| 释义 |
▪ I. muck, n.1|mʌk|
Forms: 3–4 muc, 3 mokke, 3–5 mukke, 3–6 muk, 3–4, 6 Sc. mok, 4 moke, 4–7 mucke, 5–6 muke, 6 mouk(e, Sc. mwk, 5– muck.
[Early ME. muk, prob. of Scandinavian origin: cf. ON. myki fem., dung (Da. møg, in 16th c. mwgh neut., mug, mog, møk, Norw. myk):—*mukîn- wk. fem., prob. f. OTeut. *muk- wk. grade of *meuk- soft (see meek a.). ON. has the cognate verb moka to shovel (manure): see muck v.]
1. a. The dung of cattle (usually mixed with decomposing vegetable refuse) used for manure; farm-yard manure. Now chiefly dial. and vulgar.
c1250Gen. & Ex. 2557 Summe he deden..Muc and fen ut of burȝes beren ðus bitterlike he gun hem deren. 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 2301 Þe muk ys þe more stynkyngge Þere þe sunne ys more shynyngge. c1325Knowe þi self 80 in E.E.P. (1862) 132 Eueri mok most in-to myre. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. vi. 144 Ac ȝe myȝte trauaille..Diken or deluen..or bere mukke a-felde. 1538in Lett. Suppress. Monast. (Camden) 176 Our lond is not tylde, muke is not led, our corne lyth in the barn [etc.]. 1615W. Lawson Country Housew. Gard. (1626) 3 Digge a trench halfe a yard deepe,..and fill the same with good short, hot, and tender mucke. 1725Ramsay Gentle Sheph. ii. iii, Is there nae muck to lead? 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 303 The violent fermentation which is necessary for reducing farm-yard manure to the state in which it is called short muck. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i. ii, The shaky surface of the great muck reservoir. 1890Farmer's Gaz. 4 Jan. 7/3 Want of ‘muck’ causes want of apples.
†b. Applied to other fertilizers. Obs.
1669Phil. Trans. IV. 1079 All the ground, where Salt or Brine is spilt, is, when dugg up, excellent Muck for Grazing Ground. 1772Projects in Ann. Reg. 108/1 The ashes, which are called pot-ash muck, make excellent manure... The principal inducement to make pot-ash is, for the muck.
c. Phr. wet as muck (cf. muck-wet).
1782F. Burney Cecilia ii. ix, ‘But how did you find yourself when you got home, sir?’ ‘How? why wet as muck.’ 1787Wolcot (P. Pindar) Apol. Post. to Ode upon Ode Wks. 1812 I. 458 Wet as muck.
d. U.S. Soil material consisting of decayed plant remains, similar to peat; in mod. use distinguished from peat by being more thoroughly decomposed (and usu. darker in colour) and having a higher mineral content.
