), mouse-slayer, mouse-taker.
1483Cath. Angl. 244/2 A Mowse slaer, muricida. Ibid., A Mowsse taker, muscipulator. 1538Elyot Dict., Muricidus, a mouse killer. 1611Cotgr., Souricier, a Mouser, or Mouse-catcher. 1647Trapp Comm. Epist. 153 Those Popish Muscipulatores or Mice-catchers, as the story calleth them, that raked together their Peter-pence, and other moneys here in England by most detestable arts. 1772Foote Nabob iii. Wks. 1799 II. 317 The..mouse-killing cat.
c. adverbial, as mouse-proof.
1895Outing (U.S.) XXVI. 365/2 A mouse-proof locker.
d. instrumental, as mouse-crope (dial.), mouse-eaten, mouse-gnawn adjs.; (in sense 4 f) mouse-controlled, mouse-driven.
1983Austral. Personal Computer Aug. 60/3 *Mouse-controlled movements can be made highly accurate.
1721Bailey, *Mouse-crope, a Beast that is run over the Back by a Shrew Mouse is said to be so. C[ountry word.] 1866Treas. Bot. s.v. Rubus, We have heard of cows that were said to be mouse-crope, or to have been walked over by a shrew-mouse (an ancient way of accounting for paralysis), being [etc.].
1983Austral. Personal Computer Apr. 10/3 *Mouse-driven software has caught the imagination of American hardware designers. 1985Pract. Computing May 20 (Advt.), The latest members of the Apple family will be running the latest mouse-driven software.
a1586Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 31 The Historian..loden with old *Mouse-eaten records.
1921W. de la Mare Veil 1 From crock of bone-dry crusts and *mouse-gnawn cheese.
e. similative, as mouse-brown, mouse-grey (also n.), † mouse-haired, mouse-like, mouse-poor, mouse-quiet, mouse-still adjs. Also mouse-like adv. See also mouse-coloured, mouse-dun.
1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 247 Pileus *mouse brown.
1834Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XXII. 249/1 The fur..of a uniform *mouse-grey above. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 619 Mouse-gray is obtained, when with the same proportions as for ash-gray.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. iv. 913 A staloun asse..al blaak Or *moushered or reed is to been hadde.
1838Dickens Nich. Nick. xxviii, Inserting her *mouse⁓like feet in the blue satin slippers. 1874L. Carr Jud. Gwynne I. vi. 172 She crept mouse⁓like to the bedside.
1921R. Graves Pier-glass 50 Baffled, aghast with hate, *mouse-poor.
1946― Poems 1938–45 13 And we remain *mouse-quiet when they begin Suddenly in their unpredictable way To weave an allegory of their lives.
1871Longfellow Wayside Inn ii. Cobbler of Hagenau 70 His quiet little dame..Eager, excited, but *mouse-still.
f. Special comb.: † mouse ballock, some plant; mouse-bane, Aconitum myoctonum (Treas. Bot. 1866); mouse barley, Hordeum murinum; mouse-bird, (a) any bird of the African genus Colius; one of the colies; (b) ‘a whidah-bird (genus Vidua)’ (Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895); mouse-bur, the seeds of Martynia proboscidea; mouse buttock ‘the fleshy piece which is cut from a round of beef’ (Eng. Dial. Dict.); † mouse catch, a mousetrap; mouse chop, Mesembryanthemum murinum, (Treas. Bot.); mouse-fish, Pterophryne (or Antennarius) histrio, a fish which builds a sort of nest in the Sargasso Sea; † mouse-foot, (a) in by the mouse-foot, an old oath; (b) a plant; mouse-galago, a small West African galago, Galago murinus (Funk's Stand. Dict.); mouse-grass, † (a) a species of stonecrop; (b) a dial. name for the silvery hair grass, Aira caryophyllea; (c) an Australian name for Dichelachne crinita; mouse-hare, a rodent of the genus Lagomys, esp. L. roylei; mouse-hawk, (a) a hawk that devours mice; (b) the short-eared owl or hawk-owl, Asio brachyotus; (c) U.S. ‘the rough-legged buzzard’ (Cent. Dict. 1890), Archibuteo lagopus; mouse-hood, a fungus (see quot.); mouse lemur, any small Madagascan lemur of the genus Chirogaleus; mouse-mark, a birth-mark resembling a mouse; mouse-mill (see quot.); mouse-moth, the moth Amphipyra tragopogonis (see 7); mouse-piece = mouse-buttock; mouse-powder, a poison for mice; mouse pox = ectromelia 2; mouse-roller Printing (see quot.); mouse-sight, a pseudo-etymological rendering of Myopia; † mouse-stock, a mousetrap; mouse-thorn (see quot.); † mouse-wort, another name for mugwort. See also mouse-colour, mouse-dun, mouse-ear, mouse-fall, mouse-hole, mouse-hunt, etc.
c1450Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 184/2 Testiculus muris folia habet ualde parua. ang. *museballok.
1840W. Baxter Brit. Phænog. Bot. V. 344 Hordeum murinum, Wall Barley. Way-side Barley. *Mouse Barley.
