Any kind of porridge.
1671. Mush they make, Their hungry Servants Hunger for to slake.—J. Hardy, ‘Last Voyage,’ p. 11. (N.E.D.)
1775. Food such as hommany, mush, groats, parched flour, &c.—B. Romans, ‘Florida,’ p. 121.
1793.
| Ev’n in thy native regions, how I blush | |
| To hear the Pensylvanians call thee Mush! | |
Joel Barlow, ‘The Hasty-Pudding,’ p. 6 (1815). (Italics in the original.) |
1797. If we could get a mess of mush and milk, some fried bacon, or some fresh meat of any kind, it was as much as we expected, and for this we were charged enormously high.—Fra. Baily, F.R.S., ‘Journal of a Tour,’ p. 352 (Lond., 1856). (Italics in the original.)
1810. At my particular request, I was gratified with hasty pudding or mush, as it is called in this state [Pennsylvania], with plenty of good milk and apple pye for supper.—F. Cuming, ‘Sketches of a Tour,’ p. 38 (Pittsburgh).
1810. They have mush and molasses twice a day.—Mass. Spy, Jan. 24.
1826. Their [Pennsylvania] national diet, boiled potatoes, sour milk, and mush.—T. Flint, ‘Recollections,’ p. 11.
1826. [The food of these fanatics] was mush and milk, prepared in a trough, and they sucked it up, standing erect, through a perforated stalk of cane.—Id., p. 277.
1833. In less than ten minutes, the village was so completely evacutated, that not a human being was to be found, save one poor old blind and deaf Indian, who sat eating his mush as unconcernedly as if all had been tranquil in the village. We did not molest him.—‘Narrative of James O. Pattie,’ p. 90 (Cincinnati).
1838. Rhode Island and North Carolina withheld consent when the Constitution was ratified; but when Congress was about to treat them as foreign states they came to their mush.—Journal of Judge R. R. Reid, Aug. 26: ‘Bench and Bar of Georgia,’ ii. 221 (Phila., 1858). Compare quot. 1857.
1847. The milk is boiled, and, while boiling, the sweet meal is stirred into it, until it is about of the same consistence as “mush.”—‘Life of Benjamin Lundy,’ p. 100 (Phila.).
1854. ‘[I] can give you mush, souse, slap-jacks, briled pork,’ continued Bulliphant.—H. H. Riley, ‘Puddleford,’ p. 147 (N.Y.).
[1857. There aint anything that’ll bring you to your milk half so quick as a good double-and-twisted thrashin’, and hang me if I don’t give you one in less’n five minutes if you don’t shet your head.—J. G. Holland, ‘The Bay-Path,’ p. 209.]
