| 释义 |
▪ I. mud, n.1|mʌd|
Forms: 4 mode, 4–6 mudde, 5 moode, 6 moude, mude, mwde, 7 mudd, 5– mud.
[ME. mode, mudde, cogn. w. MLG., LG. mudde fem., LG. also mod, mōde, mūde mud, Du. modden to dabble in mud (? also with Du. modde slut), MHG. mot (G. dial. mott) bog, bog-earth, peat.
An extended form appears in MLG., Du. modder mud, whence G. moder masc., mud, state of mouldering or decay; cf. MHG. moter (mod.G. dial. motter).]
1. a. Wet and soft soil or earthy matter; mire, sludge.
13..Coer de L. 4360 Some..broughten..grete schydes, and the wood, And slunge it into the mode. 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 407 Þenne mourkne in þe mudde most ful nede Alle þat spyrakle in-spranc. 14..Why I can't be a Nun 2 in E.E.P. (1862) 138 Whan they had resceyvede her charge, They spared nether mud ne myer. 1513Douglas æneis v. vi. 125 His face he schew besmotterit for a bourd, And all his membris in mude and dung bedoif. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 29 Though..loftie ships leaue anker in mud [etc.]. 1632Lithgow Trav. vii. 317 Leauing slime, mood, and Sand behind their breaches. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 618 The Sun..darting to the bottom, bak'd the Mud. 1716Gay Trivia i. 200 The spatter'd mud Hides all thy hose behind. 1781Cowper Charity 531 Plung'd in the stream, they lodge upon the mud. 1808Med. Jrnl. XIX. 114 The Ganges has a prodigious quantity of mud at its sides. 1849James Woodman vii, The floor was of mud.
b. pl. Tracts of mud on the margin of a tidal river.
1883G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads i. 3 At low water, the muds or flats are dry. 1897Spectator 23 Oct. 553/2 Herons—which feed on the muds left by the tide. 1902Cornish Naturalist Thames 213 There are still no flounders on the famous Bishop's Muds.
c. Geol. A mixture of finely comminuted particles of rock with water, having a consistency varying from that of a semi-liquid to that of a soft and plastic solid; usually either deposited from suspension in water, or ejected from volcanos. Also pl. kinds of mud.
1878Huxley Physiogr. 192 Herculaneum was sealed up by a crust of volcanic mud discharged from Vesuvius. 1885Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 122/1 At some points in the same regions are found green muds and sands, which, as regards their origin..resemble the blue muds.
d. mud and stud (dial.): posts and laths filled in with mud, as a material of which walls of cottages, etc., are built (also stud and mud: see stud n.); similarly mud and log, mud and reed, etc.
1839Stonehouse Axholme 389 The rectory house was an old fashioned dwelling, with high gables and walls of mud and stud. 1843Marryat M. Violet xxxii, The miserable twelve-feet-square mud-and-log cabins. 1900Daily News 18 May 6/2 The mud and reed towns of the negro.
e. transf. A ‘mud-student’ (see sense 5).
1906C. G. Grey Sequel to Story Official Life 9 Some of the men from across Tweed were very kind to us muds.
f. A liquid (commonly a suspension of clay and other substances in water) that is pumped down the inside of the drill pipe and up the outside during the drilling of an oil or gas well, so as to remove the drill cuttings, cool and lubricate the bit, support the sides of the hole against caving, and prevent the leakage into it of gas or water from the formations encountered; also (with a and pl.), a kind of mud. Orig. called mud-laden fluid and later mud fluid.
[1901J. G. McIntosh tr. Neuberger & Noalhat's Technol. Petroleum xxix. 379 It is..by causing a current of water to circulate continually from the surface of the ground to the bottom of the well, and again from the bottom to the surface, that the mud is continually carried away. 1914Times Fuel No. 104/2 Water and heavy mud forced along the column of the pipe..keep the bit clean and bring the detritus up to the surface.] 1922D. T. Day Handbk. Petroleum Industry I. 249 A column of pure water exerts a pressure of 43 pounds per square inch for each 100 feet in height but with mud-laden fluid this pressure may be increased to 50 or 55 pounds... This lateral pressure forces the mud into sands and porous structures, stabilizes caving formations and effectively shuts off water, gas or oil. 1926E. R. Lilley Oil Industry vii. 174 In the rotary system mud is introduced continuously and the control of gas seldom becomes a serious problem. 1938J. G. Crowther About Petroleum ix. 73 An artifical mud is preferable, as it is more viscous and does not allow the debris to settle. Drilling-mud serves other important functions. 1957Van der Have & Verver Petroleum & its Products ii. 59 Three types of drilling fluid are at present in use: water-base muds, emulsion-type muds and oil-base ‘muds’. 1970W. G. Roberts Quest for Oil iv. 45 A great deal of research continues into the making of suitable muds. 1970Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 31 Dec. 3/5 Workers cut off a blazing oil well with heavy ‘drilling mud’. 1974Daily Mail 3 Apr. 23/2 The mud men..supervise the texture of the mud in the giant tanks that are reservoirs for the special lubricant which is pumped into the ocean bed.
2. fig.
a. As a type of what is worthless or polluting.
1563Winȝet Wks. (S.T.S.) II. 78 Lat the cleir fayth and credulitie of our elders be na mixing of glar or mude be tribulit. 1590Greenwood Answ. Def. Read Prayers 31 In this your papisticall mudde,..your reading of mens writings for prayer, is a false worshipp of God. 1707Reflex. upon Ridicule 66 Servile Souls form'd of Mud. 1819Shelley England in 1819, Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring.
†b. The lowest or worst part of anything; the lowest stratum; the dregs.
a1586Sidney Arcadia iii. (1629) 238 An ordinary person (borne of the mud of the people). 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. v. v, Scum of the mud of hell! 1760Foote Minor ii. Wks. 1799 I. 255 To procure her emersion from the mercantile mud, no consideration wou'd be spar'd. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Race Wks. (Bohn) II. 23 Defoe said in his wrath, ‘the Englishman was the mud of all races’.
†c. A fool. slang. Obs.
1708Memoirs Right Villanous John Hall 22 Mud, a Fool, or Thick skull Fellow. 1886in H. Baumann Londinismen.
d. Opium. U.S. slang.
1922Dialect Notes V. 182 Mud, obviously so-named from the color and consistency of the drug. 1926Flynn's 16 Jan. 638/2 Some stiffs uses mud but coke don't need any jabbin', cookin' or flops. 1935Amer. Speech X. 17/1 Hop, opium. Modern mud, O., pen-yen, tar. 1955U.S. Senate Hearings (1956) VIII. 4161 Opium in the underworld is referred to by various names. For instance, ‘mud’, ‘tar’, ‘black stuff’, ‘hop’, ‘pen yan’ and ‘yen pocks’. 1974Publishers Weekly 11 Feb. 60/1 Western efforts to open up trade with China in the early to mid-19th century were largely unscrupulous, inspired by the immense profits to be made from ‘mud’ (opium).
e. Coffee. slang.
1925G. H. Mullin Adventures Scholar Tramp iii. 34, I received punk (bread) and a cup of mud (black coffee) or—to use the familiar hobo expression for the combination—duffer. 1931‘D. Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route 210 Mud, strong coffee mixed with weak milk. 1945L. Shelly Jive Talk Dict. 15/1 Mud, coffee or a homely person. 1957‘N. Culotta’ They're a Weird Mob (1958) ix. 135 Got another cuppa mud, Joe?
3. Phrases. as clear as mud: said in mock commendation of something that is by no means clear (also used as a burlesque intensive of ‘clear’); as sure as mud (school-slang): absolutely sure; to fling mud or throw mud: to make disgraceful imputations; to stick in the mud: see stick v.; (as) sick as mud: depressed, exasperated, furious; (here's) mud in your eye: a toast, ‘good health!’; one's name is mud: one is discredited, held in low esteem, ineffective, unlucky [cf. 2 c, above]; hence, passing into senses suggested by 2 a, b: one is regarded as a pariah, untrustworthy, with the worst reputation; so in allusive phrases; up to mud (Austral.): see quot. 1945.
