Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to be hanged; spec. the ‘dancing’ of the choking man in the era prior to the drop and the supposedly instant breaking of a criminal’s neck.

1724		‘John Sheppard’s Last Epistle’ in Dly Jrnl (London) 16 Nov. 1: My Peepers are hid from the Light, / The Tumbler wheels off and I Morris.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: morris to hang dangling in the Air, to be executed.
1791		‘A Song Made by a Flash Cove’ Confessions of Thomas Mount 21: The tumbler shoves off, so I morris.
c.1800		‘Song No. 25’ Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: Our peepers are hid from the light, / The tumbril shoves off, and we morrice.

2. (UK Und.) to sell or lose.

1747

Life and Character of Moll King 12: My Blos has nailed me of mine [handkerchief]; but I shall catch her at Maddox’s Gin-Ken [...] and if she has morric’d it, Knocks and Socks, Thumps and Pumps, shall attend the Froe-File Buttocking B---h.

3. to leave; esp. as come morris, morris off, do a morris.

1726		Select Trials at Old Bailey (1742) III 57: I told him I had got but Six-pence: Why damn ye for a Bitch, says he, go about your Business, or by G— I’ll murder ye, for I’ll have the rest of the Cull’s Cole myself. I was glad to morris off.
1773		O. Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer Act III: Zounds, here they are! Morrice! Prance! (Exit Hastings).
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: morris, come morris off, dance off, or get you gone.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 121: ‘Morrice off’ — an order to depart, meaning ‘dance off.’.
1826		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 2 Apr. 494/1: I considers that [...] I am in a right cause [...] though you have got a slang (warrant) agen me, so you may as well morris (Another phrase for ‘go’) .
1833		‘The Gape-Hole’ in Funny Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 48: Each one club’ a tanner, tanner, / A tanner — and morriss’d away.
1835		‘Rampant Moll Was A Rum Old Mot’ in Secret Songster 5: She turned out her toes, and clapt on her clothes, / And vos going to morrice avay.
1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: ‘Peg Up and Morrice,’ ‘Get up and come, or go’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1883		E.C. Grenville-Murray People I Have Met 69: The fellows dine with them, flirt with them, and morris off to town in spring for better amusement.

4. to die.

1827

W. Clarke Every Night Book 84: When one of the fancy dies, the survivors say, that he has [...] ‘mizzled’ — ‘morrised’ or ‘muffed it’!

5. to move quickly.

1835		Comic Almanack Oct. 34: Being naturally desirous of recovering his footing, a messenger was morrissed off for a supply.
1894		G.F. Northall Folk-Phrases of Four Counties 40: Morris! = Be off.