1832H. L. Barnum Farmer's Own Bk. 35 On tearing up some handfuls of the ground, this is well blackened of course, and little is thought of looking for the sub-soil, as those invariably do, who have once been deceived by black muck, and these soft beds of leaves. 1839J. Buel Farmer's Compan. ix. 73 Peat earth, or swamp muck, is vegetable food, in an insoluble state, and requires only such a chemical change as shall render it soluable, to convert it into an active manure. 1849E. Chamberlain Indiana Gazetteer (ed. 3) ii. 305 The soil is a black muck, based on clay. 1859S. W. Johnson Ess. Peat, Muck, & Commercial Manures 63 Some intelligent farmers call the surface layers of their swamps, which are loose and light in texture, swamp muck, and to the bottom layers, which are more compact and often serviceable as fuel, they apply the term peat. 1862Dana Man. Geol. 614 Muck is another name for peat,..especially when the material is employed as a manure. 1889Century Mag. Dec. 217/2 The soil proved to be a wet muck, overlaying sand with boulders. 1897G. P. Merrill Treat. Rocks ii. ii. 149 An impure variety [of peat] containing a considerable quantity of siliceous sand, and locally known as ‘muck’, is used as a fertilizer for ‘multching’ throughout New England. 1928Bull. Amer. Soil Survey Assoc. IX. 44 Peat has been defined as containing over 65% of organic matter and Muck as containing from 25% to 65%. It does not appear desirable to place such definite limits of composition but rather to base the distinction mainly on the degree of decomposition and secondarily on the content of mineral material. 1930C. E. Thorne Maintenance Soil Fertility ii. 15 Beds of muck and peat..are found on the watershed and in some of the river valleys. Ibid., The distinction between peat and muck is that in these bogs the lower strata, being continually covered with water, may still consist of only partially decomposed fibrous matter, brownish in color, while the surface that has been exposed to the air has more completely decayed, losing its fibrous texture and becoming darker in color. Muck and peat, therefore, may be compared to soil and subsoil. 1943Millar & Turk Fund. Soil Sci. ii. 63 When these organic deposits are yet in the crude, fibrous state, they are frequently designated as peat, but when decay has broken down the plant tissues until the material has something of a loamy consistency, it is called muck. 1971Gloss. Soil Sci. Terms (Soil Sci. Soc. Amer.) 11/2 Muck, highly decomposed organic material in which the original plant parts are not recognizable.
†2. fig. Contemptuously applied to money. Obs.
a1300Sarmun xx. in E.E.P. (1862) 3 Þe wrecchis wringit þe mok so fast up ham silf hi nul noȝt spened. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 147 Ȝif þei ben pore..þei ben cursed for þei han not moche muk. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1632 But þey þat marien hem for muk & good Only, & noght for loue [etc.]. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 17 The drosse and mucke of this worldly Egypte. 1633Rowley Match at Midnt. i. i. B j b, I tell 'em I haue given over Brokering, moyling for mucke and trash. 1710Lady M. W. Montagu Lett., To Mrs. Wortley 113 For those that do not regard worldly muck, there is extraordinary good choice indeed.
3. a. Unclean matter such as soils that upon which it is deposited or to which it adheres; dirt, filth. Also fig. Now vulgar.
13..Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. xxxv. 63 Þou proude mon, þou art nouȝt elles But of Muk bretful a sekke. 1439Coventry Leet Bk. (E.E.T.S.) 191 They ordeyne that from thys tyme forward that any muk or ffilth be Cast ther by eny person, but ȝif the Comyn seriant do execucion he schall lese his office. c1440Promp. Parv. 348/1 Muk, or duste.., pulvis. 1505Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869) I. 105 For purgeing and clengeing of the hie streitt..of all maner of mwk, filth of fische and flesche, and fulzie weit and dry. 1533Presentm. of Juries in Surtees Misc. (1888) 34 That no man cast eny..mouk uppon the chanell. 1596Dalrymple Leslie's Hist. Scot. x. (S.T.S.) 462 Now thair conschiences ar compellit be force of the Edictes of the Catholikis, in thair muk to clag and fyle thame selfe. 1607Shakes. Cor. ii. ii. 130. 1661 Glanvill Van. Dogm. xxiv. Apol. Philos. 247 The Swine may see the Pearl, which yet he values but with the ordinary muck. 1668Bp. Hopkins Serm., Vanity (1685) 10 Whence is it, that we..lie here groveling in the thick clay and muck of this world? 1682Dryden & Lee Duke of Guise iii. i, You moving Dirt, you rank stark Muck o' th' World. 1849Dickens Dav. Copp. iii, Mr. Peggotty went out to wash himself in a kettleful of hot water, remarking that ‘cold would never get his muck off’. 1861Calverley Verses (1862) 20 Who fled like an arrow, nor turned a hair, Through all the mire and muck.
b. colloq. Anything disgusting.
