malkin

English

Alternative forms

• maukin
• maulkin

Etymology

Diminutive of Malde, an early form of Maude or Matilda. Compare (deprecated template usage) grimalkin.

Pronunciation

• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔːlkɪn/

Noun

malkin (plural malkins)

1. (deprecated template usage) (now archaic, regional) A (stereotypical name for a) lower-class or uncultured woman; a kitchenmaid; a slattern. [from 13th c.]
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, I:

     Ȝe ne haue na more meryte · in masse ne in houres / Þan Malkyn of hire maydenhode · þat no man desireth.

2. (deprecated template usage) (now regional) A mop, especially one used to clean a baker's oven. [from 15th c.]
   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 120:

     "She had no sooner said so, but they all vanished saving onely one Peter Grospetter, whom a little after she saw snatch'd up into the aire, and to let fall his Maulkin (a stick that they make clean Ovens withall) and her self was also driven so forcibly with the wind, that it made her almost Lose her breath."

3. (deprecated template usage) (obsolete, nautical) A mop or sponge attached to a jointed staff for swabbing out a cannon. [19th c.]
4. (deprecated template usage) (now archaic, regional) A scarecrow. [from 16th c.]
5. (deprecated template usage) (now rare) A cat. [from 17th c.]
   • 1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, →OCLC:

     Now she was strong enough to walk and watch them circling in the sky or to sit in the arbour at the end of the long lawn and, with the sunlight smouldering in her dark-red hair and lying wanly over the area of her face and neck, watch the multiform and snow-white convolutions of her malkins.

6. (deprecated template usage) (Scotland, Northern England) A hare. [from 18th c.]
   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin 2006, p. 158:

     There was milk punch and spiced whisky, a smell of goose and maukin roasting on the spit.

Translations

lower-class or uncultured woman

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

cat — see cat