Mohawk (mohak)

[Formerly also Mohock, Mohack; Amer. Ind.] 1. One of a tribe of American Indians of the Huron-Iroquois family, situated along the Mohawk river. It was the easternmost of the Five Nations. See Iroquois. 2. A ruffian; specifically [ cap. or l. c.], one of those who infested the streets of London about the beginning of the eighteenth century: so called from the Indian tribe of that name. Give him [a youngster] Port and potent Sack; From a Milksop he starts up Mohack . Prior , Alma, iii. Did I tell you of a race of rakes, called the Mohocks , that play the devil about this town every night, slit people's noses and beat them, etc.? Swift , Journal to Stella, March 8, 1711. The Mohock -club, a name borrowed it seems from a sort of cannibals in India, who subsist by plundering and devouring all the nations about them. Steele, Spectator, No. 324. Who has not trembled at the Mohock's name? Gay , Trivia, iii. 326. Mohegan (mō-hē gan), a. and n. Same as Mohican. Mohican (mộ-hēʼkan), a. and n. [Also Mohegan; from the native name.] I. a. Of or relating to the Mohicans or Mohegans. II. n. One of a tribe of American Indians of the Algonkin stock. Moho (mōhō), n. [NL., Yellow-tufted Moho ( Moho nobilis). IMG:content-0824.jpg:[blocks in formation] mohur (mō'hér), n. [Also mohar ; muhr , mohr , muhur , muhr , mohr , a seal, a gold coin.] A modern gold coin of India under the British dominion, equivalent 3. To fatigue by labor; weary. At first happy news came, in gay letters moiled With my ki es. Mrs. Browning, Mother and Poet, st. 7. IMG:content-0825.jpg:[blocks in formation] to 15 rupees, or about $7; also, a gold coin of the native princes of India from the sixteenth century onward. II. in trans. 1. To soil one's self; wallow in dirt. A simple soule much like myselfe dyd once a serpent find, Which (almost dead with cold) lay moyling in the myre. Gas coigne, Constancie of a Louer. 2. To drudge; labor; toil. I never heard a more pertinent Anagram than was made of his Name, William Noy, I moil [ moyl ] in Law. Howell , Letters, I. vi. 17. They saw him daily moiling and delving in the common path, like a beetle. Long fellow , Kavanagh, i. moill (moil), n. [ moil of death upon them. Browning. IMG:content-0826.jpg:[blocks in formation] Whittier , Barefoot Boy. dle.] I. trans. 1. To confuse; perplex; distract; bewilder. I've been strangely moyder'd e're sin 'bout this same news oth' French king. I con no believe 'tis true. Wit of a Woman (1705). ( Nares . ) You'll happen be a bit moithered with it [a child] while it's so little. George Eliot , Silas Marner, xiv. 2. To spend in labor. She lived only to scrape and hoard, moidering away her lovele life in the futile energies and sordid aims of a miser's wretched pleasure. Corn hill Mag. [Obsolete or prov. Eng. in both uses.] II. in trans . To labor hard; toil. [Prov. Eng.] moidore (moi'dor), n. [Also moedore ; d'ouro , lit. money or coin of gold: moeda , moneta , money; de , de , of; ouro, aurum , gold: see money , de2 , and aurum , or3.] IMG:content-0827.png:[blocks in formation] He says his expenses in the relief of our prisoners have been upwards of fifty moidores. Jefferson, Correspondence, I. 231. moiety (moi'e-ti), n.; pl. moieties (-tiz). [Formerly also moitie; The charge there would be so great by crauers and expenses that thre moitie of the profite would bee wholly consumed. Hakluyt's Voyages , I. 257. 2. A portion; a share. Methinks my moiety , north from Burton here, In quantity equals not one of yours. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iii. 1. 96. Anti-moiety law, a United States statute of 1874, which repealed all United States moiety acts. - Moiety act, a statute giving one half of fines, penalties, and forfeitures to informers or private prosecutors. - Moiety system, a system at one time adopted by the United States govern ment for finding out the names and indebtedne of delinquent taxpayers, by which the informer or person making the discovery and aiding in the collection received as compensation a certain proportion of the amount collected. moill (moil), v. [Early mod. E. also moile , species be nobilis and apical is formerly called yel, moyle; low-tufted bee-eater. Also Mohoa ( Reichenbach, 1850) and Acrulocercus ( Cabanis, 1847). 2. [l. c.] Any bird of this genus.