1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 170 Never did two angry men of their abilities throw mud with less dexterity. 1823‘J. Bee’ Slang 122 Mud—a stupid twaddling fellow. ‘And his name is mud!’ ejaculated upon the conclusion of a silly oration, or of a leader in the Courier. 1842Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. Merch. Venice, That's clear as mud. 1880‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad 187 These people fling mud at that elegant Englishman..and make fun of him. 1884Fl. Marryat Under the Lilies vii, A woman in my position must expect to have more mud thrown at her than a less important person. 1884Nonconf. & Indep. 24 July 713/3 Using the case to fling mud at Mr. Trevelyan and Earl Spencer. 1887Lantern (New Orleans) 16 Apr. 2/1 Zeller wants to be Recorder..but his name is mud. 1899E. Phillpotts Human Boy 10, I shall die as sure as mud. 1906E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands viii. 92 D'yeh mean to tell me how Hoggy's let you loose agin after you gettin' glorious in his dry-goods, 'n' makin' his name mud all up 'n' down ther town? 1916C. J. Dennis Songs Sentimental Bloke 13 I'm crook; me name is Mud; I've done me dash. 1927H. V. Morton In Search of England iii. 60 ‘Here's mud in your eye!’ said one of the modern pilgrims, tossing down his martini. 1929J. P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl ix. 148 Well, I hope when I'm through I'll have sense enough to know it. Mud in your eye! 1930K. Brush Young Man of Manhattan vii. 87 ‘Well,’ somebody said, ‘here's mud in your eye.’ 1933Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Nov. 42/2 Still, men today are mostly up to mud. 1935M. de la Roche Young Renny xviii. 152 She hates the thought of his staying on as much as we do. She's as sick as mud about it. 1938S. V. Benét Thirteen o' Clock 335 Mud in your eye! 1942M. Dickens One Pair of Feet vii. 108 Nurse Dickens had no idea of hospital etiquette... Nurse Dickens was too opinionated. Nurse D.'s name, in short, was Mud. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. vi. 128 Up to mud, up to tripe,..describe things that are bad, disliked or out of order. 1949Wodehouse Mating Season xxiii. 198 ‘Skin off your nose, Jeeves.’ ‘Mud in your eye, sir, if I may use the expression.’ 1954― Jeeves & Feudal Spirit viii. 72 He's as sick as mud about it. He moons broodingly to and fro, looking like Hamlet. 1956J. Symons Paper Chase x. 73 Here's mud in your eye, Eileen. 1957D. Robins Noble One xviii. 169 If tha' doan't put ring on finger shortly, my lad, tha' name will be mud in Mountaindale. 1973W. M. Duncan Big Timer vii. 51 Riordan his name is and so far as I'm concerned from now on it's Mud.
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. simple attrib., as mud bigging, mud cabin, mud colour, mud floor, mud heap, mud house, mud hovel, mud-hut, mud-land, mud-puddle, mud-rush, mud-scatter, mud-shoal, mud-side, mud-slide, mud-trap;
b. instrumental, as mud-bespattered, mud-built, mud-caked, mud-chinked, mud-choked, mud-exhausted, mud-greasy, mud-layered, mud-moulded, mud-shot, mud-splashed, mud-splattered, mud-stained adjs.;
c. parasynthetic, as mud-bottomed, mud-coloured, mud-floored, mud-heaped, mud-roofed adjs.;
d. locative, as mud-couched, mud-lost, mud-mattressed, mud-stuck adjs.;
e. objective, as mud-feeding adj.;
f. similative, as mud-grey adj.
1848Dickens Dombey lv, Rows of *mud-bespattered cows.
1588Reg. Privy Council Scot. IV. 288 The said complenaris foirsaid house.., being laich *mud bigging.
1908Hardy Dynasts III. vii. iii. 492 Where there is a *mud-bottomed stream, the Lasne. 1949C. Longfield Dragonflies Brit. Isles (ed. 2) 132 It inhabits, in England, slow-running, mud-bottomed streams.
1740Thomson & Mallet Alfred i. ii, That *mud-built cottage is thy sovereign's palace.
1780A. Young Tour in Ireland 1. 102 This town appears exceedingly flourishing..yet 40 years ago..there were nothing but *mud cabbins in it. 1829J. MacTaggart Three Yrs. Canada II. 243 It is a singular fact..with the Irish, that if they can get a mud-cabin, they will never think of building one of wood. 1922Joyce Ulysses 324 Their mudcabins and their shielings by the roadside were laid low by the batteringram.
1912W. Deeping Sincerity xxxix. 281 Grassless fields, *mud-caked ponds, and empty wells. 1961Times 11 Jan. 16/4 Their mud-caked forwards battled back into the Eastern Counties' 25.
1946W. Faulkner Portable Faulkner App. 737 Jefferson Mississippi was one long rambling onestorey *mudchinked log building housing the Chickasaw Agent and his tradingpost store.
1922Joyce Ulysses 98 Past beds of reeds, over slime, *mud⁓choked bottles, carrion dogs.
1839Hood Hood's Own i. 32 (Last Shilling) A pair of *mud-colour gloves.
1838J. Pardoe River & Desert I. 110 A sort of *mud-coloured cotton.
1936W. Faulkner Absalom, Absalom! ii. 44 It was that same Akers who had blundered onto the *mudcouched negro five years ago.
1622Drayton Poly-olb. xxvii. 259 The *mud-exhausted Meres.
1926J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. xvii. 209 The endostyle degenerates together with the rest of the *mud-feeding apparatus.
1843Borrow Bible in Spain ii. 13 A little side-room with a *mud floor. 1960Koestler Lotus & Robot i. i. 28 It had brought..a mud-floor of starved refugees, increased poverty, land hunger, and the threat of civil war.
1951― Age of Longing i. vi. 108 All men did that who had..met in *mud-floored rooms before the Great Change.
1921D. H. Lawrence Sea & Sardinia ii. 44 Badly paved, *mud⁓greasy..road.
1923― Birds, Beasts & Flowers 169 You meet a huge and *mud-grey elephant.
1871Kingsley At Last x, His bare feet plashing from log to log and *mud-heap to mud-heap.
1935W. Empson Poems 26 Empty, *mudheaped, through which the alluvial scheme Flows temporary as the modern world.
1548Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 260 He has..distroyit iiij *mwd houissis in my cloise and fald. 1856Lever Martins of Cro' M. 126 He built a mud-house.
1838Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Hand of Glory, Did you see her, in short, that *mud-hovel within.
1803J. Davis Trav. U.S. 3, I have entered with equal interest the *mud-hut of the negro, and the log-house of the planter. 1858T. Vielé Following Drum 125 Half-a-dozen mud-huts neatly thatched with straw..presented a study for an artist. 1941L. Hellman Watch on Rhine iii. 166 In every town..and every mud hut in the world, there is always a man who..will fight to make a good world. 1971Daily Nation (Nairobi) 10 Apr. 10 The expression traditional housing is a misnomer... The brick homes in the area will have nothing in common with the traditional mud huts.
a1865Smyth Sailor's Word-Bk. (1867) 487 *Mud-lands, the extensive marshes left dry by the retiring tide in estuaries and river mouths. 1927Daily Tel. 22 Nov. 14/1 This scheme..involves the reclamation of over 400 acres of mudland.
1930Blunden Poems 145 *Mud⁓layered cobble-stones.
1790Coleridge Devon. Roads 21 While they their *mud-lost sandals hunt.
1960S. Plath Colossus (1967) 48 *Mud-mattressed under the sign of the hag In a clench of blood, the sleep-talking virgin Gibbets..the moon's man.
1901Kipling Kim iii, A mud-walled, *mud-roofed hamlet.
1906Hardy Dynasts II. v. viii. 288 We are the only phantoms now abroad On this *mud-moulded ball!
a1841W. P. Hawes Sporting Scenes (1842) I. 183 The thawing *mud-puddles. 1912Kipling Songs from Books (1913) 76 As a frog shows in a mud-puddle.