1882‘F. Anstey’ Vice Versâ xvi. 282 ‘If you think the tea worth racing like that for, I don't,’ said Coggs viciously; ‘it's muck.’ 1899E. Phillpotts Human Boy 108 There were bottles of stuff to rub bruises with..and some muck for his eye. Ibid. 174 The muck doctors give you. 1928W. Ponder Clara Butt 138 All I can say is..sing 'em muck! It's all they can understand. 1943K. Tennant Ride on Stranger iv. 34 He had a habit of greeting any new dish with a loud: ‘What's this muck?’ 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 162 School dinners are ‘muck’, ‘pig swill’, ‘poison’, ‘slops’,..and Y.M.C.A. (Yesterday's Muck Cooked Again). 1967Listener 20 Apr. 524/3 Is this the kind of muck which the National Film Theatre is going to bring to Norwich?
c. (Commercial slang.) muck and truck: miscellaneous articles of trade.
1898Daily News 22 July 4/7 ‘Sufficient attention is not paid to muck and truck’. So says the British Consul at Shanghai.
d. Waste material that is removed during mining or civil engineering operations; spec. (U.S.), surface material that overlies a placer deposit.
1883W. S. Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal Mining 171 Muck (Y[orkshire]), see Dirt [= ‘clay, bind, or other useless rubbish produced in mining, and which accidentally is sent out of the pit mixed with the coal’]. 1897J. W. Leonard Gold Fields Klondike 180 The top ‘muck’, as it is called by the miners, is, when thawed out, about two-thirds water and one-third sediment. 1908J. M. Maclaren Gold ii. 484 The low-level gravels..lie on decomposed schist bed-rock, and are covered by black frozen ‘muck’ (silt, vegetable matter, and ice, the last forming 75 per cent. of the mass) of a thickness of 2 to 30 feet. 1914G. Atherton Perch of Devil i. 148 His..hands were white with ‘muck’, a mixture of rock-dust and water. 1959Times 16 Nov. 8/5 About 400,000 tons of spoil (or muck as the mining engineer calls it) will be brought to the surface. 1960Vancouver Sun 4 June 2/4, 150 vertical feet of muck in the stope above had settled gently down over the mule, the string of cars—and our only way out.
e. Phrases. as muck: used emphatically following adj.; like muck: used negatively with a statement.
1935J. C. Masterman Fate cannot harm Me viii. 154 He would be out any ball and poor old George would be as sick as muck. 1952[see drunk n.2 1].
f. R.A.F. slang. (a) Hostile anti-aircraft fire; (b) (see quot. 1943).
1940Michie & Graebner Their Finest Hour iv. 65, I climbed to 12,000 feet, circling along the outside of the searchlights and all the muck [gunfire] that was coming up. 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 46 Muck, dirty weather.
g. Lord Muck: see lord n. 14 c. So Lady Muck.
1957I. Cross God Boy (1958) xxii. 190 She sat there, sipping away at her tea like Lady Muck. 1966‘L. Lane’ ABZ of Scouse 61 Lady Muck of Muck Hall: A woman who puts on airs, has a condescending manner and is regarded as excessively conceited.
4. colloq. or vulgar.
a. An uncleanly or untidy condition. to be in, all of a muck, to be ‘smothered’ in dirt. Also fig.
1766Goldsm. Vic. W. ix, She observed, that ‘by the living jingo, she was all of a muck of sweat’. 1800Sporting Mag. XVI. 284 ‘I'm all in such a muck’, she cried, ‘with so much dust and jolting’. 1876‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer xxiii, When a body's in such a muck of trouble.
b. to make a muck of, to do (something) badly; to spoil or bungle.
1906D. Coke Bending of Twig xiv. 222 There'll be nobody much there, so it doesn't matter if you do make a muck of it. 1936R. Lehmann Weather in Streets iii. i. 265, I would like to paint her, but..would make a muck of it. 1947‘N. Shute’ Chequer Board iv. 94 He's made a bloody muck o' things, the way I knew he would. 1970Y. Carter Mr. Campion's Falcon xxi. 159 I've made a muck of it. What the hell can I do now?
