Green’s Dictionary of Slang

muck v.1

1. (also muck out) to beat, to surpass, to ruin financially.

[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 22: Muck – to clean out, to win all a person’s money.
[UK]Reading Mercury 20 May 3/4: Foot Race [...] Winter is backed by some Londoners who [...] were so completely ‘mucked out’ by the Windsorites.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
[UK](con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 18/1: It’s no use; luck’s set in him – he’d muck a thousand!
[UK] ‘’Arry on the Turf’ in Punch 29 Nov. 297/1: Took two quid of the Boss’s, wus luck, and got mucked for the whole bloomin’ lot.
[Aus]Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: Muck - To beat or excel. ‘It’s no use; his luck’s dead in, he’d muck me clean out’.
[UK] ‘’Arry in the Witness-Box’ in Punch 5 Feb. 61/2: That mucked me, took all the romp out of me somehow.
[UK]E.J. Milliken ’Arry Ballads 70: I’m mucked, that’s a moral.
[Aus]C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 51: Muck Out, a gambler who wins all his adversary has.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Oct. 4/8: East Fremantle’ll muck ’em a treat!
[UK]R.P. Hamilton diary 28 Feb. 🌐 It was as much my fault as anybody’s for being such a bore. [...] Keep thinking of how I had mucked their arrangements.
[Aus]G. Hamilton Summer Glare 77: ‘I see,’ he said. ‘Dumps are marbles. And I suppose “mucked” means that you won my dumps.’.

2. to beat, to deal with violently.

[UK]Leeds Times 22 June 6/2: The gallant 70th are out! The policemen ’ll catch it now! [...] T’ soldiers ’ll muck you out presently!

3. (UK Und.) to pay for.

[UK]Swell’s Night Guide 77: He [...] scarpered from the crib, and put Bet in the hole for the heap [...] and left her a dead stunner to muck the pad, and tip for the lumber.

4. to dirty.

[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 69: I had so mucked it in washing that an infant could have guessed what I had been doing.

5. to irritate.

[UK] ‘’Arry on Marriage’ in Punch 29 Sept. 156/1: Wor mucks me, old man, is the manner in which a chap gets the off-shunt / As soon as he’s labelled ‘engaged.’.

6. to fail, to make a mess of.

[UK] ‘’Arry in the Witness-Box’ in Punch 5 Feb. 61/2: [He] jolly nigh mucked the whole game in his fear of not making a case.
[UK]Kipling ‘An Unsavoury Interlude’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 80: You know as well as we do that you can’t do anything by yourself without mucking it.
[UK]Wodehouse Gold Bat [ebook] ‘[W]hen we did let [the ball] out, the outsides nearly always mucked it’.
[UK]T. Burke Limehouse Nights 107: Tell him Diaobolo and Angela want him to watch out for their cues, ’cos he mucked ’em last night.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘A Woman’s Way’ in Chisholm (1951) 90: A privit, fambly meet — an’ ’ere Doreen’s / Muckin’ it all by draggin’ in this Free.
[Aus]D. Stivens Tramp and Other Stories 49: Bloody poor way of spendin’ the afternoon . . . keepin’ on the water-waggon . . . she’ll have to make up for mucking my afternoon.
[UK]D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 9: I hope to God I don’t muck it.

7. (US) to work as a manual labourer, esp. a navvy.

Pvt F.W. Barton in Columbia Press Yank Talk 22: They told me how I’d listed up To fight the Boches fair, Then changed my shovel for my gun, I’m muckin’; c’est la guerre.
[US](con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 7: We’re certainly not going to stoop to mucking.

In derivatives

mucked (adj.)

in trouble.

[UK] ‘’Arry on [...] the Glorious Twelfth’ in Punch 30 Aug. 97/2: ’Owmsoever, I’m mucked, that’s a moral.

In phrases

muck about (v.) (also muck around)

see separate entry.

muck in

see separate entries.

muck it (v.)

(US) to work at a menial task, lit. ‘to get one’s hands dirty’.

AroVideo OnLine 🌐 The first three episodes from Lynda and Jools’ brazenly Kiwi hit comedy series, with Camp Mother and Leader and Ken and Ken mucking it down in the heartland.
muck out (v.)

(UK gambling) to take all one’s opponents’ money.

[UK] ‘Gallery of 140 Comicalities’ Bell’s Life in London 24 June 4/4: I’ve mucked them all out, and I’ll now enjoy my pot and pipe.
[UK] ‘Life In London’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 12: Pick out a cove that’s green, sir, / Let him muster all his force, / Then muck him out quite clean, sir.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[Aus]E.G. Murphy ‘The Sport’ Dryblower’s Verses 51: He pauses in the middle of a shot / To tell you how the Magsman mucked it out.
muck up

see separate entries.