1802. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1882), i. 152. He is a mighty neat, pretty little, fiddling fellow, and exceedingly finely bred.
1844. Kendall, Santa Fé Expedition, i. 32. You'll be mighty apt to get wet, said a thorough-bred Texan, who stood watching our movements.
1846-7. Dickens, Dombey and Son, xi. The Doctor's was a mighty fine house, fronting the sea.
1847. Halliwell, Archaic and Provincial Words, etc., s.v. Mighty, fine, gay.
1848. Georgia Scenes, 84. His face is mighty little for his body.
1892. Gunter, Miss Dividends, iii. I am mighty glad.
High and mighty, phr. (common).—Consequential; full of 'airs'.
1892. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, Act. Sc. 2, p. 10. Ye needna be sae high and mighty, onyway.
Mike, subs. (common).—1. An Irishman.
2. See Miker.
3. See Micky.
Verb. (common).—1. To lurk; to skulk; to hang about: also to do a mike (or mouch). Also mich, miche, mooch, or mouch. For synonyms see Loaf.
149[?]. Towneley Mysteries ('Judicium'), Surtees Soc. Pub. (1835), p. 320. The negons thai mowchid, and hadde no wile.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Fare a chetichegli . . . to sneake or mich about lurkingly.
d. 1599. Spenser, View of the State of Ireland [Ency. Dict]. 'Straggle up and down the country, or mich in corners amongst their friends idlely.'
1612. Chapman, Widow's Tears [Dodsley, Old Plays, vi. 212]. Not for this miching base transgression Of truant negligence.
1613. Beaumont and Fletcher, Hon. Man's F., v. 1. Say we should all meach here, and stay the feast now, What can the worst be? we have plaid the knaves, That's without question.
1825. Egan, Life of an Actor, p. 28. Mike or Shammock. Technical or cant phrases amongst printers. To have a mike is to loiter away the time, when it might be more usefully or profitably employed.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab., i. p. 472. These hedge fellows are slow and dull; they go mouching along as if they were croaking themselves.
1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 59. When not employed mouched about.
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon's Good Night. You spongers miking round the pubs.
1888. Cornhill Mag., Febr., p. 178. The poacher is a product of sleepy village life, and usually mouches on the outskirts of country towns.
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxii. Mooching about cattle.
2. (old).—To play truant; to Charley-wag (q.v.).
1581. Lyly, Euphues, 29. What made the gods so often to trewant from heaven, and mich here on earth.
1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, s.v. Mooch.
3. (tramps').—To hang about: for alms, a job, or a chance to pilfer. Also on the mouch.
1888. Daily Telegraph, 27 Nov. Yet it might safely be wagered that, while the poor street folk who pick up a precarious livelihood in this way would not resent being called costermongers, they would be bitterly offended at being stigmatised as mouchers, and would hotly assert that they never mouched a penny from anybody.
1888. Indoor Paupers, i. Most of these people knew how to mouch or beg with skill and effect, while I could not beg at all.
1888. Bulletin, Nov. 24. All the dead-beats and suspected hen-snatchers plead when before the Bench that they were 'only mouching round to find out whether the family neglected its religious dooties, yer washup.'