5. attrib. and Comb., as muck-headed, † muck-hearted, † muck-sprung adjs.; (sense 1 d) muck-bed, muck-land, muck-swamp; muck-bar (see quot. 1875); muck-cart, a cart in which ‘muck’ is carried; muck-crome, -crone, -croom [crome, cromb n.], a dung-fork; † muck crook = ? muck-hack; † muck-hack, an implement for raising and dragging manure from the dunghill; † muck-heaping, fig. amassing of wealth; † muck-hook = muck-hack; muck-iron (see quot.); muck-man = scavenger; † muck-midden, a dung-hill; † muck-monger, a miser; muck-pit, a cesspool; muck-pot ? nonce-wd. = muck-spout; muck-roll (see quot.); † muckscrap, a miser; muck-shifter, a man who or a machine which removes earth; muck-shoveller, (a) a farmhand employed in collecting or distributing dung; (b) Austral. slang (see quot. 1945); so muck-shovelling vbl. n.; † mucksled, a manure cart; muck-snipe slang (see quot.); muck soil, a soil composed of muck (sense 1 d) (see quot. 19281); muck-spout dial. and slang, one who uses obscene language or who displays a salacious mentality; muck-spreader, a machine for spreading dung; muck-spreading vbl. n., the action of distributing dung over a field; muck-sweat, profuse sweat; muck-thrift = muckworm; † muckwain, a manure cart; muck water, liquid manure drained from a dunghill; muckweed (see quots.); † muck-wet a., ‘wet as muck’ (see 1 c), thoroughly wet.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Muck-bar, bar-iron which has passed once through the rolls.
1872A. de Morgan Budget of Paradoxes 163, I certainly think the words would never have come together except in this way:—I, quart pyx, who fling *muck beds.
14..Tournament of Tottenham 287 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 95 The nedur lippe of a larke Was broght in a *muk cart And set befor the lorde. 1519in Archæologia XXV. 421 For ij dayes worke, fyllyng of the mucke carts.
1823E. Moor Suffolk Words & Phr. 239 A crooked fork for pulling the article out of carts on to heaps we call *muck-crome. 1846Muck-croom [see crome, cromb n.]. 1969G. E. Evans Farm & Village x. 111, I got an old muck-crone (a fork with curved tines), and I used to put this muck-crone under the door and draw a slab of linseed cake through. 1971Country Life 11 Mar. 533/1, I got out o' me punt and stuck a muck-crome, a muck-rake in it [sc. a stranded sturgeon].
1573Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.) III. 61 One *muckecrooke and thre wymble bitts.
1411in Finchale Priory Charters, etc. (Surtees) p. clviii, Item, j *mokhak. 1465Ibid. p. ccxcix, j mukhak. 1570Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) I. 342 One muck hacke, a grape, and iij forkes viijd.
1909H. G. Wells Ann Veronica xiii. 272 ‘Ass!’ he went on, still warming. ‘*Muck-headed moral ass! I ought to have done anything.’
c1425Hoccleve Min. Poems 200/587 Eerthely loue and to greet greedynesse In *muk-hepynge blynden many an herte.
1820J. Scott in Lond. Mag. Jan. 14/2 An incurably wretched, grovelling, *muck-hearted creature.
1577Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) I. 420, ij *mocke hoockes one old sleade, and twoo olde ropes. 1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Fallow-Cleansing, A man must be ready with a muck-hook to clear them backward.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Muck Iron, crude puddled iron ready for the squeezer or rollers.
1847W. Bacon Let. 24 Nov. in Rep. Comm. Patents 1847 (U.S.) (1848) 358 They have been planted the present year, on deep *muck lands. 1936Sun (Baltimore) 17 Jan. 3/4 Shattered remnants of the transcontinental airliner which plunged seventeen persons to death in a nearby muckland. 1950Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Virginia) 24 July 1/2 It plunged into the pine-spotted muckland.
