▪ I. minx
(mɪŋks)
Also 6 mynxe, minxe, mincks, 6–7 minkes, 7–8 minks.
[Of obscure origin; possibly a corruption of minikin, with the added s not uncommon dial. in playful terms of endearment, e.g. ducks, darlings, pets: cf. Minckins in quot. 1605 s.v. minikin 1. Sense 2 agrees closely with the sense of LG. minske = G. mensch neut.]
† 1. A pet dog. Also as proper name. Obs.
| 1542 Udall tr. Erasm. Apoph. 127 b, There been litle mynxes, or puppees that ladies keepe in their chaumbers for especiall iewelles to playe withall. Ibid., When I am houngry I am a litle mynxe full of playe, and when my bealy is full, a mastife. [1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iv. Captains 386 Milk-white Minks and Lun (Gray-bitches both, the best that ever run).] |
2. a. A pert girl, hussy. Now often merely playful.
| 1592 Nobody & Someb. E 2 b, Thus, you minx, Ile teach you ply your worke. 1594 Lyly Moth. Bomb. i. iii. 17 Your minxe had no better grandfather than a Tailer. c 1600 Day Begg. Bednall Gr. ii. i. (1881) 31 Come, Minx, what Iewell did you give this Rogue. 1636 Heywood Love's Mistr. v. i. Wks. 1874 V. 155 That Minks [Psyche] is come from hell, And heere she harbours. 1695 Congreve Love for L. ii. i, How, hussy! was there ever such a provoking minx! 1706–7 Farquhar Beaux' Strat. i. i, You deserve to have none, you young Minx. 1742 Fielding J. Andrews iv. xiii, ‘She! a little ugly minx’, cries Slipslop, ‘leave her to me’. 1812 Crabbe Tales xiii. 136 She thinks To make her fortune, an ambitious minx! 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. ix, ‘I scorn your words, Minx’, said Miss Squeers. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xxix, She is a dressed-up little minx, who runs after all the young men of the parish. 1882 Mrs. Raven's Tempt. III. 181 We shall be sorry if this young minx brings more trouble on the Agates. |
b. A lewd or wanton woman.
| 1598 Florio, Magalda,..a trull or minxe. 1602 North's Plutarch, Seneca (1612) 1214 Nero..tooke from him this minxe that knew the trickes of the occupation. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. i. 159 This is some Minxes token. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iii. i. ii. (1651) 600 If thou be absent long, thy wife then thinks, Thou'rt drunk, at ease, or with some pretty minks. 1678 Dryden Limberham i. i, They are a Couple of alluring wanton Minxes. 1728 Gay Polly i. (1777) 24 And so, sir, I leave you and your minx together. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake 80 What are you doing your dirty minx and his big treeblock way up your path? Ibid. 496 There wasn't an Archimandrite of Dane's Island and the townlands nor a minx from the Isle of Woman..would come next or nigh him. 1941 J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 38 Minx, prostitute. |
† c. mistress minx. Obs.
| c 1590 Marlowe Faustus vi. 162 What are you, Mistress Minx, the seventh and last? 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 10 b, Mistris Minx, a Marchants wife, that wil eate no Cherries forsooth, but when they are at twenty shillings a pound. 1671 Kirkman & Head Eng. Rogue iv. (1874) 139 How now, Mrs. Minks. 1735 J. Collier Art Torment. 50 Let me tell you, Mistress Minx, 'twould much better become my station, than yours. |
Hence (nonce-wds.) † minx v. intr. (with it), to play the minx; minxishness, minxship, the condition or quality of a minx.
| 1609 Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 303 The Apologue describes Venus trans-formed waiting maide, who beeing trick't vp like a Gentle-woman, mink'st it a while til she spied a Mouse, but then made it knowne shee was a Cat. 1632 Massinger City Madam ii. ii, On these terms Wil your minxship be a Lady. 1885 L. Wingfield Barbara Philpot I. x. 271 Was not the sex built up of foibles and minxishness? |
▪ II. minx
obs. form of mink.