name is mud!' ejaculated upon the conclusion of a silly oration, or of a leader in the Courier.
1836. W. H. Smith, The Individual, 'The Thieves' Chaunt.' There is a nook in the boozing-ken, Where many a mud I fog.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
2. (printers').—A non-society man; dung (q.v.).
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
As clear as mud, phr. (common).—Very obscure. Also the reverse: as plain as may be.
1837-40. Haliburton, The Clock-*maker, p. 480 (ed. 1862). Well, I get her to set down and go over it all ever so slow, and explain it all as clear as mud, and then she says,—Now do you see, Sam, ain't it horrid pretty?
1890. G. Allen, The Tents of Shem, vi. I'll explain the whole thing to you, as clear as mud, in half a second.
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, p. 75. Clear as mud, my dear feller.
His name is mud! phr. (American political).—Said in cases of utter defeat; sent up Salt River (q.v.).
Mud-cat, subs. (American).—A
Mississippi man.
Mudcrusher, subs. (military).—An
infantryman. Fr. pousse-caillou.
English synonyms. Beetle-crusher (or -squasher); blanket-boy (a volunteer); boiled lobster; brother-blade; caterpillar; cat-*shooter (volunteer); coolie; flat-*foot; fly-slicer (a cavalryman); grabby; jolly gravel-grinder (a marine, see Royal Jolly); leather-*neck; light-bob; lobster; mud-major (q.v.); mud-plunger; plunger; prancer (a cavalryman); Q.H.B. (= Queen's Hard Bargain = a malingerer); raw lobster (see lobster); red-coat; red-herring; Saturday-soldier (a volunteer); scarlet-runner; skid; snoddy; swaddy; tame jolly (see jolly); toe-footer (or bloody toe-footer); Tommy Atkins; tow-*pow; wobbler; worm-crusher (or -squasher).
French synonyms. Un allumeur de gaz (= a lancer: in allusion to the weapon and a lamp-lighter's rod); un barbe-à-poux (= a sapper: they wear long beards); un bibi (popular); un biffin, or bifin (the knapsack is likened to a rag-picker's basket); un bouffeur de kilomètres (the Chasseurs de Vincennes; a picked corps of skirmishers and scouts); un briscard (= an old soldier with long-service stripes); un cabillot (sailors'); un camisard (a military convict who serves his time in Africa: also un camisard en bordée); un centrier or centripète (popular); un chacal (= a Zouave); une citrouille or un citrouillard (= a dragoon); les clous (the infantry en masse); un court-à-pattes (a foot artilleryman); un cul rouge (in allusion to the red trousers: cf. cherry-bum); Dumanet (= Tommy Atkins: from a character in a play); une écrevisse de rempart (cavalrymen's); un fiferlin (popular); un fiffot (popular); un griffeton or grivier (popular); un homard (= a spahi: cf. lobster); un hussard à quatre roues (= an army-service man); un lascar (= a malingerer); un lignard (= a linesman); un marche à terre
