▪ I. mousy, n.
(ˈmaʊsɪ)
Also mousie.
[f. mouse n. + -y4.]
A playful diminutive of mouse.
| 1693 Scotch Presbyt. Eloquence (1738) 138 Thou'rt like a Mousie peeping out at the Hole in the Wall. 1785 Burns To Mouse vii, But Mousie, thou art no thy lane, In proving foresight may be vain. 1845 Zoologist III. 1030 On my return [I] found poor mousy in convulsions. |
▪ II. mousy, a.
(ˈmaʊsɪ)
Also mousey.
[f. mouse n. + -y1.]
1. Resembling a mouse, its colour, smell, etc.
| 1853 Mrs. Gaskell Cranford ix. 164, I was..most particularly anxious to prevent her from disfiguring her small gentle mousey face with a great Saracen's-head turban. 1859 F. E. Paget Curate of Cumberworth 348 A taste..which I can only describe as mousy. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xxviii. 575 Where we inhaled so much of the heavy mousey smell that it was distinguishable in the odour of our shirts and flannels. 1888 G. Macdonald Elect Lady 10 He would..pass a white left hand through his short-cut mousey hair. 1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms (1890) 355 The doctor's short-tailed, mousy mare. 1897 Star 4 Jan. 1/7 A curious shade of mousy grey. 1936 K. A. Porter Flowering Judas 107 He could not bear hearing Miriam called a mousy little nit-wit. 1959 W. Golding Free Fall iv. 82 Fair heads and mousy ones. 1959 ‘O. Mills’ Stairway to Murder vi. 61 Her skin was sallow, her hair was ‘mousey’, and her forehead was the lowest Charles had ever seen. 1975 Times 15 Feb. 14/2 Hair which is ‘light brown’ sounds more becoming than hair which is ‘mousy’. |
2. As quiet as a mouse.
| 1812 Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 210 A man ought not to remain mousy [note, idle]. 1863 Holme Lee A. Warleigh II. 309 To marry that most tiresome and disagreeable of mousy men. 1887 Flo. Marryat Dau. of Tropics I. xiii. 209, I always suspect those very quiet, mousey, saint-like creatures. |
3. Abounding in, or infested with mice.
| 1871 Stormonth Dict. 1876 M. E. Braddon Dead Men's Shoes I. i. 11 She has tea-things and tea-kettle to her hand in the roomy and mousey old closet beside the fire place. |
4. Comb., as mousy-eyed, mousy-faced, mousy-quiet adjs.
| 1909 M. B. Saunders Litany Lane i. ii. 13 Only a fold of dark chestnut hair and a hint of red in the lip gave colour—otherwise a little mousy-eyed gamin of a thing. |
| 1880 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Rebel of Family iii, A pale, light-haired, mousey-faced little woman. |
| 1958 Observer 3 Aug. 10/6 Young married business man, cleared by mousey quiet private detective. 1902 Kipling Just So Stories 146 Taffy took a marrow-bone and sat mousy quiet for ten whole minutes. |
Add: Hence ˈmousily adv., in a mouse-like manner; quietly, timidly.
| 1910 ‘H. H. Richardson’ Getting of Wisdom xxii. 229 She stole mousily in and out, avoiding the hours when Evelyn was there. 1987 Nation (N.Y.) 9 May 619/1 Bennett provides parallel scenes of Lahr's wife..mousily typing and transcribing for him. |