subs. (old).—1. A milksop; a bungler; a dolt. See quots. 1598, 1648, 1862 and 1879. Also MUFFIN.
1586–1606. WARNER, Albion’s England, bk. vii.
| Fourth Edward’s second son. Those stiles | |
| To him were strange, but thay | |
| Did feofe them on the bace-borne MUFFE, | |
| And him as king obay. |
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes. Pupo, a pigsneye, a sweet-hart, a prettie MUFFE, a daintie mop, etc. Ibid., Stiticozzie, swearing or swaggring MUFFS or dutch men.
c. 1610. CHAMBERLAIN, Letters, 159. More than beseemed the King to give to such MUFFES.
1648. Travels of Sir John Reresby [quoted in Notes and Queries, 2 S. ix. 402]. The Low Dutch call the High MUFFES, that is étourdis as the French have it, or blockheads.
1830. W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Heart of London, act. ii. sc. i. A visitor? hurrah: some MUFFIN, I daresay.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Wedding-day’ (ed. 1862), p. 437.
| If any young man, though a snubb’d younger brother, | |
| When told of her faults by his father or mother, | |
| Runs restive, and goes off to sea in a huff, | |
| Depend on ’t, my friends, that young man is a MUFF! |
1841. THACKERAY, The Great Hoggarty Diamond, xi. Another called me a MUFF (which means, in the slang language, a very silly fellow).
1843. W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Scamps of London, ii. sc. 1. I’m a ruined homo—a MUFF.
1845. B. DISRAELI, Sybil; or, The Two Nations, p. 146 [ed. 1863]. ‘I came about him. I wished to know whether he were alive, and that you have been able to inform me and where he was; and that you have not been able to inform me.’ ‘Why you’re a regular MUFF!’
1850. F. E. SMEDLEY, Frank Fairlegh, 26. ‘Put on the gloves!’ repeated I; ‘how do you mean?—what has that to do with Lawless?’ ‘Oh, you MUFF! don’t you understand?—of course, I mean the boxing-gloves.’
1857. G. A. LAWRENCE, Guy Livingston, XII. I heard him growl out, ‘That there MUFF’S enough to spile one’s taste for a fortnit.’
1857. TOM HOOD, Pen and Pencil Pictures, p. 144. Awful MUFF! Can’t pull two strokes without catching as many crabs; he’d upset the veriest tub on the river.
1862. Notes and Queries, 3 S. i. 56. Mof is the nickname applied by the natives of the Low Countries to all foreigners, Germans especially…. The term MUFF will have passed the Channel with the motley troops of William III.
1866. MANSFIELD, School-Life at Winchester College, 136. I must now proceed to football, a game I like … far more than cricket. The reason is simple: I was a tolerably good hand at the former, and rather a MUFF at the latter.
1869. Daily Telegraph, 2 Sept. Boys do not generally like to be considered MUFFS. What but a MUFF—a MUFF of the most hopeless, helpless sort—is a young fellow who cannot manage, by motions which Nature herself almost indicates in such a crisis, to keep himself afloat?
1879. Notes and Queries, 5 S. XII. 16. MUFF = a stupid person may have been introduced into England from the Netherlands, probably in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In Dutch, Mof = (1) a clown, a boor; (2) as a nickname, a German and particularly a Westphalian. Moffenland = Germany, Westphalia. This muf (2) occurs in MARLOWE, Tamburlane, i. 1. Sclavonians … MUFFS and Danes.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xliii. What a MUFF Sir Ferdinand must be.
2. (common).—Anything badly bungled.
3. (old).—See quot. 1607.
1607. DEKKER, Northward Ho, iv. 3. Marry, MUFF, sing thou better, for I’ll go sleep my old sleeps. [DYCE in note in Webster’s Wks., p. 274 (1859), says:—‘A not uncommon expression in our old writers (equivalent, I believe, to stuff, nonsense).’]
1620. SHELTON, trans. Don Quixote, Pt. II. x. Marry, MUFF (quoth the Countrey-Wench), I care much for your courting.
4. (venery).—See quot. 1785. [Cf. the old equivocal wheeze:—‘Lost, lost, and can’t be found; A lady’s thing with hair all round.’]
c. 1707. Broadside Ballad [Brit. Mus. Cat. 11621, i. 1. 75], ‘The Crab-Tree.’
| I heard the merry Wagg protest, | |
| The MUFF between her Haunches, | |
| Resembl’d most a Mag-Pye’s Nest | |
| Between two lofty Branches. |
17[?]. Old Ballad [quoted by BURNS in The Merry Muses], ‘Duncan Davidson.’
| Meg had a MUFF, and it was rough, | |
| ’Twas black without and red within. |
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. MUFF, the private parts of a woman; to the well wearing of your MUFF, mort; to the happy consummation of your marriage, girl, a health.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
5. (old).—See quot.
1819. J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, s.v. MUFF, an epithet synonymous with mouth. Ibid., s.v. MOUTH, a foolish silly person.
Verb. (common).—1. To bungle: e.g., to MUFF a catch.
1857. G. A. LAWRENCE, Guy Livingstone, vi. I don’t see why you should have MUFFED that shot.
2. (Eton College).—To fail in an examination; TO BE SPUN (q.v.) or PLUCKED (q.v.); TO SKIP A COG (q.v.).
1884. JULIAN STURGIS, in Longman’s Magazine, III. 617. Freddy and Tommy and Dicky have all MUFFED for the army. It’s really dreadful!