1928― Limits & Renewals (1932) 3 The advance of education and the standard of living would submerge all mind-marks in one *mudrush of standardised reading-matter.
1919J. Masefield Reynard 78 *Mud-scatters chased him as he scudded.
1842Knickerbocker XX. 309 [He] knew a great deal more about the inconveniences of groping about among *mud⁓shoals in the dark.
1858R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma 9 He helped her down the perilous *mud-shot iron steps of the old Independent.
1923G. B. Shaw Let. 5 Apr. in To a Young Actress (1960) 42, I am here at the *mudside (the Bristol channel can hardly be called sea) to recuperate.
1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 29 Oct. 1/7 *Mud slides also add to the danger of operating trains until repairs can be effected. 1928Blunden Undertones of War iv. 35 That dugout was a deep one, with a steep mud-slide of an entrance. 1969Courier Mail (Brisbane) 27 Jan. 4/8 Mud⁓slides buried sleepers alive..as Southern California was deluged by rain.
1908Daily Chron. 28 Sept. 7/4 He sat his *mud-splashed saddle, motionless under the moon. 1922Joyce Ulysses 33 The mudsplashed brakes.
1930J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel i. 5 *Mudsplattered trouserlegs.
a1922H. Lawson in Penguin Bk. Austral. Ballads (1964) 144 And *mud-stained, wet, and weary, He goes by rock and tree.
1908Hardy Dynasts III. vii. iv. 493 His horse got *mud-stuck in a new-ploughed plot. 1970Motoring Which? July 93/2 Both cars had areas which may well give trouble in a couple of years' time—*mud traps around the headlamp cowls of the 3-litre, [etc.].
5. a. Special combinations: mud balance, a balance designed for measuring the density of drilling mud; mud-bar [bar n.1 15], a bank of mud in a river or off an estuary or a shore; mud-barge, a barge transporting dredged mud; mud-bath, a medicinal bath of heated mud; also transf. and fig.; mud-board, a flat board fastened under the foot for walking on mud; mud-boat, (a) a board with sides, used for crossing tidal mud for the purpose of shooting sea-birds; (b) a barge for carrying away mud dredged from a river or bar; mud-boot, a kind of jack boot worn as a protection from mud; mud box Naut., a box containing a coarse filter used to trap sediment in bilge-water; mud-boy (see quot.); mud-brick, brick that is made with mud; also attrib.; mud-chute, a chute down which mud is discharged (in quot. fig.); mud-clerk U.S., an assistant to the purser on a river steamer; mud-cone , a cone formed by the accumulation of mud round the vent of a mud-volcano; mud-crack, a crack formed in drying mud; mud-crusher slang, an infantry man; mud-drum, a cylindrical chamber attached to a boiler to collect the earthy matter in the water supplied; mud engineer, a person responsible for the quality and supply of drilling mud; mud-fat a. Australian, as fat as possible; mud fever, a disease of horses, in which patches of the skin on their feet become inflamed and swollen; mud flap, a piece of rubber, metal, etc., hung behind each of the wheels of a vehicle to prevent mud, etc., from splashing; mud-flat, (a) a stretch of muddy land left uncovered at low tide; (b) a mud-bank in a river which is not tidal; (c) N.Z. (see quot. 1947); mud-flinger, a person who hurls abuse [from to fling mud (mud n.1 3)]; so mud-flinging vbl. n.; mud-flow, a (fluid or hardened) stream or avalanche of mud, e.g. one consisting of soil made fluid by excessive water, one produced by a mud volcano, or a lahar; also, the flow or motion of such a stream; mud fluid = mud n.1 1 f; mud flush, a flush by means of drilling mud; mudguard, a piece of metal, leather, celluloid, etc., attached to the wheel of a cycle, etc., to protect the rider from mud; mudguarded a., provided with mudguards; mud-hoe, a kind of scraper for scraping mud off roads; mud hog = mud pump below; mud-honey (nonce-wd.), used fig. for degrading pleasures; † mud-laden fluid = mud n.1 1 f; mud-land (see quot.); mud-lava, volcanic mud (= moya); mud-lighter [lighter n.1], a barge for transporting mud; mud-line, the line on the sea-bed in front of a coast-line which represents the upper limit at which wave action allows mud to settle permanently on the bottom; mud logging, examination of the mud (sense 1 f) coming out of a bore-hole for signs of oil or gas or other indications of the strata being drilled; so mud logger, a person responsible for this; mud-lump U.S. (see quot.); mud-mask, -pack, a preparation of fuller's earth applied to the face as a beauty treatment; so mud-mask v. trans., to treat with a mud-mask; mud-patten = mud-board; mud pie, mud or wet earth formed by children in the shape of a pie; also attrib. and fig.; mud pilot, a pilot who works in shallow water; also fig.; so mud pilotage; mud-plunger (see quot.); mud proof a., impervious to mud; mud pump, a pump for circulating mud (sense 1 f) through the drill pipe and up the bore-hole; mud-quake nonce-wd., jocularly applied to an earthquake in Holland; mud room N. Amer., a cloakroom, spec. one in which wet or muddy footwear may be left; mud runner U.S., a horse which habitually performs well on a wet racecourse; a mudder; mud-scow, a flat mud-boat; mud shine nonce-wd., the reflexion of light on muddy stones; mud-shoe (see quots.); mud-show arch. slang, an exhibition or performance held in the open air; so mud showman; mud-sill, (a) the lowest sill of a structure, usually embedded in the soil; (b) U.S. the lowest class of society; also, a person of this class; mud-slinging, -throwing vbl. ns. (the employment of) abuse, calumny or slander; malevolent gossip; so mud-sling n., -slinger; mud-splasher = mud-board; mudstone Geol. (see quot. 1876); mud-student slang, a student of farming; mud-valve, ‘a valve by which mud is discharged from a steam boiler’ (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); mud volcano, (a) a mound or cone formed of hardened mud discharged from its centre (usu. of much smaller dimensions than a volcano); also fig.; (b) U.S. = mud-lump; mud wing, a mudguard, a mud flap.
1960C. Gatlin Petroleum Engin. vi. 70/2 The density of drilling muds is normally measured with a *mud balance.
1899C. J. C. Hyne Further Adventures Capt. Kettle i. 10 There was a *mud-bar with twenty-four feet, but steamers drawing twenty-seven could scrape over, as the bar was soft.
1906E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xviii. 242 Ther toad-stools..was growin'..like mussels on er *mudbarge. 1926W. Runciman Collier Brigs 77 They..took in chalk ballast from the wharves, and occasionally from mud⁓barges when they could not get a ready turn at the wharves.
1843Sir C. Scudamore Med. Visit Gräfenberg 64 He next proceeded to Franzens-bad, in Bohemia, and tried the *mud baths for a month. 1851J. Chapman Diary 26 June in G. S. Haight Geo. Eliot & J. Chapman (1940) 184 Mrs Hennell..thinks..that..pure monogamy..will only be reached thro' a previous age of general licence! I don't agree with her that such a mud bath is at all necessary. 1856D. G. Rossetti Let. 10 Dec. (1965) I. 307 Bath has been a mud⁓bath ever since I came. 1961Times 12 May 19/2 Mr. Beckett's anti-metaphysical mudbath. 1971Sunday Nation (Nairobi) 11 Apr. 5/1 The remaining cars in the Safari braced themselves for a possible mud bath.
1824P. Hawker Instr. Yng. Sportsm. 334 plate, Thin oak *Mudboards 16 inches square.
1824P. Hawker Instr. Yng. Sportsm. 331 The gunner first lays his piece..into the ‘*mud-boat’, and then [etc.]..Having got pretty near to his birds, he lies down in the ‘mud-boat’. 1838Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 204/2 Petitioning the Admiralty for the loan of a steam-tug or mud-boat.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. i. ix, Half-buried under..overalls and *mudboots.
