muck v.1
1. (also muck out) to beat, to surpass, to ruin financially.
Modern Flash Dict. 22: Muck – to clean out, to win all a person’s money. | ||
Reading Mercury 20 May 3/4: Foot Race [...] Winter is backed by some Londoners who [...] were so completely ‘mucked out’ by the Windsorites. | ||
Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835]. | ||
, | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. | |
(con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 18/1: It’s no use; luck’s set in him – he’d muck a thousand! | ||
‘’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. | ||
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’. | ||
‘’Arry in the Witness-Box’ in Punch 5 Feb. 61/2: That mucked me, took all the romp out of me somehow. | ||
’Arry Ballads 70: I’m mucked, that’s a moral. | ||
Aus. Sl. Dict. 51: Muck Out, a gambler who wins all his adversary has. | ||
Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Oct. 4/8: East Fremantle’ll muck ’em a treat! | ||
🌐 It was as much my fault as anybody’s for being such a bore. [...] Keep thinking of how I had mucked their arrangements. | diary 28 Feb.||
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.
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.
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.
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.
‘’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.
‘’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. | ||
Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 80: You know as well as we do that you can’t do anything by yourself without mucking it. | ‘An Unsavoury Interlude’ in||
Gold Bat [ebook] ‘[W]hen we did let [the ball] out, the outsides nearly always mucked it’. | ||
Limehouse Nights 107: Tell him Diaobolo and Angela want him to watch out for their cues, ’cos he mucked ’em last night. | ||
‘A Woman’s Way’ in Chisholm (1951) 90: A privit, fambly meet — an’ ’ere Doreen’s / Muckin’ it all by draggin’ in this Free. | ||
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. | ||
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.
in 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. | ||
(con. 1920s) South of Heaven (1994) 7: We’re certainly not going to stoop to mucking. |
In derivatives
in trouble.
‘’Arry on [...] the Glorious Twelfth’ in Punch 30 Aug. 97/2: ’Owmsoever, I’m mucked, that’s a moral. |
In phrases
see separate entry.
see separate entries.
see muck in 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. |
(UK gambling) to take all one’s opponents’ money.
‘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. | ||
‘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. | ||
, , | Sl. Dict. | |
Dryblower’s Verses 51: He pauses in the middle of a shot / To tell you how the Magsman mucked it out. | ‘The Sport’
see separate entries.
see muck up v.