or mohock, subs. (old).—A ruffian who infested the streets of London at the beginning of the eighteenth century. At the Restoration, the street bullies were called Muns and Tityre-Tus; then Hectors and Scourers; then, Nickers and Hawcubites; and lastly, MOHOCKS or MOHAWKS. Also as verb.
1711–2. SWIFT, The Journal to Stella, 8 March, xliii. Did I tell you of a race of rakes, called the MOHOCKS, that play the devil about this town every night, slit people’s noses, and beat them, &c.?
1712. STEELE, Spectator, No. 324. The MOHOCK-club, a name borrowed, it seems, from a sort of cannibals in India, who subsist by plundering and devouring all the nations about them.
1712. GAY, Trivia, iii. 326. Who has not trembled at the MOHOCK’S name?
1717. PRIOR, Alma, iii.
| But, give him port and potent sack, | |
| From milksop he starts up MOHACK. |
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, vi., 336.
| There’s a new set of Rakes, | |
| Entitled MOHOCKS, | |
| Who infest Her Majesties subjects. |
1755. The Connoisseur, 6 Feb. The MOHOCKS and the members of the Hell-Fire-Club, the heroes of the last generation.
1825. NEAL, Brother Jonathan, I. ch. viii. Some loitering rascal who has been out a MOHAWKING to-day.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard [DICK’S ed.], p. 58. He’s the leader of the MOHOCKS.
1861. G. A. SALA, Twice Round the Clock, 4 A.M., par. 9. A Billingsgate fish-fag, was more than a match for a MOHOCK.
1882. Punch, lxxxii. 83. ‘The MOHOCK Revival.’ That ancient form of ruffianism known as MOHOCKISM.
1889. C. T. CLARKSON and J. HALL RICHARDSON, Police! 7. These were the Muns … the Hectors … and the MOHOCKS.
