says:—'A not uncommon expression in our old writers (equivalent, I believe, to stuff, nonsense).']
1620. Shelton, Don Quixote, Pt. II. x. Marry, muff (quoth the Countrey-Wench), I care much for your courting.
4. (venery).—See quot. 1785. [Cf. the old equivocal wheeze:—'Lost, lost, and can't be found; A lady's thing with hair all round.']
c.1720. Ballad [Brit. Mus. Cat. 11621, i. i. 75]. I heard the merry wagg protest, The muff between her haunches, Resembled most a Mag-pies nest, Between two lofty branches.
17[?]. Old Ballad [quoted by Burns in Merry Muses], 'Duncan Davidson.' Meg had a muff, and it was rough, 'Twas black without and red within.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Muff, the private parts of a woman; to the well wearing of your muff, mort; to the happy consummation of your marriage, girl, a health.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
5. (old).—See quot.
1819. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v. Muff, an epithet synonymous with mouth. Ibid. s.v. Mouth, a foolish silly person.
Verb. (common).—1. To bungle: e.g., to muff a catch.
1857. G. H. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, vi. I don't see why you should have muffed that shot.
2. (Eton College).—To fail in an examination; to be spun (q.v.) or plucked (q.v.); to skip a cog (q.v.).
1884. Julian Sturgis, in Longm. Mag., III. 617. Freddy and Tommy and Dicky have all muffed for the army. It's really dreadful!
Muffin, subs. (American).—1. See
quot.
1870. John White, Sketches from America [Bartlett]. When a man, availing himself of the custom of the country, has secured a young lady for the season, to share with him his sleigh-driving and other of the national amusements, in Canadian phrase she is called his muffin. Her status is a sort of temporary wifehood, limited, of course, by many obvious restrictions, but resembling wifehood in this, that, though a close and continuous relationship, it has nothing in it which shocks, and much in it which allures, the Canadian mind. Among the British commodities exported to our colonies, 'la pruderie Anglaise' does not find a place. The origin of the term muffin seems to be wrapped in obscurity.
2. See muff, subs. sense 1.
Cold muffin, phr. (common).—Poor;
of no account.
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, p. 36. I thought the theayter cold muffin.
Muffin-baker, subs. (rhyming).—A
Quaker (q.v.).
Muffin- (or Muff-)cap, subs. (common).—The
flat woollen cap
worn by charity-boys.
1837. R. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 9. Mr. Peters, though now a wealthy man, had received a liberal education at a charity-school and was apt to recur to the days of his muffin-cap and leathers.
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, vi. His jealousy was roused by seeing the new boy promoted to the black stick and hatband, while he, the old one, remained stationary in the muffin-cap and leathers.
1872. Daily Telegraph, 4 July. The Americans, indeed, appear to have a peculiar fondness for the 'busby' and the muff-cap as items of military headgear, distinctly preferring them to the helmet.
Muffin-face, adj. and subs. (common).—A
hairless countenance.
See quot. 1823.
1777. Isaac Jackman, All the World's a Stage, i. 2. Master Charles, who is that gentleman? He's acting, isn't he? Has he a muffin-face?
