a1529 J. Skelton Phyllyp Sparowe (?1545) sig. B.i^v Many a prety kusse Had I of this swete musse.

a1529 J. Skelton Speke Parrot in Poet. Wks. (1843) II. 13 Now kus me, Parrot,..Goddys blessyng lyght on thy swete lyttyll mus!

1815 Monthly Mag. 39 127 Muz, mouth.

1856 P. Thompson Hist. & Antiq. Boston, Lincoln 715 Oppen dy mus.

1889 Æ. Binns Wilsden Originals No. 1. 1 Thi bonny little lips circlin' thi muss.

1963 H. Orton & W. J. Halliday Surv. Eng. Dial. I. ii. 615 Q[uestion]. When a child, while eating, gets all smeared with jam here [p. mouth], its mother will say... [Yorkshire] Wipe your muss.

1995 J. M. Sims-Kimbrey Wodds & Doggerybaw: Lincs. Dial. Dict. 199/1 Muss, baby-talk for a mouth.

1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Rebatina Scrambling, a musse, a sudden skirmish.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes A play at musse, as children vse.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) iii. xiii. 91 When I cried hoa, Like Boyes vnto a musse, Kings would start forth, And cry, your will. View more context for this quotation

a1627 T. Middleton & W. Rowley Spanish Gipsie (1653) ii. sig. C3 They'l throw down Gold in Musses.

1679 J. Dryden in T. Shadwell True Widow Prol. sig. A3^v Bawble and Cap no sooner are thrown down, But there's a Muss of more than half the Town.

a1734 R. North Examen (1740) ii. iv. §149. 311 All this Business was but a confused Muss of Oates and his Men falling foul upon one another.

1822 R. Nares Gloss. Muss, a scramble, when any small objects are thrown down, to be taken by those who can seize them.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes A pigsneye, a sweet-hart, a prettie musse, a daintie mop [etc.].

1601 B. Jonson Every Man in his Humor v. i. sig. M2 Nay kisse me sweet musse . View more context for this quotation

1601 B. Jonson Every Man in his Humor i. iv. sig. D3 Sweete hart will you come in to breakfast... I pray thee (good Musse) we stay for you... What ayle you sweete hart, are you not well, speake good Musse.

1829 N.-Y. Evening Post 14 Jan. 2/2 She told witness that if she would not make a d—d muss about it, she would bring it back.

1830 Constellation (N.Y.) 11/3 I've been in many a scrape before, but never such a muss!

1840 C. F. Hoffman Greyslaer I. ii. iv. 206 That's just what I told Red Wolfert when he showed signs of kicking up a muss.

1862 J. R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd Ser. ii. i. 62 When Satan sets himself to work to raise his very bes' muss, He scatters roun' onscriptur'l views relatin' to Ones'mus.

1864 O. L. Jackson Colonel's Diary (1922) 135 We have just had quite a muss [preceding the battle of Kenesaw Mt.].

1873 ‘M. Twain’ & C. D. Warner Gilded Age 267 That gentleman delivered the young aspirant for a muss one of his elegant little left-handers.

1890 Iron Era 31 Oct. in J. Lee Tales Boatmen Told (1977) xx. 261 Dirty Ike had got into a muss with Dan Dagan and had done him up.

1903 A. H. Lewis Boss 19 It was nothin' but a cheap muss on the pier.

1839 Spirit of Times 30 Mar. 48/2 The man was lost in astonishment which but increased the rage of the husband of the cantatrice, who forthwith ‘pitched into’ him in the last London style, and an entire ‘mus’ was made of the man's face.

1840 C. F. Hoffman Greyslaer II. iii. iv. 142 All this muss is of Wat Bradshawe's cooking.

1843 L. M. Child Lett. from N.Y. (Bartlett) 129 ‘My head aches,’ said he; ‘they have put my mind and body both into a confounded muss.’

1870 A. D. T. Whitney We Girls vi. 102 That is the difference between work and muss.

1890 Internat. Ann. Anthonys Photogr. Bull. 177 He has received many a lecture from his much enduring wife, for the awful muss which he has made.

1908 M. E. Freeman Shoulders of Atlas 132 My hair is all in a muss.

1966 C. Bukowski Let. 9 Apr. in C. Bukowski & S. Martinelli Beerspit Night & Cursing (2001) 336 This is why I have preferred my certain type of whore—no fuss, no muss.

1972 M. Mead Blackberry Winter ix. 103 The first year Miss Abbott, the head of the dormitory apartments, described us as ‘a mental and moral muss’.

1990 Rolling Stone 12 July 42/2 During the first shootout, in a nightclub, Jeff wastes an army of hoods without undue muss or fuss.

1661 Pagitt's Heresiogr. (ed. 6) 86 They dare not so much as whisper, or as much as musse [1645 muffe] against it.

1876 W. Besant & J. Rice Golden Butterfly I. x. 200 I might meddle and muss till I busted up the whole concern.