▪ I. mort, n.1
(mɔːt)
Also 5–7 morte.
[Partly a. F. mort (= Pr. mort-z, Sp. muerte, Pg., It. morte):—L. mort-em; partly a. F. mort (fem. morte), adj. (= Pr. mort-z, Sp. muerto, Pg., It. morto):—pop.L. *mort-um for L. mortuum dead.]
† 1. Death, slaughter. Obs.
| c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 9066 (Kölbing), Þo stode Herui bi Bohort, Boþe in periil of mort. a 1400–50 Alexander 1279 (Dublin MS.), The morte of all þe masydons & of þe mony grekez. 1536 Exhort. to North in Furnivall Ballads fr. MSS. I. 306 Noitt dowtyng off them to maike gret morte. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus i. 834 Ouirset with slicht sulphurious, And suddant mort. |
2. Hunting. a. The note sounded on a horn at the death of the deer. Chiefly in to blow a mort.
App. an alteration of the earlier mote n.3 perh. by association with Fr. phr. à mort.
Various edd. of the ballad of Chevy Chase l. 31, read mort, but MS. Ashm. 48 has mot (= mote n.3).
| ? a 1500 in Blount Anc. Tenures (1679) 170 As soone as the Bukks head is offered uppe all the kepers shall blowe a Morte three tymes. 1589 R. Robinson Gold. Mirr. (1851) 14 Presently, the Mort the Hunts-man blew. a 1592 Greene Card of Fancie (1593) H, He that bloweth the Mort before the fall of the Buck, may verie well misse of his fees. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 118 And then to sigh, as 'twere The Mort o' th' Deere. 1677 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. i. 80 Then, having blown the Mort, and all the company come in [etc.]. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. i. 292 Then sound the Mort or Morts. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xxxiii, The horns again poured on her ear the melancholy yet wild strain of the mort, or death-note. 1845 Browning Flight of the Duchess xi, When horns wind a mort and the deer is at siege. |
b. A dead stag. ? nonce-use.
| 1827 Hood Mids. Fairies cx, 'Tis these befriend the timid, trembling stag,..And prompt fresh shifts in his alarum'd ears, So piteously they view all bloody morts. |
c. The death, the kill. arch.
| 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! iv, You will..be enabled yourselves to see the mort more pleasantly. |
3. The skin of a sheep or lamb that has died a natural death. Also mort skin. dial.
| 1592 Greene Upst. Courtier F 3, The Sadler..makes the lether of them of morts, or tand sheeps skinnes. 1611–12 Rutland MSS. (1905) IV. 486 Sheepeskinnes slaughtered hath bin sold by great, for xxiiijs. the dozen, good and bad, mortes and all included. 1624 in Naworth Househ. Bks. 212 Received of my Lady for mort skins, iijli vjs viij{supd}. 1752 Rec. Elgin (New Spald. Club 1903) I. 464 Ilk dozen of mort lamb skins 2d. 1798 R. Douglas Agric. Surv. Roxb. & Selkirk 259 note, Morts are the skins of sheep and lambs who die. 1816 Scott Bl. Dwarf i, He'll be unco busy amang the morts this season. |
4. ? A dead body, corpse. ? Obs.
| 1658 Franck North. Mem. (1694) 7 Every Generation since Adam, has so diminished that Beauty and Lustre, that from Men we are almost dwindled into Morts. a 1839 Galt Demon Destiny 14 The gathering myriads of the famous great—All skeletons, like morts, derisive grin. 1888 H. James Let. 31 July (1920) I. 138 You have become a beautiful myth—a kind of unnatural uncomfortable unburied mort. |
5. Comb.: † mort bell Sc., a funeral bell; † mort cape Sc., a funeral cope; mort head dial., a death's head; † mort mumblings Sc., mumbled prayers for the dead; mort note (quasi-arch.) = sense 2; mort safe Sc., an iron frame placed over a coffin or at the entrance to a grave as a protection against resurrectionists in Scotland; mort-skin Sc. and dial. (see sense 3); mort stand Sc., app. a bier or catafalque; † mort stone, a stone on which the bearers of a dead body rested the coffin.