1883A. E. Seaton Man. Marine Engin. xii. 231 *Mud boxes. Between the directing box and the pump should be fitted a box with a strainer, which shall intercept such solid matter as would derange the pump valves. 1972B.S.I. News Oct. 28/2 Mudboxes intended for the coarse filtration of bilge water which accumulates in ships' machinery spaces.
1958Times 15 May 14/6 The quality of the mud during drilling operations [for oil] is, therefore, very important, and the *mudboy, who is responsible for preparing it, is quite a skilled workman.
1810Z. M. Pike Acct. Expeditions Sources Mississippi App. ii. 7 Houses would be built entirely of *mud-brick (like those in New Spain). 1903Speaker 5 Sept. 527/2 The old town being built of mud-brick had vanished. 1934F. Stark Valleys of Assassins i. i. 29 The castle is a mud-brick square with round towers. 1963M. Laurence Tomorrow-Tamer 227 Then she was gone, shutting quietly behind her the packing-case door of the mudbrick shanty.
1938H. G. Wells Apropos of Dolores iv. 211 It is the most awful gabble—but it is nothing more than the inevitable end of this *mud-chute called ‘history’.
1872E. Eggleston End of World xxvi. 171 It was natural enough that the ‘*mud⁓clerk’ on the old steamboat Iatan should have taken a fancy to the ‘striker’, as the engineer's apprentice was called. 1912I. S. Cobb Back Home 103 Even her two mud clerks, let alone her captain and her pilots, wore uniforms.
1869‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abr. lviii. 632 Groups of *mud cones stuck like wasps' nests. 1879Geikie in Encycl. Brit. X. 251/2 Mud cones or Salses.
1895Funk's Stand. Dict., *Mud-cracks. 1917Jrnl. Geol. XXV. 135 (heading) Some factors affecting the development of mud-cracks. 1968R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Geomorphol. 761/1 Mud cracks form largely because of solar radiation.
1893Sir G. Chesney Lesters I. i. xi. 142 ‘You are too good to be a *mud-crusher, Tommy,’ said the Major of the regiment [Hussars] patronisingly.
1890Century Dict., *Mud drum. 1901W. Churchill Crisis ii. xxii, The captain knew a mud-drum from a lady's watch.
1970W. G. Roberts Quest for Oil iv. 46 The *mud engineer and geologist will be examining the mud all the time to find out what sort of rock is being bored. 1975Petroleum Rev. XXIX. 27/3 The toolpusher was ready,..the mud engineers, the experts in every field were ready.
1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 394 Every beast on Rainbar run..will be *mud fat in three months.
1872W. Williams Princ. & Pract. Vet. Surg. xxxvii. 623 *Mud⁓fever is occasionally attended with a considerable degree of systemic disturbance. 1901F. T. Barton Vet. Manual 161 (heading) Erythema and Mud-rash. (Mud fever.)..Sometimes there is a slight degree of fever, hence the term ‘mud fever’. 1928Black's Vet. Dict. 617/2 Mud fever is the popular name for a variety of erythema that attacks the heels and coronets of horses' feet when these parts are subject to long-continued irritation. 1971G. W. Serth Horse Owner's Guide Common Ailments vi. 63 Mud fever affects the legs and under the belly.
1963Times 29 Jan. 3/6 Its front wings and front and rear panels are bolted on for easy repair and the car has rubber cushioned over⁓riders and *mud flaps as standard equipment. 1967Autocar 28 Dec. 29/2 Rear mud flaps should be made compulsory in the interest of safety. 1972Guardian 13 Nov. 8/5 The fitting of mud flaps behind the rear wheels should be made compulsory.
1871Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. June 338 The *mudflats of our seaboard. 1885Froude Oceana xi. (1886) 165 Cranes and other waders stalked about the mud-flats. 1922H. Footner Huntress 134 The only breaks in the endless panorama of cut-banks, mud-flats, willows, and grass were occasional little inlets. 1943K. Tennant Ride on Stranger ix. 92 The broken grey rocks sloping down to mud flats. 1947P. Newton Wayleggo (1949) 154 Mud-flats, a high country man's name for down country flats. Heavy land.
1839Thackeray Let. 1–2 Dec. in A. T. Ritchie Lett. (1924) i. 8 Very curious the abuse is of that character. Old Southey is one of the chief *mudflingers.
1958New Statesman 22 Feb. 220/2 This latest torrent of *mud-flinging was, of course, set off by the letter..from Mr A. H. Milward, Chief Executive of British European Airways. 1964C. S. Lewis Discarded Image iv. 80 This towering vaunt, this philosophic panache which goes beyond mere indifference to mud-flinging and actually courts it, is of Cynic origin.
1901H. W. Monckton in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. LVII. 295, I have for several years noted details of landslips in the Drift near Scarborough, and, as in other cases, they may be classed as: (1) *Mud-flows. (2) Earth-slips... (3) Falls which, owing to the dryness of the clay, resemble rock-falls. 1902Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. XVI. 347 The largest ejected block that we saw was one on the surface of the mud-flow between the rivers Blanche and Sèche and not more than two hundred yards from the sea coast. 1928Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. XXXIX. 465 (heading) Mudflow as a geologic agent in semiarid mountains. 1944C. A. Cotton Volcanoes xiii. 240 The contents of a large crater lake on St Vincent (Antilles) were ejected so as to generate extensive mudflows which rushed down various radial valleys to the sea. Ibid. 241 Other destructive mudflows..have been ascribed to the melting of snow and glacier ice by volcanic heat. This has occurred in Iceland. 1963D. W. & E. E. Humphries tr. Termier's Erosion & Sedimentation x. 206 It is probable that earthquake shocks play an important part in initiating submarine mudflows and it is likely that such processes materially assisted in the filling of oceanic basins. 1970R. J. Small Study of Landforms ii. 30 Mud-flows occur in mountain areas after heavy rainfall, in periglacial areas during the thaw season, on the slopes of erupting volcanoes and even in deserts, when a heavily loaded stream⁓flood is gradually transformed as it loses its water by evaporation and percolation.
1914Heggem & Pollard Drilling Wells in Oklahoma by the Mud-Laden Fluid Method (U.S. Bur. of Mines Techn. Paper No. 68) 23 The *mud fluid was then bailed from the inside of the casing and drilling continued. 1921W. H. Jeffery Deep Well Drilling vii. 240 All this can be prevented by moving the casing as occasion requires, and then the mud fluid will rise uniformly on all sides of the casing and the cuttings will have no chance to pack. 1946Mod. Petroleum Technol. 88 When drilling through porous sands it is often necessary to prepare a mud fluid..which leaves on the walls of the well a thin and impervious sheath which seals the pores.
1949Our Industry (Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. Ltd.) (ed. 2) ii. 32 The next essential operation is to remove by a continuous process the debris formed by the action of drilling; this is accomplished by the use of a *mud-flush circulation. 1957Van der Have & Verver Petroleum & its Products ii. 59 An accumulation of gas in the mud-flush may lower its density to such an extent that the danger of eruption would increase instead of diminishing.
1886C.T.C. Monthly Gaz. V. 144/1 Hints to tricyclists... Accessories not supplied by the maker. *Mud-guard.
1923Daily Mail 30 July 6 (Advt.), So well shielded and efficiently *mud⁓guarded that anyone..can ride it in ordinary costume.
1932Amer. Speech VII. 268 *Mud-hog. 1939D. Hager Fund. Petroleum Industry ix. 209 Mud pumps, often called ‘mud hogs’, are of various sizes.
1844Stephens Bk. Farm II. 410 A *mud-hole or harle.
1855Tennyson Maud i. xvi. 5 So that..fulsome Pleasure clog him, and drown His heart in the gross *mud-honey of town.
