Magging, subs. (colloquial).—Talking.
1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, xxx. I can understand it all,
you’ve been worked upon by the chatter and magging of these silly
women until you’ve lost your own calm common sense.
Maggot, subs. (common).—1. A whim; a crotchet; a fad (q.v.). Cf.
(Scots’) ‘bee in bonnet’; (Fr.) des rats dans la tête.
1655. Massinger, Very Woman, v. 1. Now I dare swear Thou hast
maggots in thy brains, thou wouldst not else, Talk of
impossibilities.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2, 1375. To reconcile our late
dissenters, Our breth’ren though by other venters; Unite them and
their different maggots, As long and short sticks are in faggots.
1685. Crowne, Sir Courtly Nice, ii. 1. The beef o’ the nation
breeds all the maggots in the people’s heads.
1701. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, iii. 1. Some time ago he had got
the travelling maggot in his head, and was going to the Jubilee
upon all occasions.
1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, iii. 1. Pride possesses their
hearts, a maggot fills their heads.
1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, Pt. 1. ch. x. John heard all
this while, with patience, till she pricked his maggot, and touched
him in the tender point.
1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge, iv. 77. Not long ago as all alone I
lay upon my Bed, ’Twixt sleeping and waking, this maggot came in my
Head.
1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, iii. ‘The King is a
weel-natured and just man of his ain kindly nature, but he has a
wee maggots that maun be cannily guided.’
1843. John Sterling, in Life by Carlyle, Pt. iii. ch. vi. The thing
is not bad; but will require great labour. Only it is labour that I
thoroughly like; and which keeps the maggots out of one’s brain,
until their time.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, xxvii. 3. To tickle the maggot born in an
empty head.