1680Sir J. Foulis Acc. Bk. 10 Jan. (S.H.S.) 19 To y⊇ *muckman that dights y⊇ close.
1689Depos. Cast. York (Surtees) 291 Josias Swallow and one John Walker..buried him in the *muck-midding. a1859Denham Tracts (1895) II. 97 There is an old proverb which says, ‘The muck-midden is the mother of the meal-ark’.
1566Drant Horace, Sat. i. vi. D v, If gainegroper or *muckmunger, I can not proue it be.
1598Marston Sco. Villanie iii. xi, Brothell rime, That stinks like Aiax froth, or *muck-pit slime.
1938Dylan Thomas Let. 6 July (1966) 205 It's a crack at young Georgians,..intellectual *muckpots leaning on a theory, post⁓surrealists and orgasmists.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Muck-roll, the roughing or first roll of a rolling-mill train.
1589R. Robinson Gold. Mirr. (Chetham Soc.) 36 The worldly *Muckscraps for their goods did daily loose their life.
1880D. W. Barrett Life & Work among Navvies ii. ii. 43 Navvies themselves speak of one another as *muck-shifters, or thick-legs. 1961Engineering 9 June 797 Designed to work under rugged off-highway conditions as a muck-shifter.
1967G. F. Fiennes I tried to run a Railway vi. 63 *Muck shifting is easy nowadays. 1970Daily Tel. 5 Nov. 13/6 The whole ‘muck-shifting’ industry changing the shape of the landscape is experimenting all the time with bigger, and sometimes better, machines.
1945Baker Austral. Lang. v. 98 *Muck-shoveller, a tin miner. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 23 Feb. 105/3 Of these 32 [farmers], 21 simply wanted a muck-shoveller.
1560Burgh Rec. Stirling (1887) 72 Ane *mwksled, ane hand towall [etc.].
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 259 A *muck-snipe, Sir, is a man regularly done up, coopered, and humped altogether.
1928Bull. Amer. Soil Survey Assoc. IX. 44 *Muck soil, soil composed of thoroughly decomposed organic material, with a considerable amount of mineral soil material, finely divided and with few fibrous remains. 1928F. E. Bear Theory & Pract. in Use of Fertilizers xvii. 280 If..more potash can be used to advantage..the..analysis might well be changed in that direction. This may be the case with muck soils. 1970Jrnl. Econ. Entomol. LXIII. 1283/1 Studies were made to determine the fate of 14C-labeled aldicarb in sand, loam, clay, and muck soils maintained at different moisture levels.
a1825R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) II. 223 *Muck-spout, one who is at once very loquacious and very foul-mouthed. 1916D. H. Lawrence Let. c 15 Dec. (1962) 492 And Murry..is a little muck-spout.
1961Guardian 30 May 5/1 In the more developed countries everything from washing machines to *muck-spreaders has been mechanised. 1975Listener 29 May 702/2 Gardeners going berserk with mechanical diggers and muck-spreaders.
1903Eng. Dial. Dict. IV. 187/1 [Nottinghamshire] A farmer on being asked in Court when the event occurred, said, ‘It wor abaout three weeks afore *muck spreading.’ 1948Brit. Birds XLI. 358 This is paralleled by the Faeroe farmers' belief that muck-spreading should be completed before the coming of the White Wagtail. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 8 Mar. 74/1 An interesting attachment designed for fitting to conventional tipping trailers was this p.t.o.-driven *muck-spreading device.
1647H. More Cupid's Confl. lvi, The *muck-sprung learning cannot long endure.
1870Rep. Comm. Agric. 1869 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 270 The soil was..black mud or muck swamp, five feet deep, containing a mixture of sand.