1914Pollard & Heggem Mud-laden Fluid Applied to Well Drilling (U.S. Bur. of Mines Techn. Paper No. 66) 7 In this paper the term ‘*mud-laden fluid’ is applied to a mixture of water with any clay which will remain suspended in water for a considerable time. 1914F. A. Talbot Oil Conquest of World iii. 43 In drilling through sand formations mud⁓laden fluid is used to seal the sides of the borehole temporarily. 1921W. H. Jeffery Deep Well Drilling vii. 236 Water impregnated with clay, otherwise known as mud laden fluid, is forced by slush pumps down inside the casing,..returning between the casing and the wall of the hole. 1946Mod. Petroleum Technol. 88 The circuit of this mud-laden fluid..begins at the slush-pumps.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Mud-lands, the extensive marshes left dry by the returning tide in estuaries and river mouths. 1899Daily News 8 Apr. 5/3 Portsmouth Harbour and the mudland in proximity.
1804Edin. Rev. IV. 28 Showers of rain..were magnified into *mud-lavas. 1879Encycl. Brit. X. 250/1 Mud-lavas.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Mud-lighter. 1915W. B. Yeats Reveries (1916) 78 He..had nothing to do but work himself into a rage if he saw a mudlighter mismanaged.
1891Rep. Sci. Results Voy. H.M.S. Challenger: Deep-Sea Deposits iii. 185 The greater the extent and depth of the ocean, the greater the depth to which water-movement extends, and consequently the greater is the depth at which the *mud-line is formed around the coasts, but the average depth of the mud-line may be taken as approximately about 100 fathoms. Ibid. vi. 383 It appears to be most abundant..in the neighbourhood of what we have termed the mud⁓line surrounding continental shores. 1963D. W. & E. E. Humphries tr. Termier's Erosion & Sedimentation xi. 226 The maximum amounts of organic matter occur in calm waters, either in estuaries (5–15%) or near the edge of the belt of mud which surrounds the land mass, the ‘mud line’, where the amount is 6%.
1975Daily Tel. 9 Jan. 25 (Advt.), NEC Gas have a limited number of vacancies for experienced *Mudloggers and Instrument Technicians with oilfield experience.
1960C. Gatlin Petroleum Engin. xi. 199/1 Continuous *mud logging is..an excellent exploratory tool.
1868Putnam's Mag., May 591/2 *Mud-lumps, or more properly Mud-volcanoes, have been known to rise to the height of twenty-five feet. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 508 Mud-lumps, is the technical name of the earliest appearance of soft, spongy land at the mouth of the Mississippi... They are at first conical, not unlike miniature volcanoes, and have little craters at the top, from which flows muddy water.
1928Daily Express 16 June 3/4, I suggested that I should like a *mud-mask. The assistant appeared to be alarmed. Ibid. 22 Dec. 3/5 Faces have been massaged and mud-masked.
1934M. Verni Mod. Beauty Culture iv. 28/2 Fuller's earth is a powdered clay with healing properties. Some forms are called ‘clay packs’, or ‘*mud packs’, and are used as masks. 1938L. MacNeice Earth Compels 37 Hot towels for the men, mud packs for the women Will smooth the puckered minutes of your lives. 1971New Scientist 19 Aug. 401/2 The inamorata..wearing a moss-green mud-pack, with hair in rollers.
1791Gilpin Forest Scenery II. 193 *Mud-pattens are flat pieces of board, which the fowler ties to his feet that he may not sink in the mud.
1788Ld. Auckland Diary in Spain in Corr. (1861) II. 74 The children amused themselves with making *mud pies. 1885Mrs. A. Jebb in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 528 Clay-moulding is nothing more than a sort of glorified mud-pie making. 1927D. H. Lawrence Mornings in Mexico 122 The low, square, mud-pie houses. 1958Mud-pie [see dribbly a.].
1856C. Nordhoff Merchant Vessel viii. 94 A Dungeness or deep-sea pilot as these are called, in contradistinction to the river men, who are known as *mud pilots. 1899F. T. Bullen Log Sea-waif 342 Somehow the ‘mud’-pilot found us, his boat taking away our deep-water man. 1906Westm. Gaz. 14 Aug. 6/2 ‘Mud’ pilots—i.e., pilots who work above Gravesend. 1934P. H. Godsell Arctic Trader 265 The captains of the whaling vessels always took care to keep between the ice pack and the shore, and for this reason were often contemptuously referred to as ‘Mud-Pilots’. 1946G. Millar Horned Pigeon xxii. 375 The first guide, a kind of mud-pilot, remained on his bicycle. 1965R. B. Oram Cargo Handling i. 15 In the port of London, a lesser type of pilot..will take over the ship at the lock from the Trinity House pilot... To indicate his inferior status he is known generally as a mud pilot.
1932S. G. McNeil In Great Waters viii. 125, I had to do practically all the *mud pilotage myself in the various ports of call.
1892Labour Commission Gloss., *Mud plungers, men in the chemical industry engaged at bleach plant in stirring up the sediment from manganese and acid to extract the gas.
1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 255/1 Extra Superfine, strictly rain and *mud proof French serge.
1926E. R. Lilley Oil Industry vi. 137 (caption) Duplex slush or *mud pumps. 1973J. W. Jenner in Hobson & Pohl Mod. Petroleum Technol. (ed. 4) iv. 115 The heart of the fluid circulating system is the mud pumps.
1760H. Walpole Let. to Mann 3 Feb., The Dutch..have lately had a *mud-quake, and giving themselves terra-firma airs, call it an earthquake!
1950A. E. Burke et al. Archit. & Building Trades Dict. 212/1 *Mud room, in building, a small room or entranceway where members of the family remove their muddy overshoes or rubbers before going into any of the other rooms. 1962F. Williams Amer. Invasion v. 51 The ranch-style houses..with their..sun-rooms, ‘bi-level brunch bars’, mud rooms [etc.]. 1964Calgary Herald 13 Feb. 16/5 One of the most common places of theft occurrences in the school is in the mud room. 1970Globe & Mail (Toronto) 25 Sept. 36/4 (Advt.), Necessary additions as family room with indoor barbecue,..laundry and mud room..have been architecturally added.
1905Evening Sun (N.Y.) 17 Aug., All the races..were won by the product of stallions that in their day were famous *mud runners.
1766Mass. Gaz. (U.S.) 20 Oct. 1/3 A new *Mud-Scow, 24 Foot long. 1894Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 325/1 Any kind of a boat from a crack yacht to a mudscow.
1850L. Hunt Autobiog. I. vi. 247 A roar of hoarse voices round the door, and *mud-shine on the pavement.
1954Mem. Ghost Pine Homesteaders (Ghost Pine Community Group, Three Hills, Alberta) 119 A chap..breaking a particularly wet piece of ground, made oval shaped hardwood *mud shoes which he fastened to his horses' shoes to keep the horses from miring. 1959A. Hardy Fish & Fisheries xvi. 303 The tractors..will..have buoyancy tanks so that they are light enough to skim the bottom on their mud-shoes without sinking in. 1969E. H. Pinto Treen 93 Elmwood horse mud shoes, with iron staples,..were used to give a horse better bearing in the cranberry swamps of Wisconsin... Similar devices..were known as Fen overshoes.
1909J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 178/2 *Mud show, an agricultural, or other out-door show. 1931Amer. Mercury Nov. 353/2 Mud show, the old⁓time horse-and-wagon circus; now derisive.
1927K. Nicholson Barker 150 *Mud showman, a carnival man.
1685Rec. Early Hist. Boston (1881) vii. 178 The middle of the wall to lie even with northerlie or outward side of the said Simkins *Mudsell in the Old Celler. 1741MS. Estimate of repairs at Northweald Bridge, Essex, 3 mudsells 19 foot long each. 1828–32Webster, Mud-sill, in bridges, the sill that is laid at the bottom of a river, lake, &c. 1858Hammond Sp. 4 Mar. (Bartlett), Such a class..constitutes the very mud-sill of society. 1863O. W. Holmes Inevitable Trial in Old Vol. of Life (1891) 107 What the ‘Christian dogs’ were to the followers of Mahomet,..the ‘Northern mudsills’ are to the followers of the Southern Moloch. 1935S. Lewis It can't happen Here xvii. 177 Talking to the dirtiest and tiredest mudsills as warm friend to friend. 1964College English Feb. 333/2 The culturally deprived in our great cities—a more massive social mudsill than the most sanguine dream of Calhoun and other slavocrats ever envisaged, the social converse of Madison Avenue's grey⁓flanneled dream. 1968Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Apr. 329/3 The mudsill is still Negro, not poor white.
