172[?]. Street Robberies Considered, 25. I had the clever’st maux
in town.
Mawley. See Mauley.
Maw-wallop, subs. (old).—A filthy composition, sufficient to provoke
vomiting.—Grose (1785).
Mawworm, subs. (common).—A hypocrite. [From Bickerstaff’s play, The
Hypocrite]. Also as adj.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v.
1866. Sala, Trip to Barbary, p. 130. There was a sanctified mawworm
expression, too, about this fellow, which filled you with a strong
desire to fling him overboard.
1871. G. Eliot, Middlemarch, Bk. I. ch. ii. A man naturally likes
to look forward to having the best. He would be the very mawworm of
bachelors who pretended not to expect it.
1891. Lic. Vict. Gaz., 17 April. Superintendent S— is no mawworm,
And it must have gone very much against the grain.
Mawpus. See Mopus.
Mawther, subs. (old).—1. A girl (Jonson); and (2), an old drudge
(Dickens).
Max, subs. (old).—Gin. For synonyms see Drinks and White Satin. [From
maxime and so properly applied only to the best quality spirit].
1823. Byron, Don Juan, C. xi. st. 16. The dying man cried, ‘Hold!
I’ve got my gruel, Oh! for a glass of max.’
1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Bagman’s Dog). Who, doffing
their coronets, collars, and ermines, treat Boxers to max at the
Old Inn in Jermyn Street.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. & Lon. Poor, v. 8, i. p. 168. The
stimulant of a ‘flash of lightning,’ a ‘go of rum,’ or a ‘glass of
max,’—for so a dram of neat spirit was then called.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
Verb. (United States military).—At West Point to gain the maximum of
marks; hence, to do well.
May, subs. (Cambridge University).—The Easter Term examination.
1852. Bristed, Five Years etc., 70. As the may approached I began
to feel nervous.
May-gathering, subs. (thieves’).—Sheep-stealing; fleecy clamming
(q.v.); bleat-marching (q.v.).
Mazarine, subs. (common).—1. A Common Councilman of the City of London.
[From the robe of mazarine blue].
1761. Chronicle, ‘Annual Reg.’ 238. I had procured a ticket through
the interest of Mr. —— who was one of the committee for managing
the entertainment, and a mazarine.