| 1590 Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876) I. 153 Thair twa commoun bellis, viz. the *mort and skellet bellis. 1612 Ibid. 326 The provest, bailleis and counsale, haifing continwit Thomas Kilmawris in the office of the mort bell to this day. 1824 Galt Rothelan III. vi. i. 13 From the hour that the mort-bell was again heard in the land, men relapsed into their wonted customs. |
| 1554–5 Burgh Rec. Edin. (1871) II. 359 To mak twa *mortcaippis. |
| Ibid., Item, for half ane quarter quhit sating to be the *mort heids, iiij{supr}. 1691 R. Kirk Secret Commonwealth i. §7 'Tis as the constrained grinning of a Mort-head. 1722 Nisbet Syst. Her. 267 Crest, a Mort-head, with two Leg-Bones, Saltier-ways proper. |
| c 1560 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) i. 92 Mantand *mort mvmblingis mixt w{supt} monye leis. |
| 1830 A. E. Bray Fitz of Fitz-ford xvi. (1884) 134 The woods rang with the clamour of blowing the stag to bay, or the triumph of the *mort-note. |
| 1821 A. Thomson Jrnl. 1 Mar. in Life & Ministry (1869) iii. 285 The *mort-safe was for the first time put into his grave. 1888 North. N. & Q. III. 51 The coffin is then lowered, the cage-like mortsafe put over it, and the hinged rods, the tops of which interlace, bent over and padlocked... The grave is then filled up. 1896 J. B. Bailey Diary Resurrectionist 76 Mort-safes, or strong iron guards, were placed over newly-made graves for protection. |
| 1503 Acc. Ld. Treas. Scotl. (1900) II. 290 The *mortstand, with tua tunycales with offrez of fine gold, ane gret caip of the mortstand with sternys of gold on it and offrez of gold. 1561 Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 330 Ane croce of siluer, the forclayth of the hie altar,..ane arress bed, ane siluer spune, the mort stand [etc.]. |
| 1842 Sir H. Taylor Edwin v. vii. 227 Oh me! the *mortstone! |
▪ II. † mort, n.2 Obs.
Also 6 mortes (?).
[Form and origin uncertain; but cf. mortar n.1 2.]
A kind of wax candle (? or a set of wax candles).
| 1394 in Gough Sepulchral Mon. (1786) I. 170* Fynolx, morts, brennynges, croppes, tapres quarrez. c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 56 The foure mortees of waxe [orig. quatre cierges ardans] y{supt} stode brennynge before her beddes fete. 1546 in Blomefield Topogr. Hist. Norfolk (1806) III. 216 An herse with 120 lyghts and dyverse floryshes, hangyngs and a mortes of wax. |
▪ III. mort, n.3
(mɔːt)
Also 6 morte.
[Origin unknown.]
A name for the salmon in its third year.
| 1530 Palsgr. 246/2 Morte a fysshe. 1584 Cogan Haven Health clxxxii. 145 The mort is of like nature, for it is the young Salmon. a 1672 Willughby Hist. Pisc. iv. iv. 189 Nostratibus in fluvio Ribble agri Eboracensis Salmones primo ætatis anno Smelts dicuntur; secundo Sprods; tertio Morts. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Salmon. 1861 [see peal n.2]. 1872 Dairy News 13 Aug., Nine fish were killed..namely, one mort, one smelt, three brandlings, and four river trout. 1904 Peterite XIX. 147 Sea-trout, or ‘mort’ as they are locally termed. |
▪ IV. mort, n.4 Cant.
(mɔːt)
Also 6 morte, 8–9 mot, 9 mott.
[Origin unknown.]
a. A girl or woman. Often with qualifying word, as autem, gentry, kinchin-, strolling, walking mort (q.v.).
| 1561–75 J. Awdelay Frat. Vacab. (1869) 5 A Kitchin Mortes [sic] is a Gyrle. 1592 Chettle Kind-harts Dr. (1841) 57 It happened, within these few yeeres, about Hampshire there wandered a walking mort, that went about the countrey selling of tape. 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girl K 4 b, Ben mort (good wench) shal you and I heaue a booth? 1621 B. Jonson Gypsies Met. (1640) 65 Male Gipsies all, not a Mort among them. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Morts, Yeomen's Daughters; also a Wife, Woman, or Wench. 1837 Gambler's Dream III. 225 Every cove and every mot Brings in some swag to boil the pot. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 217 After some altercation with the ‘mot’ of the ‘ken’ (mistress of the lodging-house). 1922 Joyce Ulysses 247 He saw the image of Marie Kendall, charming soubrette... One of them mots that do be in the packets of fags. 1969 J. Blackburn Bury him Darkly 10 ‘Look at them two mots, Fergus.’ Dan pointed at two mini-skirted girls. |
b. A harlot, a loose woman.
