Mutton

a contemptuous term for a woman of bad character; sometimes varied to LACED MUTTON . The expre ion was used as a cant term for a “wild duck” in the reign of James I. As a slang term it was employed by Ben Jonson in his masque of Neptune’s Triumph , which was written for display at Court on Twelfth Night, 1623; “a fine LACED MUTTON or two,” are the words applied to wantons. Shakspeare has the term. In that cla of English society which does not lay any claim to refinement, a fond lover is often spoken of as being “fond of his MUTTON ,” which, by the way, in this place does not mean the woman so much as something else.