_Mechal_ is from the mint of Thomas Heywood; but, like many other words
of the same stamp, it continued a private token of the party who issued
it, and never, as far as I am aware, became current coin. Four times, at
least, it occurs in his works; and always in that sense only which its
etymon indicates, to wit, "adulterous." In his "Challenge for Beauty:"
"... her own tongue
Hath publish'd her a _mechall_ prostitute."
Dilke's _Old English Plays_, vol. vi. p. 421.