ˈmoon-calf
[Cf. G. mondkalb (Luther); also mondkind, MLG. maanenkind (kind = child).]
† 1. a. An abortive shapeless fleshy mass in the womb; a false conception. Obs.
Regarded as being produced by the influence of the moon.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Mola,..a moone calfe (in the womans woumbe). 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 387 The moone calfes in the womb, which fall out often. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 193 The signes of the Mola or Moon-calfe. 1658 tr. Porta's Nat. Magic ii. ii. 29 A certain woman..brought forth in stead of a child, four Creatures like to frogs... But this was a kind of a Moon-calf. |
| fig. 1623 Poems on Aff. State (1703) II. 106 And then Democracy's Production shall A Moon-calf be. 1644 Prerogative Anatomized 12 The Parliament is in labour of a Moon-Calfe. |
b. A misshapen birth, a monstrosity.
Obs. or
arch.| 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 139 How now Moone-Calfe. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. x. (1858) 168 England..offers precisely the elements..in which such moon-calves and monstrosities are best generated. 1837 ― Fr. Rev. (1872) III. i. vii. 41 This huge mooncalf of Sansculottism. |
c. One born with undeveloped brain; a congenital idiot; a born fool.
| [1620 B. Jonson News fr. New World, Pr... Moone Calves! what Monster is that..? 2 Her. Monster? none at all; a very familiar thing, like our foole here on earth] 1627 Drayton (title) The Moone-Calfe. Stultorum plena sunt omnia. 1693 Dryden Juvenal vi. (1697) 158 The Potion..turns his Brain, and stupifies his Mind. The sotted Moon-Calf gapes. 1765 Beattie To Churchill 4 Fame,..What half-made moon-calf can mistake for good? 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxx, If he is as you say, d'ye think he'll ever marry a moon-calf like Madge? 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped v, ‘No’, said the poor moon-calf, changing his tune at once. |
2. In allusive or misapprehended senses.
a. One who gazes at the moon; a ‘mooning’, absent-minded person. (
Cf. calf1 1 c.)
| c 1613 Middleton No Wit like Woman's i. i. 112 One Weatherwise,..Observes the full and change, an arrant moon-calf. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey iii. vi, I have been playing, I fear, the mooncalf tonight; and find that, though I am a late watcher, I am not a solitary one. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge vi, Instead of standing gaping at her, like an old mooncalf as I am. |
† b. A child of the moon; a fickle, unstable person.
Obs. rare.
| 1607 Chapman Bussy d' Ambois iv, Women..Are the most perfect images of the Moone (Or still-vnweand sweet Moon⁓calues with white faces). 1647 Trapp Comm. Acts xxii. 19, I shall be counted a Moon-calf; a Retraxit shall be entred against me. 1656 ― 1 Tim. iii. 8 Ministers must neither be Sea-calves, nor Moon-calves; double-tongued, nor unstable, or double-minded. |
3. An animal imagined to inhabit the moon.
| 1901 H. G. Wells First Men in Moon xi. 116 We saw..the mooncalf's shining sides... First of all impressions was its enormous size; the girth of its body was some fourscore feet, its length perhaps two hundred. Ibid. 120 We came upon another drove of mooncalves bellowing up a ravine. 1955 Times 11 Aug. 7/4 It will be nice if, when we make our landfall on the moon, we find the mooncalves prodding their craters with a noiseless drill. |