muss, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

muss n.

[dial.]

(US) a fight, a dispute, a commotion.

1829		implied in raise a muss
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 45: A good strong ‘muss’ is the only safetyvalve through which can escape their immense exuberance of animal spirits.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 11: They keep actively alive all those high, generous feelings which serve to soften down those harsh asperities and disagreeable little ‘musses’.
1861		R.H. Newell Orpheus C. Kerr I 79: It’s my opine that you’re sticking rather too thick to the rear of that house to be much punkins in a muss.
c.1864		W.H. Thomas Goldhunters’ Adventures 16: I’ll warrant that you’ll see as many musses as you’ll care to mix in.
1869		Armagh Guardian 26 Nov. 7/1: ‘There’ll be a muss,’ cried the others .
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 273: Our game became lively, and lasted till morning, without a ‘muss’ of any kind having taken place.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Feb. 7/2: If a big row rises out of it – and ’twouldn’t be hard to get up a big muss in Europe just now – there’s no getting away at all for us.
1889		Maggie Cline [perf.] ‘Down Went McGinty’ 🎵 But two policemen saw the muss, and they soon joined in the fuss / Then they ran McGinty in for being drunk.
1891		‘There Comes A Reckoning Day’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 481: We’ll end this little muss.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 233: His name will get in the papers and it’ll be a nasty muss.
1915		‘In the Summer Of Sixty’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 116: Let’s go in and see what’s the muss.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 62: The idea that either of ’em might get out of this muss without goin’ to the station house hadn’t occurred to me before.
1921		H.C. Witwer Leather Pushers 18: I wouldn’t be surprised if the muss went the limit.
1934		‘Darky Sunday School’ in Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs 353: Along came Goliath, just a-spoilin’ for a muss.
1944		W. Blair Tall Tale America 116: They got in the habit of calling it a ‘muss’.

In phrases

no muss, no fuss (n.) (also no fuss, no muss)

(US) no problems, either practically or emotionally.

1927		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 72: I want to do a good job, doctor; make no fuss, or muss or nothing.
1964		L. Hansberry Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window in Three Negro Plays (1969) III i: No fuss, no muss.
1970		W.S. Just Military Men 162: A combustible cartridge case which would self-destruct inside the tube; no fuss, no muss, no bother.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 56: Four bastards [...] got ninety-seven K out of some little bank in the woods this morning, no muss, no fuss, no bother.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 17: An’ there ain’t no muss, no fuss, no puke to clean up after.
1983		C. Heath A-Team 2 (1984) 34: No muss, no fuss. Hit and run.
1992		J. Steel Arizona Heat 70: No fuss, no muss, no trouble. [...] And that was the way he wanted it.
1992		R. Price Clockers 50: Champ had it knocked – no fuss, no muss.
2005		L.R. Schreiber Poker as Life 125: No fuss, no muss. No spiking, no shuffling, no phoning, no autographing, no taunting. No bullshit.
2006		S. Wright Don’t Get Burned On EBay 68: No muss, no fuss, no chance of the tickets being lost in transit.

on the/one’s muss

(US) looking for a fight, acting provocatively.

1863		letter O.J. Hopkins Under The Flag (1961) 15 May 60: Go ahead boys! It all belongs to the Rebels; go in on your ‘mus’ (muscle)! March again at 3 p.m. toward Vicksburg.
1865		in H. Johnson Talking Wire 250: They saw us going for our arms...they thought we were ‘on the muss’ [HDAS].

raise a muss (v.) (also kick up a muss, make a muss)

to start a fight, to cause a commotion.

1829		N.-Y. Eve. Post 14 Jan. 2/2: She told witness that if she would not make a d—d muss about it, she would bring it back.
1835		N.Y. Transcript 23 Sept. 2/5: Mr. Richard Ramare [...] happened [...] to wend his way to the battery for the purpose of promenading its purlieus, he became the means of making a ‘muss’.
1843		Jeffersonian Republican (Stroudsburg, PA) 12 Oct. 3/1: Sez I, if I kicks up a muss, I’ll have to tortle out of the town.
1844		G.W. Kendall Narrative of Texan Santa Fe Expedition I 28: Your Englishman ‘makes a muss’ about it, and growls his dissatisfaction.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 113: To go on a spree, get drunk, and raise a muss, is to go on a bender. [Ibid.] III 57: You in another muss, Bill? You’re allers kicken up a muss!
1854		Perrysburg Jrnl (OH) 27 May 3/3: Mr Soule has been authoprized to offer $250,000,000 for Cuba, and if he cannot get it to kick up a muss.
1862		Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 31 May n.p.: The desperado was a savage cuss, / Eager to breed a row; or raise a muss.
1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd Ser. (1880) 131: An’ why should we kick up a muss / About the Pres’dunt’s proclamation?
1868		H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 43: Don’t you kick up any muss, Matty!
1871		Harper’s Mag. Oct. 690/1: Ef Pat Role, or any other consarned Irishman, kicks up a muss ’bout these yer diggings, he’ll kotch partic’lar lightnin’ [DA].
1882		Dodge City Times (KS) 7 Dec. 5/2: Venus [...] with her little transit yesterday across the sun’s face kicked up quite a muss.
1895		Daily Herald (Brownsville, TX) 4 Oct. 2/3: Oh, for a racket, a riot, a fuss! Some one to come in and kick up a muss.
1903		Seattle Repub. (WA) 1 May 1/2: The move is already kicking up a muss among the teachers.
1912		Day Book (Chicago) 6 Aug. 14/2: That brown youngster [...] still contionues to kick up a muss.
1917		St. Joseph Obs. 16 June 4/7: Pacifists are kicking up all kinds of a muss in Germany.