1919E. Pound Let. 1 Feb. (1971) 146 Stings and *mud-slings of the ungodly and unco-decorous.
1896Advance (Chicago) 17 Sept. 366 The swarm of caricaturists, libelers and party *mud⁓slingers. 1930T. S. Eliot tr. St.-J. Perse's Anabasis 27 Instigator of strife and discord! fed on insults and slanders, mudslinger!
1884Lisbon (N. Dakota) Star 22 Aug., Campaign lies and *mud slinging fail to carry the day. 1914National Municipal Rev. (N.Y.) III. 581 This sweeping provision, if constitutional and enforceable, would have the effect of eliminating ‘mud-slinging’ in political campaigns, perhaps indeed of revolutionizing campaign methods entirely. 1928Sunday Express 27 May 10/1 The social mud-slinging which gives half society its sole virtuous and intellectual amusement. 1952R. Knox Hidden Stream xiii. 119 And that something is not affected, really, by all the mud-slinging which starts, among the more embittered kind of Protestants, the moment the sanctity of the Church is mentioned. 1973J. Thomson Death Cap vii. 98 The accusations..are..not specified, just mud⁓slinging of a general sort.
1880Baring-Gould Mehalah xxiii, What do you mean coming to a house of worship in *mud-splashers?
1736Ainsworth Lat. Dict., A *mud stone, Saxum limosum. 1829Glover's Hist. Derby I. 50 In some places they are called clunch and mudstone. 1876A. H. Green Phys. Geol. ii. §6. 72 Mudstone is a convenient name for clayey rocks that have the appearance of partially hardened masses of sandy mud.
1856N. & Q. 2nd Ser. II. 198/1 With whom a young friend of mine was ‘a *mud student’, that is, was a farming pupil.
1895W. H. Chambliss Diary xxii. 276 They were willing to resort to the most detestable methods of ‘*mud-throwing’. 1931Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Aug. 633/2 He settles down to protracted mud-throwing with Goodwin Wharton as the target.
1873‘Mark Twain’ & Warner Gilded Age 38 The awful thunder of a *mud-valve suddenly burst forth.
1817Q. Jrnl. Sci. I. 247 The *mud volcanoes of Solo. 1862G. P. Scrope Volcanos (ed. 2) 401 Mud-volcanos, as they are called, i.e. cones of a ductile unctuous clay,..spurting up waves and lumps of liquid mud. 1868Mud-volcano [see mud-lump above]. 1902Ann. Rep. Board of Regents Smithsonian Inst. 1901 71 Within the region [sc. the lower Colorado valley] lie a number of ‘mud volcanoes’, apparently analogous to the ‘mud lumps’ of the lower Mississippi. 1914W. Owen Let. 24 May (1967) 252 My face is certainly satisfactory,..free from whelks and knobs and mud-volcanoes. 1953Caribbean Q. III. ii. 80 The mud volcanoes..are caused..by the seepage of natural hydrocarbon gases from underground. They have been given their name because..they erupt intermittently, they extrude flows of ‘Mud lava’, and they build up cones. 1955Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. LXVI. 1117/1 One mud volcano on an embankment was particularly instructive. Its cone was 7 or 8 feet in diameter. 1967K. Wilcoxson Volcanoes xv. 158 Mud volcanoes are not true volcanoes at all but have features more in common with hot springs and geysers.
1927Daily Express 9 Sept. 11/3 All the six 1928 models are of improved appearance, with..*mudwings which not only look better, but also keep off the mud more efficiently. 1959Times 27 Apr. (Rubber Industry Suppl.) p. vi/1 On many goods and passenger vehicles rubber mud-wings are used.
b. In names of animals: mud bass, an American fish, Acantharchus pomotis; mud-borer, a crustacean, Gebia stellata (A. White Crustacea Brit. Mus., 1850); mud-burrower, a crustacean, Callianassa subterranea (Ibid.); mud cat U.S., one of several species of catfish found in the Mississippi valley; also fig. and transf., an inhabitant of Mississippi, which was sometimes called the Mudcat State; mud catfish U.S., the bullhead, Ameiurus nebulosus; mud coot, the common American coot, Fulica americana (Cent. Dict. 1890); mud crab, a crab of the genus Panopæus; mud dab, the winter flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus; mud-dauber, (a) a wasp of the genus Sceliphron that builds its nest of mud; (b) U.S. = mud swallow; also transf. and fig., a travelling workman; mud-devil = hellbender 1; mud-dipper, the ruddy duck, Erismatura rubida (G. Trumbull Names of Birds, 1888, p. 110); mud duck U.S., a domestic duck; mud dweller, an animal living in a muddy habitat, esp. a water beetle, Ilybius fuliginosus; mud eel, (a) the young of the lamprey; (b) = mud iguana; mud-hen, (a) the moor-hen, Gallinula chloropus; (b) in U.S., Rallus crepitans, R. elegans, R. Virginianus; also the American coot, Fulica americana, and the common gallinule, Gallinula galeata; (c) a bivalve mollusc of the family Veneridæ and genus Tapes (Cent. Dict.); mud hopper = mud-skipper; mud iguana, a name given in S. Carolina to the Siren, Siren lacertina; mud minnow (see quot.); mud-poke, -pout = mud cat; mud-puppy U.S., a name for the axolotl, also for the hellbender, and other salamanders; mud shad, a fish, Dorosoma cepedianum; mud-skipper, a small Asian, Australasian, or African fish of the family Periophthalmidæ, which is able to scramble over mud and along tree roots, etc.; mud snail, either of two species of pond snail, Lymnæa glabra or L. trunculata; mud-sucker, (a) an aquatic fowl that obtains its food from mud; (b) a catostomoid fish; mud swallow U.S., a North American cliff swallow of the genus Petrochelidon, which builds jar-shaped nests of mud; also attrib. and fig.; mud-terrapin, -tortoise, -turtle (dial. -turkle) U.S., a turtle which lives in the mud or muddy water, esp. species of Trionychidæ and Emydidæ; also transf. and fig.; so mud-turtle-shaped a.; mud trout, a name used in Newfoundland for the brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis; mud wasp U.S. = mud dauber; mud-worm, a worm that lives in the mud, esp. one of the Limicolæ; also fig. applied contemptuously to a person.
1884Goode, etc. Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 405 The *Mud Bass.
1819D. Thomas Trav. Western Country 211 The *mud cat is covered with clouded spots, and is a very homely fish. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 660 Mississippi is occasionally spoken of humorously as the Mudcat State, the inhabitants being quite generally known as Mud-cats. 1882Jordan & Gilbert Synopsis Fishes N. Amer. 101 Pilodictis,..Mud Cats. 1883‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi liv. 532 He didn't really catch anything but only just one small useless mud⁓cat. 1935in Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men (1970) i. vii. 159 Not no great big trouts nor mud-cats but li'l perches and brims. 1945B. A. Botkin Lay my Burden Down 27 The next is a mudcat; this kind of a fish likes dark trashy places. 1945Chicago Daily News 16 Aug. 10/7 While we are laying down surrender terms for the Japanese, how about a Declaration on Senator ‘Dear Dago’ Bilbo, the Mississippi mudcat?
1842J. E. DeKay Zool. N.Y. iv. 187 The *Mud Catfish..[is] recognized by the scarified and clouded appearance of its skin. 1964Mud catfish [see goujon].
1713Petiver Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ 1 Squilla Lutaria Rum{ddd}*Mud-Crab. 1884Goode, etc. Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 772 The Mud Crabs—Panopeus Herbstii [etc.].
1882Jordan & Gilbert Synopsis Fishes N. Amer. 837 Pleuronectes americanus. *Mud dab.