1822J. Latham Gen. Hist. Birds V. 196 These birds [sc. Colies] are called at the Cape *Mouse Birds. 1893F. C. Selous Trav. S.E. Africa 64 A flock of parroquets, or mouse birds, of a species unknown to me. They were of a pale green colour, with rose-coloured heads and long tails.
1877A. Brassey Voy. Sunbeam vi. (1878) 84 The seeds of the Martynia proboscidea, *mouse-burrs, as they call them.
1818Min. Evid. Comm. Prisons Metrop., Lond. 38 That [meat] which I bought for them is called the *mouse buttock.
1382Wyclif Wisd. xiv. 11 Into a *mousecacche [Vulg. in muscipulam].
1876G. B. Goode Anim. Recources U.S. 13 Pediculati. (Sea-bats or devil-fish, goose-fish or angler, *mouse-fish, &c.)
c1560Misogonus iii. i. 255 Bith *mouse foote, do so, Mr. 1605Lond. Prodigal ii. ii, I'll come and visit you; by the mouse-foot I will. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 504 Plants..receiued names from this litle beast, as..Mouse-foot, and such like.
1611Cotgr., Ioubarbe sauvage, *Mouse-grasse, wild Prickmadame.
1888–91Blanford Mammalia India 456 Lagomys roylei. The Himalayan *Mouse-Hare.
c725Corpus Gloss. 1890 Soricarius: *mushabuc. c1050Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 259/10 Suricaricis, mushafuc. 1772Forster in Phil. Trans. LXII. 384, Strix..Brachyotos. The short-eared Owl. .. Mouse Hawk at Hudson's Bay. 1840Macgillivray Man. Brit. Birds (1846) 67 Asio Brachyotus... Mouse-hawk.
1887Hay Brit. Fungi 175 Hygrophorus murinaceus, the *Mouse Hood.
1893–4Lydekker's Roy. Nat. Hist. I. 219 The tiny creatures known as the *mouse-lemurs.
1725Ramsay Gentle Sheph. iii. ii, I'll wager there's a *mouse-mark on your side.
1876Jrnl. Soc. Telegr. Engineers V. 186 The electrification of the ink is effected by means of an electrostatic induction machine called the *mouse mill, which is driven either by clockwork or by an electro-magnetic arrangement.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 251 *Mouse moth (Noctua Tragopogonus).
1530Palsgr. 246/2 *Mouspece of an oxe, moufle. 1696Aubrey Misc. 109 There is a certain piece in the Beef, called the Mouse-piece, which given to the Child, or Party so affected, to Eat, doth certainly Cure the Thrush.
1886York Herald 10 Aug. 5/6 After the death of Mrs. Dixon, Mrs. Britland..suggested that they might have been poisoned with *mouse powder.
1947F. Fenner in Austral. Jrnl. Exper. Biol. & Med. Sci. XXV. 334 Marchal originally proposed the name ‘infectious ectromelia’ on account of the frequency with which amputation of the extremities occurred. Few subsequent observers have found this at all common... In view of this and of the newly found close relationship of the disease to the mammalian pox diseases, Professor F. M. Burnet has suggested that ‘*mouse pox’ should be used as a synonym for ‘infectious ectromelia’. 1948Brit. Jrnl. Exper. Path. XXIX. 77 Mice dying of acute mouse-pox do not shed much virus into the environment. 1955F. M. Burnet Princ. Animal Virology vii. 157 The content of elementary bodies was very clearly shown in ultraviolet micrographs of the..mouse-pox inclusion body. 1970S. M. Brooks World of Viruses v. 47 The so-called variola-like poxviruses cause smallpox,..mousepox,..and turkey⁓pox.
1888Jacobi Printer's Vocab., *Mouse roller, a small additional roller for the better distribution of ink on a machine.
1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 152 Mice are said to have this kind of vision naturally, and hence one of the technical names for it is myopia or myopiasis, literally ‘*mouse-sight’.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 53 Þeos wimmen..beoð þes deofles *musestoch iclepede, for þenne þe mon wule tilden his musestoch he bindeð uppon þa swike chese and bret hine for þon þet he scolde swote smelle.
1866Treas. Bot., *Mouse-thorn. Centaurea myacantha.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 512 Mug-wort, otherwise cald *mouse-wort.
Add:[I.] [1.] c. fig. A timid or retiring person; one who is as quiet or insignificant ‘as a mouse’. Cf. sense 2 and mousy a. 2.
1935N. & Q. 23 Nov. 366 Mouse.., a person who is timid—who plays best alone. 1952M. Allingham Tiger in Smoke i. 31 That shady little mouse we just caught was frightened of somebody, wasn't he? 1975D. Clark Premedicated Murder vi. 92 Where he was an uncouth bully, she was a mouse, a nonentity. 1987E. Rhode Birth & Madness iii. 86 Anna was no mouse. Even at the age of twenty-one, she had authority.
▪ II. mouse, v.|maʊz|
Also 3 muse, 5–7 mowse, mouze, 7 mowze, 9 dial. moose.
