muck1 (muk)

and a. [ pile: not connected with AS. meox, dung, for which see mix2, mixen.] I. n. 1. Dung in a moist state; a ma of dung and putrefied vegetable matter. With fattening muck Besmear the roots. J. Philips , Cider, i. Hence-2. Manure in general. And money is like mucke , not good except it be spread. Bacon , Seditions and Troubles. 3. A wet, slimy ma ; a me . [Colloq.] One of them, I thought, expre ed her sentiments upon this occasion in a very coarse manner, when she observed that by the living jingo she was all of a muck of sweat. Goldsmith, Vicar, ix. Beer. which is made of noxious substitutes [for the proper constituents), and which is fitly described in the Eastern counties by the somewhat vigorous word muck. Nineteenth Century , XXI. 126. 4. Money: so called in contempt. He married her for mucke , she him for lust; The motives fowle, then fowly live they must. Davies , Scourge of Folly (1611). ( Nares .) Swamp-muck, imperfect peat; the le compact varieties of peat, especially the paring or turf overlying peat. II. a. Resembling muck; mucky; damp. [Provincial or rare.] - Muck iron. See iron. muck1 (muk), v. [ mukke , manure with muck, remove muck from; mykja = Dan. möge , manure with muck, Icel. moka = Sw. mock a = Dan. muge , remove muck from; from the noun.] I. trans. 1. To manure.-2. To remove muck or manure from. I can always earn a little by.. mucking out his stable. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I. 489. II. in trans. To labor very hard; toil. Hal liwell. [Prov. Eng.] muck2 (muk), n. An erroneous form, due to mistaking the adverb amuck for a noun with the indefinite article. See amuck . Frontle and satire-proof he scow'rs the streets, And runs an Indian muck at all he meets. Dryden , Hind and Panther, iii. 1188. Tan a Malayan muck against the times. Tennyson, Aylmer's Field.