c1450 (?a1400) Parl. Thre Ages (BL Add. 31042) 142 (MED) His renttes and his reches rekened he full ofte: Of mukkyng, of marlelyng, and mendynge of howses.

1502–7 in J. Stuart & G. Burnett Exchequer Rolls Scotl. (1889) XII. 672 To Brande for the mokyn ix bollis aitis.

1547 in R. Milne Blackfriars of Perth (1893) 240 The half of all expensis that sall neid to be maid upone the said croft in plewing, harrowing, mukking, weding..thairof.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 569 The sowing of this Pulse in any ground, is as good as a mucking vnto it.

1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words Letaminatura, any kind of mucking.

1649 W. Blith Eng. Improver Improved (1653) xvii. 100 In thy Tillage are these speciall Opportunities to Improve it, either by Liming, Marling,..Snayle-codding, Mucking, Chalking..or by any other meanes.

a1669 Skene Agric. MS Concerning the muckinge and teallinge of the land.

1699 Ld. Belhaven Countrey-mans Rudiments 16 A good stubble is the equalest mucking that is.

a1642 H. Best Farming & Memorandum Bks. (1984) 107 When they come backe, they fall to muckinge of the stables.

1658 in C. S. Romanes Sel. Rec. Regality of Melrose (1914) I. 190 [The judge] ordaines aither partie to soupe efter thair mucking and dighting in the entrie [etc.].

c1745 J. Oswald Caledonian Pocket Compan. II. 35 The Mucking o' Geordy's Byre.

1993 Equine Marketer July 35/1 Stable manager apprenticeship... Duties include—mucking, grooming, training, etc.

1898 R. Kipling in Morning Post 9 Nov. 5/2 She's only burning muckings like the rest of us. She's our ‘chummy ship’.

1904 R. Kipling Traffics & Discov. 68 His photographic muckings.

1950 A. Keith Autobiogr. 16 A hole through which the muckings from the cows could be pushed.

1975 V. Canning Kingsford Mark ii. 18 A man..crossed the yard with a wheelbarrow full of stable muckings.

1918 H. L. Carr in R. Peele Mining Engineers' Handbk. vii. 260 Mucking, or loading broken rock into hoisting conveyance, occupies 50% of shaft-sinking time.

1932 E. Wilson Devil take Hindmost xxi. 218 The men, who had been displaced by new mucking machines (mucking is cleaning out the tunnel after the blast), were to be transferred.

1960 New Scientist 7 Jan. 38/1 ‘Mucking out’, as the removal of the rock fragments is termed, is thus simplified and speeded up.

1961 Encycl. Brit. XV. 543/2 The method of mucking is reflected in the choice and design of the haulage system.

1990 L. Grayson Channel Tunnel (BNC) 43 The bottom of the shaft acts as a mucking basis from which slurry is pumped to the nearby Fond Pignon spoil disposal site.

1937 E. Partridge Dict. Slang 539/2 Mucking-about,..an intimate fondling: low (mostly costers').

1969 Listener 27 Feb. 264/3 ‘Knowledge is conceived in the hot womb of Violence,’ said Auden in his poem on Oxford: perhaps he knew what he was doing when he omitted the phrase in his last mucking-about with the piece.

1979 C. Hawes et al. Curriculum & Reality in Afr. Primary Schools (BNC) The child plays..a very full part in it;..running errands, performing religious duties.., alongside all the..chit-chat and the ‘mucking about’ which is part of growing up everywhere.

1989 Spectator 15 Apr. 24/2 The comic art is perhaps seen as inspired mucking about.

1930 J. Brophy & E. Partridge Songs & Slang Brit. Soldier: 1914–1918 141 A set of mucking-in pals, two, three or four, formed the real social unit of the army.

1943 J. L. Hunt & A. G. Pringle Service Slang 46 Mucking-in spud, one's chum, i.e. the man who shares your company and your thoughts.

1840 How to buy Horse viii. 160 This Augæan labor is termed ‘mucking out’.

1957 Times 2 July (Agric. Suppl.) p. vi/3 In a modern fattening house we have also to make provision for minimum labour requirements in feeding, mucking out and weighing.

1993 Harrowsmith Aug. 14/2 Two or three feedings, mucking out—you would be amazed at the ability of a horse to convert a few flakes of hay and a quart of oats into a hefty load of wet manure.

a1880 W. E. Henley & R. L. Stevenson Deacon Brodie iv. iv. 83 Hunt. That was the rotten cove. Moore. And is he mucking well corpsed? Hunt. I should just about reckon he was.

1952 R. Kruger Tanker iv. 51 ‘She's mucking good-oh, this ship. She's all right, mate.’ And Simon caught his enthusiasm and answered, ‘Yeh, she's mucking O.K.’

1974 R. Adams Shardik xlv. 363 The first man peered in his turn. ‘He mucking is, too,’ he said. ‘Aren't you?’

1917 B.E.F. Times 1 Nov. in Wipers Times (2006) 238/2 What's that, serg'int? Give them muckin' Fritzes, 'ell?

1929 R. Aldington Death of Hero iii. x. 375 What the muckin' hell are you doing, down there?

1935 E. Hemingway Green Hills Afr. xiii. 277 And if I ever hit you I'll break your mucking jaw.

1962 A. La Guma Walk in Night 12 Michael Adonis began to empty his pockets slowly, without looking up at them and thinking, with each movement, You mucking boers, you mucking boers.

1974 R. Adams Shardik xxxvi. 301 You'd better lend him a hand... We'll be 'alf the mucking night else.