maggie (magi)

[ Thare he beheld ane cruell maglit face. Gavin Douglas , tr. of Virgil, p. 181. (Jamie son.) maggot (mag'ot), n. [Early mod. E. also mag get , maggette ; magot , mag at , prob. macai , a maggot (cf. magiaid , grubs, magiad , breeding, magad , a brood), magu , breed, = Corn. Bret. mag a , feed.] 1. Proper ly, the larva of a fly or other insect; hence, in general, a grub; a worm: applied to footle larvæ, and especially to the larvæ of flies. Those flesh-flies of the land, Who fasten without mercy on the fair, And suck, and leave a craving maggot there. Cowper, Prog. of Err., 1. 324. 2. A whim; a crotchet; an odd fancy: mostly in such expre ions as a maggot in one's head. To tickle the maggot born in an empty head, And wheedle a world that loves him not. Tennyson, Maud, xxvii. 3. 3t. A frisky fellow; one given to pranks. Po. I admire you had so much prudence, when you were as great a maggot as any in the world when you were at Paris. And there I saw mage Merlin, whose vast wit And hundred winters are but as the hands Of loyal va als toiling for their liege. Tennyson, Coming of Arthur.