1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Mola, ... Also a lump of
flesh in women’s bellies which they call a tympanie or a moone
calfe.
1601. Holland, Pliny, viii. ch. 15. A false conception, called
mola, i.e., a moonecalfe.
1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie.... A moonecalfe, a hard swelling or
shapelesse peece of flesh in the wombe which makes women beleeve
they are with child when they are not.
3. (colloquial).—A blockhead. For synonyms see Buffle and Cabbage-head.
Also as adj. mooncalfy.
1693. Dryden, Journal, vi. 798. The sotted moon-calf gapes, and
staring on, Sees his own bus’ness by another done.
1858. Dickens, Great Expectations, vii. 29–30. ‘And Lor-a-mussy
me!’ cried my sister, casting off her bonnet in sudden desperation,
‘here I stand talking to mere mooncalfs, with Uncle Pumblechook
waiting.’
1891. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 44. ‘No,’ said the poor
moon-calf, changing his tune at once.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, 4. Look at the moon-calfy mash.
Moon-curser, subs. (old).—A link-boy; a glim-jack. [His services were
not required on moon-light nights].
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
c. 1750. [quoted in Ashton’s Eighteenth Cent. Waifs, 1887, p. 234].
Otherwise call’d Glym Jack from his having been a moon curser, or
Link Boy.
1786. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1881. Lex. Bal., s.v.
Mooner, subs. (common).—An idler; a gape-seed (q.v.).
Moon-eyed, adj. (old).—See quots.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Moon-eyed hen. A squinting wench.
1792. A. Young, Travels in France (1787–9), p. 75. The English mare
that carries me ... is going rapidly blind. She is moon-eyed.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Moon-eyed hen. A squinting
prostitute.
Moonflaw. Moonflaw in the brain, verb. phr. (old).—An idiosyncrasy; a
craze. See Bee in the Bonnet.
1659. Brome, Queen and Concubine. I fear she has a moonflaw in her
brains; She chides and fights that none can look upon her.
Moonlight (or Moonshine), subs. (old).—1. Smuggled spirits. [From the
night-work of smugglers].
Verb. (Irish).—See quot.
1888. Daily Telegraph, 21 Nov. Colletty, the rent-warner, was a
witness of a very unsatisfactory sort, and after he had deposed to
his experience of being moonlighted in the thigh—Moonlighters, it
appears, generally giving a grain or two, as another witness put
it, in the legs of their victims.
Moonlight on the lake, subs. phr. (American).—Sarsaparilla. See Drinks.
A rush for moonlight, subs. phr. (American University).—An attempt at
the prize for elocution.
Moonlighter, subs. (common).—1. A prostitute. For synonyms see
Barrack-hack and Tart.
2. in pl. (Irish).—Men (c. 1880) enforcing the decrees of secret
societies by violence. Their action was chiefly confined to the western
counties, and their raids were nocturnal, whence the name. Their
notices were signed ‘Captain Moonlight.’
1882. Saturday Review, 30 Sep., p. 422. Taking moonlighters under
his direct protection.