mousern.

Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 347 Mowsare as a catte, musceps.

1573 T. Tusser Points Huswifrie (new ed.) f. 8, in Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husbandry (new ed.) Thogh cat (a good mouser) doth wel in a house, yet euer in dairy, haue trap for a mouse.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Souricier, a Mouser, or Mouse-catcher.

1692 R. L'Estrange Fables lxi. 61 For Puss, even when she's a Madam, will be a Mouser still.

c1771 S. Foote Maid of Bath ii. 35 Owls..are counted very good mousers.

1839 W. Irving Chron. Wolfert's Roost in Knickerbocker Apr. 324 He would..lurk along shore,..watching for hours together, like a veteran mouser intent on a rat-hole.

1939 T. S. Eliot Old Possum's Bk. Pract. Cats 38 No commonplace mousers have such well-cut trousers.

1966 A. Christie Third Girl xvii. 178 You're so exactly like a good mouser. A cat sitting over a hole waiting for the mouse to come out.

1989 Daily Tel. 13 Nov. 3/2 Other mishaps included..a man who was bitten by a rat brought inside by the household mouser.

2001 Sunday Mirror (Electronic ed.) 14 Jan. 26 No sooner had Tony Blair moved into Downing Street than the resident veteran mouser mysteriously vanished into ‘retirement’.

1608 J. Day Law-trickes sig. E2 Bring the Lady a Diamond,..for I can tel you these same paultrie stones are in high request amongst Ladies, especially such old mowsers as I haue beene in my time.

1673 W. Wycherley Gentleman Dancing-master ii. i. 34 Pru. Indeed, little Mistress, like the young Kitten,..you play'd with your prey, till you had almost lost it! Hipp. 'Tis true, a good old Mouser like you, had it taken up, and run away with it presently.

1789 ‘P. Pindar’ Expostulatory Odes i. 5 Ye sharp state mousers, with your watering jaws.

1848 J. R. Lowell Lett. (1894) I. 147 He [sc. Shakespeare] invented a new order of poetry; for, let the mousers trace all the resemblances they will, it is entirely new in its idea.

1997 Scotsman 20 Aug. 13/7 Tony Blair..could be the sort of feline that ends up with a pretty bow tied round its neck—but who is a ruthless mouser at night when no-one sees.

1802 C. James New Mil. Dict. Mouser, an ironical term, which is sometimes used in the British militia to distinguish battalion men from the flank companies. It is indeed generally applied to them by the grenadiers and light bobs, meaning, that while the latter are detached, the former remain in quarters, like cats, to watch the mice, &c.

1918 E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 397 Mouser,..a sobriquet which was sometimes used in sport to distinguish the battalion men from the flank companies.

1863 Confessions of Ticket-of-Leave Man 266 Two shrewd ‘mousers’, were sent off at once with Mr. Gee to York Street.

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §460/18 Detective,..man hunter, mouser, nose, [etc.].

1914 L. E. Jackson & C. R. Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 60 Mouser... Current in cosmopolitan circles. A ‘fairy’, a character obsessed by lewd passions.

1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 131 Mouser, a degenerate; a lewd character. Evidently a reference to the quiet, mouse-like habits of these persons.

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §508/6 Sodomite,..lick-box, meat hound, mouser, [etc.].