[f. mouse n. Cf. G. mausen, Du. muizen.]
1. intr. To hunt for or catch mice; said esp. of a cat or an owl.
a1250Prov. ælfred 296 in O.E. Misc. 120 For ofte Museþ þe kat after hire moder. c1440Promp. Parv. 347/1 Mowsyn, or take myse, muricapio. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables lxxxi. 79 An Old Weazle that was now almost past Mousing. 1791Huddesford Salmag., Monody Death of Dick 133 Thee, generous Dick, the Cat-controlling Powers Ordained to mouse in Academic Bowers. 1856C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain i. xxi, The large white owl floating over the fields as it moused in the long grass. 1871Blackie Four Phases i. 42 You expect..your cat to mouse well.
2. transf. and fig. To hunt or search industriously or captiously; to go or move about softly in search of something, to prowl. Also with around, along.
1575Turberv. Venerie 153 When he [sc. the Bore]..doth but a little turne vp the grounde with his nose, he seeketh for wormes. So may you say that he hath bene mowsing. 1673Marvell Reh. Transp. II. 254 You fall a mousing about the definition of a Quibble. 1778Wolcot (P. Pindar) Epist. to Reviewers xxviii, There, Wisdom,..I've seen o'er pamphlets,..Mousing for faults, or, if you'll have it, Owling. 1842J. Foster in Life & Corr. (1846) II. 421 This has been the consequence of mousing for them [engravings] during a good many years. 1849W. Irving Goldsmith xiii. 143 He..wrote in a more free and fluent style than if he had been mousing at the time among authorities. 1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics ix. iii. (1860) II. 135 He..mouses for flaws of regulation. 1874G. H. Kingsley Sport & Trav. vi. (1900) 161, I was mousing around by myself the other day. 1885H. C. McCook Tenants of Old Farm 365 Maybe they peep and mouse into the tunnels and caves of worms.
b. to mouse over (a book): to study eagerly. U.S.
1807–8W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 385 With..a table full of books before me, to mouse over them alternately. 1864B. Taylor in Life & Lett. (1884) II. xvii. 422, I have Little and Brown's ‘British Poets’ complete now, so you'll have wherewithal to mouse over. 1889Gretton Memory's Harkb. 137 He was..always ‘mousing’ over books.
c. trans. To hunt for by patient and careful search. Also with out. U.S.
1864N.Y. Evangelist 20 Oct. (Cent.), He..usually returned laden with boxes and bundles of literary odds and ends, moused from rural attics and bought or begged for his collection. 1870H. Stevens Bibl. Histor. Introd. 11 They are driven..to mouse out in foreign countries..what ought to be at home..in the public libraries.
†3. trans. To handle as a cat does a mouse; to tear, bite. Obs.
1530Tindale Answ. More iii. xiii. Wks. (1573) 311/1 In the xiii. [chapter]..he biteth, sucketh, gnaweth, towseth, and mowseth Tyndall. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 91 Keepe sheepe from dog, keepe lambes from hog. If foxes mowse them, then watch or howse them. 1595Shakes. John ii. i. 354 Bast. Oh, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steele;..And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men, In vndetermin'd differences of kings! 1603Dekker Wonderful Year C 2 b, Whilst Troy was swilling sack and sugar, and mowsing fat venison, the mad Greekes made bonefires of their houses. 1647Fanshawe Il Pastor Fido iv. 124 But 't had been worse t' have been prisoner To such a beast; Who though he doth not bear A mouses heart, might have mouz'd me.
†b. To pull about good-naturedly, but roughly; chiefly touse and mouse; cf. mousle v. Obs.
1607Middleton Fam. of Love v. iii. 334 Yet if you did but see how like a cock sparrow he mouses and touses my little Bess already. a1627H. Shirley Mart. Souldier iv. iii. in Bullen O. Pl. I. 235 Is't the kings pleasure that I should mouse her, and before all these people? 1675Wycherly Country Wife ii. i, He would not let me come near the gentry, who sat under us [at the play]... He told me, none but naughty women sat there, whom they toused and moused. 1691Shadwell Scourers iv. i, My dear chicken, I'll mouse thee.
absol.1681Otway Soldier's Fort. i. i, To see a pretty Wench and a young Fellow touze and rouze and frouze and mouze.
†4. To ransack, rummage, pillage. Obs.
c1580J. Jeffere Bugbears ii. i. in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. (1897), They have rifeled and mowsed the cofer by a false key thei made.
5. Naut. To put a mouse (see mouse n. 4 a) on (a stay); to secure (a hook) with a mouse.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Mousing a hook, the operation of fastening a small cord..across the upper-part, from the point to the back.., in order to prevent it from unhooking. 1837Marryat Dog-fiend ix, I can bring my tarry trousers to an anchor—mousing the mainstay, or puddening the anchor. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk, s.v. Mouse, To mouse a hook.
Hence moused ppl. a., supplied with mousing.
1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 9 These Patent Slip-Hooks..form an automatically ‘Moused’ hook when in use.
▪ III. mouse
see moose2 and musa1 (banana). |