1699L. Wafer Voy. (1729) 291 They came out..all in a *muck-sweat. 1765Bickerstaffe Maid of Mill ii. vii. 35 You have put yourself into a muck-sweat already. 1879Browning Dram. Idylls 115 Publican Black Ned Bratts and Tabby his big wife too: Both in a muck-sweat. 1922Joyce Ulysses 515 I'm all of a mucksweat. 1953R. Lehmann Echoing Grove 48 Must have a shower. I've been in a muck sweat all day. 1972J. Porter Meddler & her Murder i. 10 There's nothing for you to get into a muck sweat about.
1852D. Jerrold Wks. (1864) II. 239 The old *muckthrift..was wont to familiarise his thoughts with the angel of death.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §146 It is a wyues occupacyon..to helpe her husbande to fyll the *mucke wayne or donge cart.
1626Bacon Sylva §405 To water it with *Muck water..is not practised.
1787W. Marshall Norfolk (1795) II. 384 Gloss. *Muckweed, or Fat-hen, Chenopodium album, common goose-foot. 1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Muck-weed, pond-weed. Potamogeton crispum?
1567Drant Horace, Epist. i. xi. E j, *Mucke weete with myer. 1676Phil. Trans. XI. 712 They rose up, finding their Horses muck-wet all over.
▪ II. muck, n.2|mʌk|
Also 7 moqua, mocca.
[The second syll. of amuck (see amok), erroneously regarded as a n. preceded by an indefinite article.]
In the phrase to run a muck (sometimes with adj.) = ‘to run amok’. Hence, an act of running amok.
[1678J. Phillips tr. Tavernier's Voy. ii. 199 Behind the Pales a Rascally Bantamois had hid himself; one of those that was newly come from Mecca, and was upon the design of Moqua. Ibid. 202 Which the Java Lords seeing, call'd the English Traytors, and drawing their poyson'd Daggers, cry'd a Mocca upon the English.] 1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 1188 Frontless, and Satyr-proof he scow'rs the streets, And runs an Indian muck at all he meets. 1783Marsden Sumatra 241 Those desperate acts of indiscriminate murder, called by us, mucks and by the natives mongamo. 1848Lowell Biglow P. Poems 1890 II. 131 The late muck which the country has been running has materially changed my views. 1880Mrs. J. H. Riddell Myst. Palace Gard. xxiv, She would run the pecuniary muck on which she had evidently started.
▪ III. muck, v.|mʌk|
[f. muck n.1 Cf. ON. moka to shovel (manure), Da. muge, dial. moge to remove dung, clear out a stable.]
1. trans. To free from muck. Freq. with out, and occas. with off, and absol. Also fig.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxv. (Julian) 131 Þe patyl his hand clewyt to, þe muldebred quhen he suld mvk. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lx. 52 Sa far abowe him sett at tabell That wont was for to muk the stabell. a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 181 He..wssit all thingis at..thair consall quho..was not worthie to be in that rowme to haue gevin ane prince counsall bot rather to haue haldin the pleugh..or, witht ȝour reverence, had mokit clossitis. 1641Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 102 When they come backe, they fall to muckinge of the stables. 1657Thornley tr. Longus' Daphnis & Chloe 170 He muckt the Cottage, lest the dung should offend him with the smell. 1851Beck's Florist 157 He would not half muck his stables out, for he said he wanted his horses to lay warm. 1914Kipling Diversity of Creatures (1917) 52, I was obligin' Jim that evenin' muckin' out his pig-pen. 1921[see cleaner a]. 1950Landfall XIII. 16 They always want one [sc. a cup of tea] after they've finished mucking out. 1952R. S. Summerhays Elem. Riding (ed. 3) iii. 23 The deep bedding has now been ‘mucked out’. 1958J. Betjeman Coll. Poems 252 She can muck out the stables and clean Her snaffle and saddle and bridle. 1966M. Torrie Heavy as Lead xiv. 169 Sir G. had told me special to muck out the pigs. 1967C. Watson Lonelyheart 4122 ix. 91 He would have to be strong, energetic, used to stud work and willing to muck out. 1973J. Burrows Like an Evening Gone ii. 30 I've mucked out the henhouses.
