MARROWSKYING.—_See_ MEDICAL GREEK.
MARYGOLD, one million sterling.—_See_ PLUM.
MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS, when the leader of the House of Commons
goes through the doleful operation of devoting to extinction a number
of useful measures at the end of the session, for want of time to pass
them.—_Vide Times_, 20th July, 1859: Mr. C. Foster, on altering the
time of the legislative sessions.—_Parliamentary slang._
MATE, the term a coster or low person applies to a friend, partner, or
companion; “me and my MATE did so and so,” is a common phrase with a
low Londoner.—Originally a _Sea term_.
MAULEY, a signature, from MAULEY, a fist; “put your FIST to it,” is
sometimes said by a low tradesman when desiring a fellow trader to put
his signature to a bill or note.
MAULEY, a fist, that with which one strikes as with a
MALL.—_Pugilistic._
MAUND, to beg; “MAUNDERING on the fly,” begging of people in the
streets.—_Old cant._ MAUNG, to beg, is a term in use amongst the
_Gipseys_, and may also be found in the _Hindoo_ Vocabulary. MAUND,
however, is pure _Anglo Saxon_, from MAND, a basket. Compare “beg,”
which is derived from BAG, a curious parallel.
MAW, the mouth; “hold your MAW,” cease talking.
MAX, gin; MAX-UPON TICK, gin obtained upon credit.
M. B. COAT, _i.e._, _Mark of the Beast_, a name given to the long
surtout worn by the clergy,—a modern Puritan form of abuse, said to
have been accidentally disclosed to a Tractarian customer by a tailor’s
orders to his foreman.
MEALY-MOUTHED, plausible, deceitful.
MEDICAL GREEK, the slang used by medical students at the hospitals. At
the London University they have a way of disguising English, described
by Albert Smith as the _Gower-street Dialect_, which consists in
transposing the initials of words, _e.g._, “_poke a smipe_”—smoke a
pipe, “_flutter-by_”—butterfly, &c. This disagreeable nonsense is often
termed MARROWSKYING.—_See_ GREEK, St. Giles’ Greek, or the “_Ægidiac_”
dialect, Language of ZIPH, &c.