| 1567 Harman Caveat (1869) 32 Their harlots, whiche they terme Mortes and Doxes. 1601 A. Munday Downf. Rbt. Earl Huntington iii. ii. F 2 b, If I can get the girle to goe with mee, Disguis'd in habit, like a Pedlers mort. 1622 Fletcher Beggar's Bush ii. i, Each man shall..enjoy His owne deare Dell, Doxy, or Mort, at night. 1708 Motteux's Rabelais Pantagr. Prognost. v, Those whom Venus is said to rule, as..Morts, Doxies. 1773 in Partridge Dict. Underworld (1949) 451/1 The first time I saw the flaming mot, Was at the sign of the Porter Pot. a 1790 H. T. Potter New Dict. Cant & Flash (1795) 42 Morts, or motts, lewd women, whores, shop⁓lifters, &c. 1796 F. Grose Olio 228 Our regiment has not so fine a blowen; Nor all the seven battalions such a mot. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Mott, a blowen, or woman of the town. 1821 P. Egan Real Life in London I. xii. 223 The Hon. Tom Dashall..was in close conversation with his mott. 1846 Swell's Night Guide 60, I don't think as how he ever doss'd with a mott or could fake a shiver if he had it for nix. 1866 E. Sellon Let. 4 Mar. in ‘Pisanus Fraxi’ Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1877) 394, I! who had expected some swell mot or other, soon found myself seated beside the most beautiful young lady I ever beheld. |
▪ V. mort, n.5
(mɔːt)
Also mord.
[? Celtic Cornish; cf. Welsh mêr marrow.]
Lard; pig's grease.
| 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. cxiii. 408 You shall adde therto of hogges mort, and fresh butter, of each a pound. 1839 Mrs. Palmer Dial. Dev. Dial. i. 15 Their high-peak'd loady heads, wi' a wallage o' hair, plaster'd with mort and flour. 1864 Quiller-Couch E. Cornw. Wds. in Jrnl. R. Inst. Cornw. Mar., Mord, lard, pig's grease. 1865 T. Garland W. Cornw. Wds. ibid. Apr., Mort, unmelted lard. 1886 West Somerset Gloss. s.v., Nif any-body-v a got a bad leg or ort, there idn no fineder thing vor-t-n mort-n chalk. |
▪ VI. mort, n.6 dial.
(mɔːt)
[Origin obscure.
The suggestion that it is derived from ON. mart, neut. of margr great, as in mart manna a great number of people, is not supported by the form, chronology, or locality of the Eng. word. It is possibly a dial. corruption of mortal used as an intensive (e.g. with such a n. as deal). The existence of the north. dial. murth (ON. mergð) in the same sense may have assisted its development.]
A great quantity or number; a great deal. Usually const. of; rarely absol. Also pl. (cf. quantities).
| 1694 Echard Plautus 94 They had a mort o' Prisoners. 1708 Brit. Apollo No. 44. 3/2 You having zuch a Mort of Wit. 1775 Sheridan Rivals i. i, Here's a mort o' merry⁓making, hey? 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 123 She talk'd of morts of luck. 1850 Dickens Dav. Copp. xxxii, ‘We have had a mort of talk, sir’, said Mr. Peggotty to me. 1868 Helps Realmah ii, My Betsy..knew a mort more than I do. 1887 H. Smart Cleverly won i. 7 There's a mort of money to be made off the farm in a good year. |
b. a mort used advb.
| 1887 Hall Caine A Son of Hagar i. Prol., I'll not say but other folks look a mort madder nor ever I looked. 1904 S. Weyman Abb. Vlaye viii, You've fared better with me, ay, a mort better, than you'd have fared if the Captain had been here. |
▪ VII. † mort, a. Obs.
Also 5 morte.
[a. F. mort (fem. morte): see mort n.1]
Dead.
| 14.. Sir Beues 1696 (MS. E), He was so ffeynt in hys hurte, Þer ffore he was al most al morte. c 1440 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (E.E.T.S.) 189/127 Thy mede is markyd, whan thow art mort, in blysse. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 455 My mynd waxit mort. 1658 C. Hoole Sentences for Children A 3, The many difficulties that attend the work (especially in a Mort language). |
b. battle mort, mort battle: war to the death. Sc.
| 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. iii. xviii, Plesand pastance, and mony lustie sport, Thair saw we als, and sum time battell mort. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 297 With mort battell agane King Edelfryde. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus ii. 272 Of Infidelis mony he did downe thring Be battell mort. |
▪ VIII. † mort, v. Obs. rare—1.
[a. OF. mortir, f. mort (see mort n.1).]
trans. To put to death.
| c 1440 York Myst. xxvi. 77 Pil. Howe mene ȝe? Cay. Sir, to mort hym for mouyng of menne. |