2. To dress with muck, to manure. Also absol. Now rare exc. dial.
c1440Promp. Parv. 341/2 Moke vynys, pastino. Ibid., Mokke londe wythe donge, fimo, infimo. 1530Palsgr. 641/2 If this land be well mucked, it wyll beare corne ynough the nexte yere. 1693Evelyn De La Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 172 We transport our rotten Dung to those places we design to muck. 1763Mills Pract. Husb. I. 102 Ground mucked with horse-dung is always the most infected of any. 1855Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XVI. i. 135 If you clay heavily..you must muck heavily. 1890Farmer's Gaz. 4 Jan. 7/2 You always muck your orchard, do you not?
† fig.a1555Bradford in Coverdale Lett. Mart. (1564) 462 Yf god..beginne to mucke and marle you: to pour hys showers vpon you [etc.]. 1598Marston Sco. Villanie ii. vii, O Canaans dread curse To liue in peoples sinnes. Nay far more worse To muke ranke hate.
3. refl. To ‘sweat’, fag. rare.
1817–18Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 181 They..toil and muck themselves half to death to dig as much ground in a day as a Surrey man would dig in about an hour of hard work.
4. a. trans. To make dirty; to soil. to muck up, to litter (now vulgar). Also, to mix up.
1832Lamb Let. to Moxon in Final Mem. viii. 272 'Tis like a dirty pocket-handkerchief, mucked with tears. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. x, You can't touch pitch and not be mucked. 1896Mrs. Caffyn Quaker Grandmother 77, I like them well enough in their places, which isn't mucking up my rooms. 1909H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay iii. i. 279 It's a festering mass of earths and heavy metals... There they are, mucked up together in a sort of rotting sand. 1916‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 109 If it [sc. a shell] had fell in the trench, now, and mucked up half a dozen men, there'd have been something to squeal about. 1949‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar xi. 85 You don't want that dazzling outfit of yours to be mucked up.
b. fig. To make a ‘mess’ of. Freq with up or about. slang.
1886in H. Baumann Londinismen. 1899Kipling Stalky 190, I shall muck it. I know I shall. 1922‘R. Crompton’ Just—William viii. 161 You seem to have pretty well mucked it up. 1935‘N. Blake’ Question of Proof i. 17 Old Simmie will probably muck up the stop-watch like he did last year. 1946K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) xi. 180 This is a real good stove... She isn't mucked about and cleaned, and that's what makes her a good stove. 1959‘M. Cronin’ Dead & Done With vi. 99 ‘Lena could muck it all up.’ ‘I don't think she will, so long as she's scared about herself.’ 1959Anon. Streetwalker iii. 58 Muck me about and you're out. 1966Listener 17 Nov. 719/2, I was delighted to see Mr Bernard Levin..heading a review..‘Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare, the text mucked about by Robert Graves’. 1971Nature 7 May 65/3 Let us not muck up our language, lest we also muddle our minds. 1973Nation Rev. (Melbourne) 31 Aug. 1446/6 But she went and mucked it all up with her television debut.
5. a. intr. to muck about, to go aimlessly about; to ‘mess around’. Freq. with with, and also with around. slang.