1856Zoologist XIV. 5030 The species of the genus Pelopæus are popularly known as *mud-daubers in America. 1866‘Mark Twain’ Sk. New & Old (1875) 297 The old mud-dobber tackled the piano, and ran his fingers up and down once or twice. 1899F. Bergen Animal & Plant Lore 34 The building of the mud-daubers, or swallows, on the barn or house is a sign of prosperity to the occupants. 1932E. Step Bees, Wasps, Ants 71 Mud⁓daubers (Sceliphron) of warmer countries..build great clusters of mud cells for their eggs and prey. 1945H. S. Pearson Country Flavor 49 There was often a phoebe's home to explore and dozens of mud daubers' nests. 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 271 Mason: mud dauber. 1966C. Sweeney Scurrying Bush v. 76 Mud daubers can be a great nuisance, for they build their nests, stuffed with spiders or caterpillars depending on the species, in any hidden place. 1974A. Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek xii. 214 My life inside the cottage is mostly Tinker Creek and mud dauber wasps.
1845Encycl. Metrop. XXIV. 269 By the Anglo-Americans it is called Hellbender *Mud Devil [etc.].
1857Spirit of Times 26 Sept. 54/2 There is duck of every quality, canvas-back, wood, *mud, and various other species. 1903Forest & Stream 27 Feb. 150 They are a cross between the mallard and ordinary mud duck. 1920E. Pound Let. 11 Sept. (1971) 158 If you weren't stupider than a mud-duck you would know that every kick to bad writing is by that much a help for the good.
1952J. Clegg Freshwater Life xiv. 221 The *Mud Dweller, Ilybius fuliginosus, [is] a bronze-coloured beetle with yellow margins to its wing-cases. 1963Times 19 Jan. 10/6 It [sc. the Dublin Bay Prawn] feeds, somewhat indiscriminately like all its kind, on its fellow mud-dwellers.
1823Charleston (S. Carolina) Courier 7 Mar. 2/4 The British..fairly chased our militiamen across Broad River, to the huge amazement of the *mud eels and cats. 1840Kirtland in Boston Jrnl. Nat. Hist. III. 473 Ammocoetes concolor Kirtland. The Mud-Eel. 1842Holbrook N. Amer. Herpetol. V. 102 Siren lacertina{ddd}Mud Eel or Siren, Vulgo.
1611Florio, Limósa, a kind of *Mud or Moore-hen. 1808–13A. Wilson Amer. Ornith. (1831) III. 103 Rallus crepitans{ddd}Clapper Rail... It is designated..the mud hen. Ibid. 108 [The Virginian Rail] is known..along the sea-coast of New Jersey by the name of the fresh-water mud hen. Ibid. 124 Fulica americana{ddd}Cinereous Coot... It is known in Pennsylvania by the name of the mud-hen.
1959Listener 29 Oct. 738/3 The skittering of the *mud hoppers, those extraordinary little fish that can climb trees. 1965Sunday Mail Mag. (Brisbane) 21 Nov. 14/1 The mud⁓hopper belongs to a special group of goby (or small fish) and is notable for its strange eyes and for the stiff fins which it seems to be able to use like limbs.
1766J. Ellis in Phil. Trans. LVI. 189 The natives call it *Mud-Inguana [sic].
1882Jordan & Gilbert Synopsis Fishes N. Amer. 349 Umbridæ. (The *Mud Minnows.)
1809W. Irving Knickerb. iv. ii. (1820) 361 That notable bird ycleped the *Mud-Poke.
1806Fessenden Orig. Poems 132 Like an otter that paddles the creek, In quest of a *mud pout or sucker. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 382 A species [of Cat-fish] is known also as Mudpout.
1889Century Dict. s.v. Axolotl, The various species of Amblystoma known in the United States as *mud-puppies, water-dogs [etc.]. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 439/2 The mud-puppy..is a repulsive-looking water-lizard.
1884Goode, etc. Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim. 610 The *Mud-shad.
1860F. Mason Burmah 854 *Mud-skipper, Periophthalmus. 1957L. Eiseley Immense Journey 58 Of all these fishes the *mud-skipper Periophthalmus is perhaps the strangest. 1972Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 16 Apr. 4/2 [Queensland] After exploring the mangroves for the amphibious mudskipper fish [etc.].
1926A. E. Ellis Brit. Snails 111 L[imnæa] glabra..*Mud Snail..inhabits ponds and ditches, and frequently lives in places which are left dry in summer. 1972Country Life 2 Mar. 524/3 The damp and muddy slopes where they [sc. liver-flukes] can find their next host..the species of snail called the mud-snail, or..Lymnaea trunculata.
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. xiii. 313/1 *Mudsuckers, Birds that suck and dabble in muddy waters. 1888Goode Amer. Fishes 143 note, Gaspergou is an Indian word, meaning ‘fish’, and is applied by Louisianians to anything fishy from the sheepshead to the mudsucker.
1898M. Deland Old Chester Tales 181 *Mud-swallows had built their nests in the corners. 1917T. G. Pearson Birds Amer. III. 84 Cliff Swallow... Barn Swallow; Mud Swallow; Republican Swallow.
1873Leland Egypt. Sketch-Bk. 42 Those curious *mud-swallow nests of little villages.
1859Bartlett Dict. Amer., Mud-Turtle (Sternothærus odorata){ddd}Marsh Tortoise and *Mud Terrapin are other names for the same.
1668Charleton Onomast. 28 Testudo Lutaria..the *Mud Tortoise. 1841Storer in Bost. Jrnl. Nat. Hist. III. 7 Sternothaerus odoratus. The mud Tortoise. 1854R. Owen in Orr's Circ. Sci., Org. Nat. I. 213 The soft or mud-tortoises (trionyx and sphargis).
1917Dialect Notes IV. 332 *Mud-trout, the brook-trout. 1969H. Horwood Newfoundland 224 Newfoundland's only native trout..is the speckled brook trout (known locally..as a ‘mud trout’).
1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn 69 And so you ain't had no meat nor bread to eat all this time? Why didn't you get *mud-turkles? 1909Dialect Notes III. 351 Mud-turkle, the mud-turtle: chiefly among the negroes. 1946Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. vi. 21 Mud turkle, a small turtle found in muddy bottoms, in either fresh or salt water. Pamlico. Mainly among Negroes.
1796Aurora (Philadelphia) 17 May (Th.), The crocodile throats of the gentle snappers or *mud tortles in the Jersey market. 1854R. Owen in Orr's Circ. Sci., Org. Nat. I. 213, The..mud-turtles (trionyx). 1873‘Mark Twain’ & Warner Gilded Age 48 He's in that pilot-house now, showing those mud-turtles how to hunt for easy water. 1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 239 In the creeks were plenty of mud turtles. 1896Harper's Mag. Sept. 527 A mud-turtle of a back⁓settlement lawyer. 1915Conrad Victory vii. 135 Fancy a mud-turtle like you trying to pass an opinion on a gentleman!
1871‘Mark Twain’ Screamers 132 A pickininny, *mud-turtle-shaped craft of a schooner.
1824Old Colony Memorial (Plymouth) 6 Mar. (Th.), A sort of would-be dandy; having the bottom of his waist pinched up to the size of a quart pot, and thus resembling in shape what we call a *mud wasp. 1861Trans. Illinois Agric. Soc. IV. 338 The common black and yellow mud wasp (Pelopæus lunatus) belongs to this group. 1881Amer. Naturalist XV. 443 Baron Osten Sacken..records the breeding of A[rgyramœba] cephus..from the nest of a Texan mud⁓wasp.
a1814Love, Honor & Interest ii. iii. in New Brit. Theatre III. 276 The *mud-worm, Vanderclufe! 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iv. xiv, When..I saw such a mud-worm as you presume [etc.]. 1870H. A. Nicholson Man. Zool. xxix. (1875) 216 The Limicolæ or Mud-worms.
c. In names of plants: mud horsetail, an Equisetum, esp. E. Telmateia; mud knotweed U.S. (see quot.); mud plantain, Heteranthera reniformis (Treas. Bot. 1866); mud purslane U.S., Elatine americana; mud-rush, -sedge, various cyperaceous plants; mud-weed, (a) Limosella aquatica; (b) Helosciadium inundatum (Treas. Bot. 1866); mud-wort, the genus Limosella, esp. L. aquatica.
