An entanglement, a state of confusion; also a row or fight.
1840. George R. went to a Dutch ball Saturday night, and got into a little muss, which cost him [at the police court] Two Dollars.—Daily Pennant, St. Louis, Aug. 25.
1842. I upset my table, spilt my ink, and knocked down my books, making a deuced muss.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, Jan. 22.
1843. Just then the lieutenant comes up to see what’s the muss.—A. E. Silliman, ‘Gallop among American Scenery,’ p. 55.
1845. ‘A parcel (puff) of bragging (puff) fools, always ready to get up a muss, (puff,) and then leave the steady men to get them out of it.’ (Puff—puff—puff.)—Knick. Mag., xxvi. 206 (Sept.).
1848. You’re eternally kicking up a muss with somebody!—Durivage and Burnham, ‘Stray Subjects,’ p. 138. (N.E.D.)
1848. Her attention was attracted by the servant girl Maria, who complained that Caroline was making a muss on the table cloth, by spilling the coffee and breaking the cups and saucers.—Charles F. Briggs, ‘Asmodeus,’ p. 71 (N.Y.).
1848. [The capting] raised a gretty muss, I guess, right off the reel.—W. E. Burton, ‘Waggeries,’ p. 11 (Phila.).
1850. It is so in all the first-class houses, which Charley Walter knew all about it, for he pigged a month at Cain’s, where they are all in a muss.—S. Judd, ‘Richard Edney,’ p. 72.
1851. It passed off without any muss being kicked up.—John S. Springer, ‘Forest Life,’ p. 131 (N.Y.).
1855. A few days before, [Lieut. Grattan] said he wanted a “muss” with the Indians.—Mr. Benton of Missouri, House of Repr., Feb. 27: Cong. Globe, p. 337, App.
1856. Two gentlemen from Mississippi had a fight over the way; they were rather stout gentlemen, and made quite a “muss,” as they say in New York.—Mr. Clingman of North Carolina, the same, July 9: id., p. 735, App.
1856. “I thought it a fire,” said the gentleman, “but ‘Parturiunt montes, nascetur—’” “A ridiculous muss,” said the classic John Duncan.—G. H. Derby (‘John Phœnix’), ‘Phœnixiana,’ p. 268.
1856. Hannibal … has been involved in an imbroglio,—French for ‘row,’ or ‘muss’—touching his hair, and the color thereof.—Knick. Mag., xlviii. 655 (Dec.).
1857. “An Indian Muss,”—“Mormon Muss.”—headlines of Oregon Weekly Times, Sept. 11 and Nov. 28.
1862.
| When Satan sets himself to work to raise his very bes’ muss, | |
| He scatters roun’ onscriptur’l views relatin’ to Ones’mus. | |
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ 2nd Series, No. 3. |
1862.
| An’ why should we kick up a muss | |
| About the Pres’dunt’s proclamation? | |
Id., No. 7. |
1878. They’ve been kicking up such a muss about polygamy,… and I’m a man that’s had eighteen wives.—J. H. Beadle, ‘Western Wilds,’ p. 303.
