1777 P. Thicknesse Year's Journey France & Spain I. v. 31 The difference between still Champaigne, and that which is mousser, is owing to nothing more than the time of the year in which it is bottled.]

1863 T. G. Shaw Wine vii. 241 If it [sc. a dry Sillery-sec-non-mousseux] has actually got into ‘mousse’, the remedy is to put it in a cold cellar, and, before drinking it, to place it for an hour in ice, leaving the cork out.

1894 J. L. W. Thudichum & A. Dupré Treat. Wines xvi. 179 The fined Champagne wine..called Claret hardly ever contains more than a half per cent. of sugar. This would be insufficient for producing a good mousse.

1952 Guide to Good Wine vi. 110 Some people believe that the bubble in champagne—the mousse—has been artificially obtained.

1971 Daily Tel. 19 June 8/4 A great champagne must be light in colour and body, its bubbles or mousse tiny prickly pearls.

1996 H. W. Paul Sci., Vine, & Wine in Mod. France vii. 206 In order to maintain a decent mousse for the life of the wine, the grapes were chosen to ensure having the right amount of ‘liqueur,’ a word then referring to the natural sugar content of a wine and still used for vins liquoreux.

1885 Olean (N.Y.) Democrat 22 Oct. 6/3 Out of these pretty and perishable dishes one eats cafe mousse or some other delicious fancy ice.

1899 Daily News 15 July 7/5 While strawberries are still with us, the following Mousse should be tried.

1908 Daily Chron. 22 July 7/4 A mousse is nothing more than the addition of whipped cream instead of plain cream when making ices.

1960 E. David French Provinc. Cooking 445 Nearly everyone knows and appreciates the old and reliable formula for a chocolate mousse—4 yolks beaten into 4 oz. of melted bitter chocolate, and the 4 whipped whites folded in.

1993 Toronto Life July 84/2 A few boiled potatoes and carrots in the distance, near a superb timbale of dill-scented spinach mousse.

1967 Guardian 22 Apr. 3/3 No-one was able yesterday to give chapter and verse about which beaches have..had their chocolate mousse of oil and sand cleared.]

1968 S. A. Berridge et al. in Jrnl. Inst. Petroleum 54 334/1 ‘Chocolate mousse’. This term, which appears to have originated from the Torrey Canyon incident, is herein defined as [water-in-oil] emulsions of from 50 to 80 per cent water content, which have a solid or semi-solid grease-like consistency, maintain a rigid configuration that can only be changed by an applied force, and are not reverted to oil-in-water emulsions by agitation in sea water.

1981 Nature 19 Mar. 235/1 The Ixtoc 1 well released oil for 9 months into the open ocean where winds and currents dispersed the floating mousse..which had formed at the wellhead.

1995 New Scientist 1 Apr. (World Below Suppl.) 19/3 The settlement tanks at many sewerworks have been overcome by a brown foam that is so stiff cats can walk across its surface. ‘It is known in the trade as chocolate mousse,’ says Nigel Horan, a public health engineer.

1984 New York 11 June 19/1 If all of America is soon to be moussed, what will the hair-care industry think of next?

1986 Blactress July 10/2 Mousse each section before winding on rollers.

1997 USA Today (Nexis) 12 May 3 d They spent the next two hours crimping and curling, moussing and mascaraing, rinsing and rouging.

1985 Washington Post 14 Oct. b2/3 He rushes up to a mirror and surveys his mucho moussed hair, most of which is now sticking straight up in the air.

2002 Out Mar. 66/2 With his heavily moussed hairdo..the 1980s Falcon man carries himself with the self-consciousness of a 14-year-old girl.