▪ I. moll, n.
(mɒl)
Also 6–7 Mall.
[A familiar diminutive of Mary. Cf. molly.]
1. A female personal name. Moll Cut-purse, the nickname of a notorious female of the first half of the 17th c., introduced by Middleton and Dekker into their Roaring Girl and by Field into his Amends for Ladies. † Moll Thomson's mark (slang): see quot. 1785.
| 1567 Wager Marie Magdalene 1194 (Carpenter) Conscience? how doth thy conscience, little Mall? 1611 Middleton & Dekker (title) The Roaring Girle. Or Moll Cut-Purse. As it hath lately beene Acted on the Fortune-stage by the Prince his Players. Ibid., Dramatis Personæ{ddd}Mol the Roaring Girle. 1662 Womans Champion (title-p.) A true Relation of the mad Pranks..and most unheard of Stratagems of Mrs. Mary Frith, commonly called Mall Cutpurse. 1663 Butler Hud. i. ii. 368 A bold Virago, stout and tall, As Joan of France, or English Mall. 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 67 ¶9 At last an impudent young Dog bid the Fidlers play a Dance called Mol Patley. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. T., Moll Thompson's Mark, M. T. i.e. empty; take away this bottle, it has Moll Thompson's mark upon it. |
b. Moll Blood, the gallows.
| 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xx, Three words of your mouth would give the girl the chance to nick Moll Blood. |
c. In names of animals and plants, as moll-blob = marsh-marigold; moll-hern (-heron, -yern), the heron, Ardea cinerea; moll-washer, the pied wagtail, Motacilla lugubris.
| 1847–78 Halliwell, Moll-washer, the water-wagtail. 1848 Zoologist VI. 2191 Herons are not only very commonly called ‘cranes’..but also ‘moll-herons’, or rather ‘moll-yerns’. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Moll-blobs, or Molly-blobs. 1880 Jefferies Gt. Estate iv. 78 ‘A moll ern flod away.’ 1939 F. Thompson Lark Rise v. 97 All legs and wings, like a moll-heron. |
2. a. A prostitute. gen., a girl, woman; a girl-friend or sweetheart, esp. of a criminal; the unmarried female companion of a professional thief or vagrant; a female pickpocket or thief. See also gun moll. slang.
| 1604 Middleton Father Hubburd's T. Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 78 None of these common Molls neither, but discontented and unfortunate gentlewomen. 1753 J. Poulter Discoveries (ed. 2) 34 To nap the Slangs from the Cull or Moll; that is,..to take the Things from the Man or Woman. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. T., Moll, a whore. 1819 T. Thompson in Collect. Songs Newcastle Dial. 10 When the Malls began their reels. 1823 ‘J. Bee’ Dict. Turf, Molls are the female companions of low thieves, at bed, board, and business. 1840 H. D. Miles Dick Turpin xxi. 250 You might ha' knowed his moll, a spicy, swellish sort of a bit o'muslin. 1872 G. P. Burnham Mem. U.S. Secret Service 190 Doctor Blake and his ‘moll’ visited the town of Toms River. 1877 Five Yrs. Penal Serv. iii. 242 Once, when he was speaking of ‘his old woman’ for the time being, I asked if she was a ‘crooked’ one too. ‘Oh, yes’, he replied; ‘I never had nothin' to do with any {oqq}moll{cqq} who couldn't cut her own grass.’ 1891 J. Baron Blegburn Dickshonary 44 ‘Aw'm gooin' to meet mi Moll to-neet’ is a varra common sayin' wi' factory lads: some o' th' better soort say ‘woman’ i' th' place o' Moll, but nooan so mony. 1923 [see dame 2 c]. 1931 Amer. Speech VII. 111 Moll. 1. A gangster's sweetheart or mistress. 2. Any girl whether associated with the underworld or not. 1934 Dylan Thomas 18 Poems 22 In this our age the gunman and his moll, Two one-dimensioned ghosts, love on a reel. 1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1968) i. 20 He went off with that bloody moll whose name I wouldn't speak. 1955 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 99 A woman pickpocket is..a moll. 1962 N. Marsh Hand in Glove iii. 90, I can see you're in a fever lest slick Ben and his moll should get back..before you make your getaway. 1975 C. Fremlin Long Shadow xxvi. 190 The Psychopath's Moll. I'm doing it again, thought Imogen..saving him from the consequences of his follies. |
b. attrib. and Comb., as moll-shop slang, a brothel; moll-tooler slang, a female pickpocket.
| 1923 J. Manchon Le Slang 196 Moll-shop. 1957 M. K. Joseph I'll soldier no More (1958) 181 Pretty faces..peered shyly into the street. ‘Looks like a moll-shop,’ said Connolly. |
| 1859 Hotten Dict. Slang 63 Moll tooler, a female pickpocket. |
† 3. ? A ramrod (sense uncertain; perh. a distinct word). Obs.
| 1596 Acc. Winsford in Proc. Somerset Archæol. Soc. 1900, 194 One muskett with his flaxe, twich boxe, moll, and rest. |
Hence moll v. (see quot. 1851); molled ppl. a., associating with or accompanied by a woman.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 310/2 ‘There is a great many furnished cribs, let to needys (nightly lodgers) that are molled up’ (that is to say, associated with women in the sleeping-rooms). 1882 Sydney Slang Dict. 6/1, I see yer the other night when yer was Molled up and too proud to speak. 1935 Flynn's 19 Jan. 87/2 With each man molled, and his moll posing as his wife, they would not attract the suspicion which would be directed against a mob of men living together. |
▪ II. † moll, a. Obs. rare.
Forms: 5 mole, 6–7 molle, 7 moll.
[a. OF. mol (mod.F. mou, mol, fem. molle):—L. moll-em soft.]
1. Soft.
| 1474 Caxton Chesse iii. v. G viij, Hit happeth ofte tymes that the nature of them that ben softe and mole taketh soner Impressyon than the nature of men that be rude & stronge. |
2. Mus. In B moll, ♭ moll = flat. (Also bemol.)
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 5 Phi. What is ♭ molle? Ma. It is a propertie of singing, wherein fa must alwaies be song in ♭ fa ♭ mi, and is when the vt is in F fa vt. a 1600 Montgomerie Misc. Poems iii. 14 Sing sho tua notis, the one is out of tone, As B acre lau and B moll far abone. 1667 C. Simpson Compend. Pract. Mus. 113 B Molle was when they sung fa in B. |
▪ III. moll
obs. f. mole n.1 and n.2, mould, mull.