1856H. Phillips Jrnl. 26 Sept. (typescript) 41 Cutting firewood and mucking about the house. 1896Kipling Seven Seas, Cholera Camp (1897) 188 Our Colonel..mucks about in 'orspital. 1918H. G. Wells Joan & Peter xi. 391 They had long bicycle rides together... They ‘mucked about’ with Baker's boat. Ibid. xiii. 659 He would be climbing trees with Joan, ‘mucking about’ in the boats with Joan. 1928D. L. Sayers Lord Peter views Body 276 His art..[is] the one thing a genuine artist won't muck about with. 1935N. Marsh Enter Murderer vii. 90 'E was a-mucking arahnd Trixie. 1946K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) x. 152 We been mucking about and mucking about, and got nowhere. 1957P. Mansfield Final Exposure ix. 121 Why don't you haul him in instead of mucking around asking me bloody silly questions? 1959‘M. Neville’ Sweet Night for Murder xiii. 128 They get fed up with their own wives and have to go mucking about with someone new. 1959Engineering 13 Mar. 343/3 Those Americans are mucking about with their journal titles again. 1963Truth (Wellington, N.Z.) 9 July (heading) Don't muck about, Mac. 1973Times 12 Dec. 2/8 The other girls..wanted to muck around with boys.
b. to muck in with: to share army rations with; to consort or co-operate with; so to muck in, (a) to eat; (b) to help, to ‘pull one's weight’, to participate. Also, to muck in to.
1919Athenæum 1 Aug. 695/2 ‘To muck in’ with anyone is to share rations with him. 1929F. Manning Middle Parts of Fortune I. v. 105 ‘Martlow and I have mucked in together, since you've been in the orderly-room.’ ‘Well, the three of us can muck in together now,’ said Bourne. a1935T. E. Lawrence Mint (1955) i. viii. 30 ‘Muck in’, we did, yet still looked lean. 1936F. Richards Old-Soldier Sahib xiii. 223 For nine months he had been mucking-in with a youngster who had only arrived in the country the previous winter. 1942G. Kersh Nine Lives Bill Nelson v. 26 The Army was hell because I couldn't muck in there. 1942Wodehouse Money in Bank (1946) iii. 26 When we came to visit here, I understood that that room was reserved for I and my husband. Nobody ever mentioned that we were supposed to muck in with the butler. 1952M. Laski Village vi. 112 We all muck in together and the jobs get done in no time. 1958J. Cannan And be a Villain iv. 89 I'm delighted to muck in, but I'm afraid I'm too conscientious for Mrs Langley. 1959Encounter July 27/1 They want men who will muck in as colleagues. 1966F. Shaw et al. Lern Yerself Scouse 42 Muck in, yer at yer granny's! Bon Appetit! 1967Guardian 21 Apr. 7/2 Prince Charles..will be able to muck in to all the student activities. 1970Times 13 Feb. 10/8 The company..all muck in, take small or big parts. 1974J. Pope-Hennessy R. L. Stevenson vi. 128 His readiness to muck in with any of his working-class fellows on boat or train.
c. To search for coal on a coal-tip, a beach, etc.
1935A. J. Cronin Stars look Down i. ii. 22 ‘It's my duff,’ Softley kept whimpering... ‘Aw mucked for it, aw did, for my man to hev a fire.’
6. Euphemistically (chiefly in written work) = fuck v.
1929R. Aldington Death of Hero x. 376 Spree be mukked—one of you * * fired his rifle and muckin' near copped me. 1940E. Hemingway For whom Bell Tolls xxii. 273 He may have just mucked off. Ibid. xxxv. 369 You're just mucked..you're mucked for good. Ibid., Muck my grandfather and muck this whole treacherous muck-faced mucking country. 1941Penguin New Writing II. 90 ‘I shall report you to the foreman.’ ‘Muck the foreman!’ I said. 1946D. Hamson We fell among Greeks vii. 85 Another song I used to perpetrate..was ‘I'm a man that's in trouble and sorrow.’..‘Muck it,..that's a good song, Denys, let's have it again.’ 1949C. Fry Lady's not for Burning 92 Youse only has to say muck off, and I goes, wivout argument. 1950E. Hemingway Across River vii. 58 Now muck off..try and have some fun. 1974R. Adams Shardik xxxvi. 300 Come on, now,..you'll get nothing here, so just muck off, there's a good lad. |