The Prisoner of Zenda (46 page)

mealy
ADJ
Mealy when used to describe a face meant palid, pale or colourless
I only know two sorts of boys. Mealy boys, and beef-faced boys
(
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens)

middling
ADJ
fairly or moderately
she worked me middling hard for about an hour
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

mill
NOUN
a mill, or treadmill, was a device for hard labour or punishment in prison
Was you never on the mill?
(
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens)

milliner's shop
NOUN
a milliner's sold fabrics, clothing, lace and accessories; as time went on they specialized more and more in hats
to pay their duty to their aunt and to a milliner's shop just over the way
(
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen)

minching un' munching
PHRASE
how people in the north of England used to describe the way people from the south speak
Minching un' munching!
(
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë)

mine
NOUN
gold
Whether both th'Indias of spice and mine
(
The Sun Rising
by John Donne)

mire
NOUN
mud
Tis my fate to be always ground into the mire under the iron heel of oppression
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

miscellany
NOUN
a miscellany is a collection of many different kinds of things
under that, the
miscellany began
(
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson)

mistarshers
NOUN
mistarshers means moustache, which is the hair that grows on a man's upper lip
when he put his hand up to his mistarshers
(
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy)

morrow
NOUN
here good-morrow means tomorrow and a new and better life
And now good-morrow to our waking souls
(
The Good-Morrow
by John Donne)

mortification
NOUN
mortification is an old word for gangrene which is when part of the body decays or ‘dies' because of disease
Yes, it was a mortification–that was it
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

mought
PARTICIPLE
mought is an old spelling of might
what you mought call me? You mought call me captain
(
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson)