Machiner, subs. (old coaching).—A coach-horse.
1859. Lawrence, Sword and Gown, xi. Steady old machiners, broken
for years to don the harness.
Mack, verb. (common).—See mackerel.
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip, ii. Fiddle, or fence, or
mace, or mack.
Mackerel, subs. (old).—1. A pander; and (2), a bawd. [Skeat: O. Fr.
maquereau = pandar, from Teut. source preserved in Du., makelaar =
broker, pandar, from Du. makelen = to procure].
1483. Caxton, Cato Magnus. Nighe his house dwellyd a maquerel or
bawde.
1513. Gavin Douglas, Eneados, ‘Proloug’ (Book iv), (Edinburgh,
1874, ii. 170, l. 30). Sic poyd makrelles for Lucifer bene leche.
1615. Overbury, New & Choice Characters [Nares]. A maquerela, in
plain English, a bawd, is an olde charcole that hath beene burnt
herselfe, and therefore is able to kindle a whole greene coppice.
1630. Taylor, Wks. [Nares]. As some get their living by their
tounges, as interpreters, lawyers, oratours, and flatterers; some
by tayles, as maquerellaes, concubines, curtezanes, or in plaine
English, whores.
c. 1633. Lady Alimony, ii. 2. The only safe way for these gamesome
macquerellas is to antedate their conception before their
separation.
1633. Shirley, Triumph of Peace [Nares]. After these, a maquerelle,
two wenches, two wanton gamesters.
1650. Howell, Familiar Letters [Nares]. The pandar did his office,
but brought him a citizen clad in damoisells apparell, so she and
her maquerell were paid accordingly.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
Adj. (printers’).—Smeared; blurred and indistinct.
Mackarel-back, subs. (old).—See quots.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Mackarel-back, a very tall,
lank Person.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Mackerel-backed, long backed.
Mad, adj. (Old English and American).—Angry; vexed. To get one’s mad up
= to get angered. Also as verb.
1369. Chaucer, Troilus [Skeat, 1894], line 479. Ne made him thus in
armes for to madde.
1593. Shakspeare, Titus And., iii. 1. 104. Had I but seen thy
picture in this plight, It would have madded me. Ibid. iii. 1. 223.
If the winds rage doth not the sea wax mad.
1596. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, iv. 1. You’d mad the
patient’st body in the world.
1607. Middleton, Your Five Gallants [De Vere]. They are mad; she
graced me with one private minute above their fortunes.
1611. Acts XXVI. 11 [Authorised Version].—And being exceeding mad
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.
1667. Pepys, Diary, iv. 482 [Bickers, 1875]. The King is mad at her
entertaining Jermin, and she is mad at Jermin’s going to marry from
her, so they are all mad; and so the kingdom is governed.
1816. Pickering, Collection of Words etc., s.v. Mad, in the sense
of ‘angry,’ is considered as a low word in this country, and at the
present day is never used except in very familiar conversation.
1824. R. B. Peake, Americans Abroad, i. 1. I guess—I’m madded, but
I’ll bite in my breath a bit—not that I’m sitch a tarnation fool as
to believe all you tell me.
1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 167. That nation is mad.
1871. New Era, April [De Vere]. The Squire’s mad riz.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 189. My eye! won’t he be just mad.
Like mad. See Like.
Mad as a hatter, phr. (colloquial).—Violently angry; crazy. [Hatter =
atter = adder].
Mad as a March Hare, phr. (colloquial).—As mad as may be.
d. 1535. More, Supplycacion of Soulys, C. ii. As mad not as Marche
hare, but as a madde dogge.
1597. Heywood, Epig., 95. As mad as a March hare; where madness
compares, Are not Midsummer hares as mad as March hares?
1609. Fletcher, Wild-Goose Chase, iv. 3. They are all, all mad: I
came from a world of mad women, mad as march hares.
1651. Tatham, Distracted State, iv. 1. My lord, ’tis done! I am as
mad as a March hare upon ’t.
1665. Homer à la Mode [Nares]. Therefore, ere since this cunning
archer Has been as mad as any March hare.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie, in Wks. (1725), Bk. iv. p. 73. Thy
little Archer Has made our Dido mad as March-hare.
1754. Foote, The Knights, i. Mother’s as mad as a March hare about
it.
1760. George Colman, Polly Honeycombe, i. 4. She’s downright
raving—mad as a March hare.
d. 1796. Burns, Ep. to J. R., 13. It pits me ay as mad’s a hare.
1841. Comic Almanack, p. 260. Vell, I’ve heard of mad as a March
air, and precious mad I find it is, still I can’t say as I care: as
long as I get home safe.
1851. Notes and Queries, 20 Sept., p. 208. Perhaps the allusion to
the well-known saying, as mad as a March hare, on this occasion was
made without the collector of hareskins being aware of the
existence of such a saying.
Madam, subs. (old).—1. A pocket-handkerchief; a wipe (q.v.). Fr. une
fassollette.
1879. Macmillan’s Mag., ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ xl. 503. I tore
up my madam, and tied the wedge in small packets.