1855Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. (1861) VI. 297 Great *Mud Horsetail.
1845–50A. H. Lincoln Lect. Bot. App. 145/2 Polygonium amphibium (*mud knotweed).
1846–50A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 195 Elatine americana, *Mud Purslane.
1859Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. VI. 11 Isolepis (*Mud-rush). 1899Edin. Rev. Apr. 318 The work was done by mud-rushes transporting upwards miscellaneous subterranean débris.
1859Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. VI. 37 Carex limosa (*Mud Sedge).
1756J. Hill Brit. Herbal 84 *Mudweed. Plantaginella. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 557 Bastard Plantain, or Plantain Mudweed.
1789W. Aiton Hortus Kewensis II. 359 Limosella aquatica{ddd}Bastard Plantain, or *Mud-wort.
▸ mud season n. orig. and chiefly U.S. a time of year when the ground is particularly muddy; spec. = mud time n.
1851R. Waddington tr. F. M. von Bodenstedt Morning-land II. iii. 57 The proper *mud season commences when the night-frosts and snow-storms have quite ceased. 1942Los Angeles Times 8 Apr. 3/8 (headline) Jap Army faces rains in Burma. Mud season beginning May 14 will trap foe. 2002High Country News 18 Mar. 2/2 The day the streets start looking squeaky clean in mud season, we'll know it's time to move on to that next last haven from the suburbanizing world.
▸ mud time n. U.S. regional (north-east.) the period in early spring before the ground is completely thawed, when the ground is particularly muddy.
1867F. G. Johnson Nicolson Pavement 28 The cobble is much like a country road frozen stone hard in *mud-time, on which country people think it quite dangerous to drive faster than a walk. 1902Portsmouth (New Hampsh.) Herald (Electronic text) 22 Mar. As soon as spring opens the people trot out their old shoes and have them patched up to wear through mud time. 1994P. R. Craig Off Season (1996) i. 1 In mud time she exchanged her skirts and sandals for rubber boots and oversized jeans.
▪ II. mud, n.2|mʌd|
Also 5 mudde, mod.
[a. Du. mudde, mud = OS. muddi, OHG. mutti (mod.G. mütt, mutt), OE. mydd:—WGer. *muddjo- a. L. modius: see modius, muid.]
A Dutch measure of capacity, in Holland now identified with the hectolitre: see muid.
1477Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 408 Item, tuelf mod keling, and threttene mod codlinges. 1483Caxton Golden Leg. 148 b, Two hondred muddes of mele. 1863W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting 30, I..bought a mud of mealies for the horse.
▪ III. mud, v.1 Now rare.|mʌd|
[f. mud n.1]
1. a. trans. To make (water, liquor) turbid by stirring up the mud or sediment at the bottom.
1593Shakes. Lucr. 577 Mudde not the fountaine that gaue drinke to thee. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies ii. xiv. 341 'Tis a great Stone which upon injection mudds the Water. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. 27 Apr. (1721) 124 The bough is dragg'd all along the Channel, and serves..to mud and fatten the Water for the great benefit of the Gardens. 1876Tennyson Harold v. i, The wolf Mudded the brook.
†b. transf. To thicken, to clog. Obs.
1669W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 123 A steam ariseth which..muds the animal spirits.
c. fig. (Chiefly with reference to a metaphorical ‘stream’ or ‘fount’.)
1593Nashe Christ's T. 13 The fount of my teares (troubled and mudded with the Toade-like stirring and long-breathed vexation of thy venimous enormities). 1617Hieron Wks. II. 219 Thus had it, I may so speake, mudded his heart, and made his corruption worke more strongly in him. 1697Collier Immor. Stage i. (1698) 29 Enough to mud their Fancy, to tarnish their Quality, and make their Passion Scandalous. 1717Entertainer No. 5. 27 When Justice flows in her proper Channels, and is not mudded or soiled with Partiality [etc.]. 1774Westm. Mag. II. 450 The very fountain-head is mudded by these false teachers.
2. a. To cover with mud; to plaster with mud.
1632Sherwood, To mudde, beray or bedash with mudde, sticke in mudde, embourber, enfanger, embouër. 1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 125 Lime it well, or Mud it well, and afterward Muck it over with good Cow or Horse Dung. 1769Trinculo's Trip 46 Being so mudded, splash'd and wash'd. 1883C. J. Wills Land of Lion & Sun 57 A roof some six feet thick, being painted wood mudded over a yard deep.
b. Also with off or up. (a) trans. To seal (porous strata) by causing a layer of mud to be deposited on the sides of a bore-hole. (b) intr. To become coated in this way. Cf. mud n.1 1 f.
1916Johnson & Huntley Princ. Oil & Gas Production xii. 123 In drilling by the rotary system, usually there is but one size of hole and but one string of casing used, as the sides of the hole are ‘mudded up’ as drilling proceeds, and caving beds and minor gas and water sands are shut off in this way. 1916Lewis & McMurray Use of Mud-Laden Fluid in Oil & Gas Wells (U.S. Bur. of Mines Bull. 134) 23 When a sand is to be ‘mudded off’, a comparatively thin mixture is first used. 1921W. H. Jeffery Deep Well Drilling iii. 117 The wire drilling cable now is almost universally used for drilling in deep wet holes and in soft or shale formations that ‘mud up’. Ibid. xii. 350 The mud fluid under pump pressure has a tendency to ‘mud off’ an oil or gas producing formation before its paying possibilities may be discovered by the driller. 1924L. C. Uren Textbk. Petroleum Production Engin. ix. 299 It is not always easy to mud an exhausted oil sand, so that it does not continue to absorb fluid. 1926E. R. Lilley Oil Industry vi. 129 Mud fluid is introduced into the hole. This is primarily for the purpose of mudding up the walls of the hole to prevent caving.
3. a. To bury in mud.
1610Shakes. Temp. iii. iii. 102 I'le seeke him deeper then ere plummet sounded, And with him there lye mudded. Ibid. v. i. 151, I wish My selfe were mudded in that oo-zie bed Where my sonne lies.
b. pass. To become stuck in the mud.
1854Sir A. West Recoll. (1899) I. iv. 146 We were mudded and slipped and slithered about a quarter of a mile. 1873Leland Egypt. Sketch-Bk. 151 Sometimes they got sanded or mudded.
4. intr. Of eels, etc.: To lie dormant in the mud.
1650Acad. Complements 125 Or like a Carp that is lost in mudding. 1895P. H. Emerson Birds, etc. of Norfolk Broadland ii. x. 365 Should a bream catch sight of you, if in a shallow, he will dart off, and ‘mud’, reappearing later on.
5. trans. To supply mud to the bottom of a pond.
1864Q. Rev. CXV. 183 A pond, the owner of which informed us that several years ago he had mudded it, and then put a few eels into it.
6. To throw mud at (a person). rare—1.
1832Blackw. Mag. Jan. 120 Gentlemen dislike being hissed, hooted,..threatened, mudded, maimed, murdered.
Hence ˈmudded ppl. a.
1632Sherwood, Mudded, berayed with mud, stucke in Mudde, embourbé, emboué, enfangé. 1898Daily News 30 July 5/1 The mudded wastes of the River Crouch.
▪ IV. mud, v.2 dial.|mʌd|
[Of obscure origin.]
trans. To bring up (a child, an animal) by hand; also, to spoil and pamper.
1814Monthly Mag. 1 Sept. 114 (South Wiltshire dialect) Mud the child up, dooke. a1854C. A. Southey Poet. Wks. (1867) 76 Miss will mud it [a lamb] up I know. 1891‘Maxwell Gray’ In Heart of Storm Prol. iii, Not that she'll ever come to good spoiled and mudded up as she is. |